THIS IS QUEENSBOROUGH
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SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN AT REMIX BY KERRY MURTHA Tamara Cohen left her job at a tech company four years ago to head up a second-hand furniture store that’s dedicated to finding eco-friendly solutions to traditional junk removal. “I’ve always been interested in owning a sustainable business that would allow me to implement change and make a difference,” said Cohen. In 2019, the impassioned environmentalist opened a Remix Market franchise after partnering with The Junkluggers of New York City, a regional arm of a national network of companies that set out to eliminate 100 percent of waste from the country’s landfills by recycling and donating the trash it collects from residential homes and commercial businesses. With that goal in mind, Cohen donates 90 percent of the wares she receives at her Long Island City storefront to more than 50 nonprofit organizations around the city while pledging 10 percent of her overall sales to Habitat for Humanity. The franchisee also offers secondhand items to TV and film crews to help the industry transition to sustainable set designs. She resells the remainder of her inventory - which ranges from sofas to contemporary artwork - to the general public. “We’re diverting items that would otherwise be thrown away, and getting them into the hands of people who really need them,” Cohen said. The shop stockpiles hundreds of furnishings a day from the nearly 20 trucks that collect unwanted home goods from Junklugger customers. Items are then catalogued and priced at 50 percent of their original market value or less, depending upon their condition and how long they remain on the showroom floor. “We do extensive online research to identify each item’s brand, custom-made designs like West Elm and Ethan Allen among them,” explained Cohen, “and price
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accordingly.” Cohen said she caters to young professionals looking to furnish their first apartments, as well as to sustainably minded homeowners in search of high-quality items. “We don’t do a lot of advertising, but we are super active on social media,” she added. “Our customers peruse what we have online but our same-day turnover requires us to be a brick-and-mortar store.” Revenue, which Cohen expects to exceed $800,000 for 2021, have doubled year over year since the doors opened three years ago. In March she expanded her floor space when she relocated to her current 5,000-square-foot storefront from an outlet less than half the size in Astoria. “We’ve been busting at the seams,” Cohen noted, an uptick that stemmed in part from the city’s mass exodus of residents at the onset of the pandemic. “We had a continuous influx of furniture throughout the lockdown. We were closed for a month, but then began selling our pieces curbside until
Members of the Remix Market NYC Team: Mary Townsend, Bob Faggella, Executive Director Tamara Cohen, Ashely Mcdonald, Jessica Sanchez and Craig Miller. we could reopen our doors to the public.” In the past two years, Remix
has grown from a staff of three to eight employees to keep up with the demand. Cohen said she’s plan-
Remix Market NYC collects a catalogue of sofas, chairs, lamps, rugs, artwork and more that the Long Island City storefront resells to the public and donates to nonprofit organizations.
