Martha Colon is looking to bring Bronxites specs in the city—affordably.
The 34-year-old optician officially opened the doors to her new eyewear store, Specs and the City, at 3604B E. Tremont Avenue, in early June.
“I took the name because I love Sex and The City,” Colon said of her new store. “I thought it was a great play on words. I love it.”
The Throggs Neck resident has been in the business since she was 18 years old.
Before she could begin working, Colon said she had to complete a two-year course and pass a test before she got her license.
After working for a similar store in Manhattan for nine years, she decided it was time to open a place of her own.
“My old boss was selling his store, so it was either I stayed there under the new ownership, or pursue something of my own,” she said. “I just felt the next step in this industry is to own your own place, so that’s what I did.”
The store provides a wide variety of prescription eye glasses, sun glasses as well as contact fitting.
For now, Colon said she has not hired an ophthalmologist, but that is something she will look into in the near future.
“Right now I don’t have an eye doctor but that is my next step —to have one here full time and accept all insurances,” Colon said. “Coming into this, my first goal was to just have a store that you can buy designer eye wear for an affordable price.”
“It’s been slow, but I have a lot of my customers from the city that have followed me, so that’s been helping,” Colon said. “I don’t know if it’s because it is the summer time or what, but I think July and August in the city was the same thing— just really dead.”
Colon said she decided to bring her business to Throggs Neck because she wanted to provide an experience that larger eye wear stores may not be able to.
“I’m very passionate about my business and my career,” she said. “I want to provide one on one customer service to all of my customers. You’ll never walk in and see a bunch of different faces, it will always be me, and I always remember people by name. That’s the kind of family atmosphere I want to have here. It’s different from a Lenscrafters or a Cohen’s. I want people to know me and being that I live in the neighborhood, I want to serve people from my neighborhood.”
Kirsten Sanchez can be reach via e-mail at ksanchez@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 742-3394
