A Patriotic Commitment to Quality Brings Dry Goods to Rye Ridge

Even though all the items in the new home and garden store at the Rye Ridge shopping center are well organized and neatly displayed, a visitor’s eye is bound to jump around as soon as she enters.

Dry Goods is full of products that shoppers see all the time, but each item is so unique that it is hard to choose which one should be inspected first.

Every item in the store is made in America. Custom-designed terrariums and fresh potted flowers sit in the front window, vintage-postcard inspired wall decorations with local landscapes rest on a shelf nearby and hand-carved children’s alphabet blocks line a shelf in the children’s section.

Dry Goods is a manifestation of its owner Erin Hinchey’s passion for gardening, design, quality and domestic-made items.

“In my life I have always bought American made products knowing it is better quality even if it is more money,” Hinchey said. “But in the last few years I started really reading labels and making a more conscious effort to only buy American made.”

Even though she lives on New York City's Upper West Side and is a Manhattan native, as Rye Ridge's leasing agent for the last seven years, Hinchey knows Westchester retail better than most storeowners. 

“I know all the gift and home stores in the county and what they sell,” Hinchey said.  “And I knew I wanted to offer something different.”

The store focuses on accent pieces, things that either tie a room together or make them pop, Hinchey said. Since the store opened about two months ago, plants and pillows have been their biggest sellers, while custom-designed items and kids toys have been popular as well.

“I love plants and know how to put them together and can do it effectively,” Hinchey said of her terrariums and potted plants. “I have been giving them as gifts for years and people always told me I should sell them.”

She also sells Napa soap, made from grape seed oil leftover form the wine industry, hand-made lamps, icat purses, display plates that feature local scenery and places like the Westchester County Club. The popular pillows are simple neutral colors with various designs. Some feature a large anchor, others feature flowers, fish, leaves, ladies shoes, or silhouettes of ice skaters.

Her personal favorite item for sale is a $300 silk-screened photo of a bovine skull framed in recycled wood.

“I opened this whole store just so I could get this at bulk cost,” Hinchey joked.

Hinchey has no formal artistic training but has always been interested in design. She paints and creates mosaics and likes to be creative in all her endeavors.  

“Everything I do is creative in some way and retail is a passion I have always had,” Hinchey explains. The storeowner sees her other work as the property-leasing manager for Rye Ridge as a creative outlet as well.

“You use creativity to find the stores that fit well here and put together all the pieces,” Hinchey said.

Hinchey's creativity has paid off at Rye Ridge; she is credited for bringing in boutique stores focused on health, wellness and fashion, and for attracting popular chains like Red Mango, Chipotle and Chop’t to the area.

Her dedication to the shopping center is clear now that she has opened her own shop there.

Hinchey is holding a grand opening celebration on Thursday, Oct. 24 from 6 to 9 p.m. that will feature drinks and snacks.

Read more on the store here.