Community Corner
WCEC Storming Back Stories: Owner of Tess Home Echoes Concern of Many Business Owners, Post Sandy
Tess Home is one of those quaint stores that when you walk in, you never want to walk out. This home furnishing store – open year round - is beautifully decorated with hand-painted antique and vintage cottage furniture, vintage finds, and upcycled and salvage made home décor. It is a place that tourists like to shop along the busy Arnold Avenue shopping center. For the locals, they decorate their beach cottages with tables and dressers that owner Pamela Thomas custom paints.
A hippie chick at heart, Pamela lives at the shore year-round and her business was immediately recognized for procuring and introducing innovative, unique and fashionable home merchandise, clothing and accessories. “The store is in an ideal location – less than a mile away from the Point Pleasant beach – and near many other little shops. Tourists love to shop in this town.”
Pamela echoed the concern of many business owners post Hurricane Sandy. “What would the summer season be like?” Point Pleasant was hit hard by the storm and damaged 42 percent of homes and Jenkinson’s Beach, one of the Jersey Shore’s most popular amusement boardwalks. Tess Home was spared of physical damage, but was without power for several weeks and was closed. Like so many shops on Arnold Avenue, she depends on the holiday season and the storm affected her and many little shops.
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In the weeks and months after the storm, she watched the town recover and rebuild and to get the beaches cleaned up. “The community came together and worked very fast. The town officials were very aware that the summer season was fast approaching and a lot of work had to get done,” Pamela recalls. Point Pleasant accomplished what might have taken years in just a few months. Without the draw of Jenkinson’s and the beaches repaired, the town of Point Pleasant would suffer tremendously.
In late May, President Barack Obama casually tossed a football as Gov. Chris Christie won a stuffed bear in an arcade on the Jenkinsons boardwalk, signaling the famed Jersey Shore is back seven months after Hurricane Sandy bore down with force.
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Pamela is optimistic about the summer. She says that business is a lot better than expected and the rain and bad weather slowed traffic in the store for a few weekends in June, but July was very busy.
To learn more about this business and others affected by the storm, please visit http://bit.ly/19EYgjm. Funded by a grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration, the WCEC’s “We’re Storming Back” Hurricane Sandy Disaster Relief Program provides free workshops, training, and resources to New Jersey businesses affected by Hurricane Sandy to help them to recover and thrive.
About The WCEC
The WCEC, a 501 (c) 3 nonprofit corporation, is a U. S. Small Business Administration’s Women’s Business Center. The WCEC provides the tools for individuals to successfully own, operate and grow their small businesses, thereby investing financially, intellectually and emotionally in their communities. The WCEC provides more than 150 classes, seminars and individual consulting sessions each year for more than 5,000 participants. For more information please visit www.wcecnj.org/.
Tess Home
707 Arnold Avenue
Point Pleasant, NJ
732-903-7825
TessHome.com
