Shop Owners Make 'Cute' Idea a Reality at OMG! How Cute

They say every action has an equal and opposite reaction. 

The idea to open up a retail store called 'OMG! How Cute' came to Helene Korbin when, she recalled, she found herself continually saying the phrase after admiring adorable gift ideas in New York City.

“I kept walking around the store and saying, ‘Oh, my God – how cute!’” said Korbin.

Cue: the reaction.

Korbin, and her partner, Carol Burghardt, have since created a retail establishment at 320 East Main Street that offers a wide array of fun, whimsical, affordable and - yes, cute - gifts that run the gamut from kites to canvas art, affordable jewelry to jelly beans.

And a blooming garden of novelty items captures the imagination – poodle shaped watering cans, “toobs” filled with Civil War figures, smiley-face candles, and dancing cats and dogs.

Korbin said she plans to open a second OMG! How Cute shop in Greenport by the middle of May, though she said she’s still looking at two different locations, one on the waterfront and one more on the main strip of the village.

“We’ll know within the next couple of days,” she said. “We’re going to have a little more of the nautical theme to pick up on the sense of Greenport.”

Korbin, an attorney, grew up in Brooklyn with a father who manufactured women’s coats and sold them both retail and wholesale; she helped out in the store on weekends and grew accustomed to sales.

“I was on the train coming home from New York and I thought to myself that I should really think about doing retail,” she said.

The idea was born in November and gathered steam; her shop has been open for six weeks and next week, Korbin closes the door on her law practice to focus on her retail endeavor.

 The idea for the name OMG! How Cute came when Korbin was in New York that cold November day – and, being an attorney, she did her homework. “I couldn’t believe OMG! How Cute was not already taken as a corporate name.” She formed a corporation and her website, and the fun began.

The store, Korbin said, spotlights the “unique,” with scores on gifts for men, women and kids of all ages.

Korbin, who has lived on the East End for 20 years – her son graduated from Mattituck High School – chose her Main Street location, which used to house a yoga studio – because of its proximity to the aquarium and the new hotel and restaurant emerging across the street.

“I thought it would be a good place to put a gift-ey store,” she said. “I wanted to be in a place where people walk around. People don’t walk around on Route 58 – every store there is a destination. I wanted this to be a different kind of store – you need to take your time here. You shouldn’t say, ‘I have five minutes.’ You can’t look at one shelf in five minutes.”

Instead, Korbin envisions customers strolling in to savor some “lazy minutes” and conversation. “I’m a real people person. I’m really loving this.”

While she considers herself an online shopper who doesn’t relish the clothes hunt, Korbin said, “This is the kind of store that is appealing to me. A store like this gets me going. I love finding unique gifts.”

Korbin is enjoying the search to find the wide array of choices on her shelves. Items come from China – “we have the shipping charges to prove it” – Brazil, Mexico, and Haiti. “We’re trying to support the rebuild in Haiti. We try to support causes. It’s important to me.”

Environmentally friendly choices are also for sale. “I wanted to make sure, when I had the opportunity, to put my money where my mouth is,” she said.

Her own personal favorites are the turtle nightlight – which scatters stars on the ceiling. Korbin loved it so much, she never brought hers back to the store. And she’s enamored with the dancing cats and dogs that play an iPod or radio. “I am in love with them,” she said.

Riverhead Town Supervisor Sean Walter said OMG! How Cute is “a cool store.”

And, he said, the shop is reflective of a “positive, can-do attitude on Main Street,” that, the supervisor said, “came about under my watch. It is so refreshing to see.

“This has to do with a feeling – that we’re coming back,” Walter said.

Walter and his administration, he said, are doing whatever it takes to promote new businesses into Riverhead. Any new business owner who faces the “runaround,” or any difficulty in the building department should call his office.

“The minute that happens,” Walter said, and, as long as all code requirements have been met, he’ll do whatever is necessary to “push aside” obstacles.

And, the supervisor said, residents should “keep their fingers crossed and say a prayer for a new movie theater,” on Main Street. “I’m working that issue really hard,” he said.

When all is said and done, Walter hopes to celebrate new business with an event in the near future.

As for the Main Street resurgence, while Korbin believes revitalization “has a long way to go,” she’s excited about the future. “ I love to give people things they didn’t get from anyone else. That’s what you get here.”