LAKE WORTH SKATE SHOP THRIVING DOWNTOWN
Joe Varricchio grew up on Long Island, zipping around on a skateboard until he could drive at age 18.
“It was a great family,” said Varricchio, now 48. “People who skate just embrace the idea of what you’re trying to do .... It wasn’t necessarily just skating, it was the industry as a whole.”
For 19 years, Varricchio has owned Shred Shed, a skateboard shop that sells decks, shoes, T-shirts and hats. “We don’t do shorts, we don’t sell flip-flops, we don’t have bathing suits,” Varricchio said. “We sell anything related to the industry of skateboarding.”
The shop opened in West Palm Beach in November 1999 at Forest Hill and Congress Avenue. It stayed there for nearly nine years, then moved to Dixie Highway and 11th Avenue North for nine years.
Varricchio moved again last June from his 3,000-squarefoot space to a smaller, 1,500-square-foot location on Lake Avenue after the internet took a chunk of his business. “The internet and Amazon decided to sell all the manufacturers’ items so there are no more shops,” Varricchio said. “That slowed us down, so we got smaller.”
Varricchio called internet sales “crushing.” “We don’t have an online presence at all,” he said. “We don’t want to ship a kid a skateboard 10 miles away because they just didn’t feel like coming down here.”
He said the experience downtown has been challenging. “There are more people in and out of here on a daily basis than we ever had on Dixie Highway. It helped our business, and we get more feedback on what customers are looking for.”
Varricchio says he sees 20 to 50 people each day. The crowd is also getting younger. “We’re seeing more 10-, 11- and 12-year-olds than we’ve seen before,” he said.
There are 11 skate parks within 20 miles of the store, Varricchio said.
As for his location, Varricchio said Lake Avenue has a chance to be Palm Beach County’s next great street. “We’ve watched Clematis Street do what it did ... Atlantic Avenue do what it did, and I think this is it,” he said. “This is the next one.”