Farfalla Clock Co. takes a retail market licking — but keeps on ticking

Goshen — Every year Bob Farfalla finds it more and more challenging to climb the clocktower atop the First Presbyterian Church. It takes 138 steps to get to the village clock, which he has been fixing and maintaining for decades. Farfalla looks like he’s in his 40s, but he’s actually 60 years old. But that’s not why he is closing his shop at 129 West Main Street in downtown Goshen. Business is bad. The retail end of his business is down 40 percent after four years in a row of reduced sales. “That’s $30,000 in grandfather’s clocks alone per year,” says the tall, personable Farfalla. “2004 was my last good year. The worst week in December of 2004 was better than entire month of December in 2007.” He said he could always tell how his business would do by looking at the automobile and housing markets. When both of these industries did well, his shop did well too. In addition, Farfalla has had to compete with furniture stores, which now sell grandfather clocks, and with stores like Kohl’s, Wal-Mart’s and Bath, Bed and Beyond, which have entire walls of clocks on display. “They can buy 10,000 for every one I buy,” he said. “I can’t compete.” He tries to buy only American-made clocks, but China makes clocks that are so cheap, he can’t compete. His retail business targets discretionary spending, which is the first to go in hard times. “A fancy clock is a luxury item,” he said. “When people have a little extra money, they go for items like I-Pods, flat-screen TV’s, GPS systems, video games, electronics.” Although sales have faltered, Farfalla has enough of a following to continue his repair and service work from his home, which he did before opening a store. When he leaves, Joe Fix-It’s will be the last of the oldest “mom and pop” business remaining in the village. Last week, Tamara Grapek moved her health food store, Ask Tamara, to a smaller location in Warwick because her business had fallen off sharply. Farfalla said Goshen is now a village of mostly law offices and eateries. He remembers the early days, when his store was right next door to the shop of Mike Diana, the shoemaker. How rare it was, he said, that two Italian-American boys operated two of the village’s oldest businesses side by side in modern times. Back then, Diana was in his ‘80s and Farfalla was in his 30’s. Farfalla was sad to see the shoemaker shop close when Diana died. It was the 1980s when people started taking pride in their buildings and renovating them, Farfalla said. He remembers other businesses that have since left: a grocery store, five antiques shops (three of them on Main Street), a leather and saddle store, two drugstores, and two hardware stores. He will miss seeing customers and the joy of making their visits to the store fun. His landlady, Agatha Jarosz, is the “absolute best,” he said, but he decided last July that he would leave when his lease was up this coming July. But there are some things he won’t miss. Farfalla has been working 60-hour weeks for as long as he can remember and wants some time for himself. And he is frustrated by people abusing what little parking Goshen has by leaving cars in their spaces for hours. Others keep refilling meters, leaving no place for customers to park, he said. A good run Farfalla fell in love with clocks when he was only 14 years old. He admired a cuckoo clock in the kitchen of a friend’s house, and decided he would one day have a clock like that. The following week, he bought a “Baby Ben” alarm clock at a yard sale for 50 cents and repaired it. What he describes as “my gift” was fostered by his parents, who noticed when he was only five years old that he liked to take things apart and put them back together. They bought him “lots of put-together things” because kids don’t know their talents until they try them out. He went to night school and apprenticed for four years as a tool and dye worker because he was told clock repair belonged to the Germans. But he never gave up on clocks, and, as soon as he could, he started working on them full-time. He has spent a total of 32 years in business, 23 of those years in retail and 18 at his third downtown location. He’d like to pass his knowledge down to a younger person when the time is right. The last two people he taught started their own businesses. The lucky person who works with him next will be the person he eventually sells his business to. He prefers training women because of their patience and their longer, more slender fingers, which allow them to work on very tiny mechanisms. Farfalla said he’ll never stop working on clocks long as his eyes, mind, and hands can do it. He will die doing what he loves, he said. With people all over the country sending him clocks to repair, it’s likely he will. Farfalla will be in his store until July 31. He is selling off clocks and cabinetry at a discount. When the store is closed customers can reach him at 294-7575 or at robert@farfallaclocks.com. His We bsite is www.farfallaclocks.com.