ITHACA, NY FEBRUARY 15, 2022 — Karen and Jay Sciarabba, owners of the popular discount clothing store Trader K’s, are retiring and will be closing their shop at 119 E. State St., the Commons, this spring.
“After 26 years, we’ve decided it’s time to retire. Owning and operating Trader K’s has been fun and challenging — we love a good challenge — but we want to spend more time with our family. We’re grateful for the community’s support throughout the years, through the construction and the pandemic, through everything. We’re going to miss the customers the most. Many of them have been shopping with us since the very beginning,” says Jay.
Trader K’s, part of the Ithaca community for more than 25 years, is known for its sizable selection of gently used, name-brand casual, athletic, and formal men’s, women’s, teens’, and children’s apparel, shoes, accessories, toys, and more. It’s been voted Best Used Clothing Store by the Ithaca Times and the Ithaca Journal.
Karen, a Dryden native, developed Trader K’s in the 90s. A consignment shop in Arizona inspired her business idea. She noticed the shop while working out west during the winter months in the late ’80s and early ’90s.
“I saw people constantly coming in and out of that store with many items and just knew a store like that would work extremely well in Ithaca,” says Karen. “Ithaca needed this type of store.”
She started building her dream business by purchasing clothing at garage sales and hardware from liquidation sales. After four years of buying items and store decor, she collected enough clothing to fill a modestly sized space. The couple rented a 900 square foot space in the Rothschild Building for their first location and saw immediate success. After a year, the store had almost tripled in size, and after 10 years, they bought a downtown building, their current 4,000 square foot space on the Commons. The couple will continue to own the building after the business closes, and they are looking for a future tenant for the ground floor space.
Downtown Ithaca Alliance Executive Director Gary Ferguson says, “Trader K’s has been a key part of Downtown’s retail scene for more than two decades. Growing from a small start-up, Karen created a well-known retail destination that served the entire region by providing name-brand second-hand clothing and accessories to a generation of Ithacans. As the Sciarabba’s retire, we thank them for their years of hard work and dedication to their small, independent business.”
During Trader K’s final months in business, the shop will be hosting multiple sales. Currently, everything in the store is 30% off. Groups of 10 people or more can receive a private two-hour shopping experience where they’ll receive an even more significant discount on their purchases.
For more information, call the shop at (607) 339-5333, or visit its website at http://www.traderks.net.
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MEDIA CONTACT
Darlene M. Wilber, communications and grants development director
Downtown Ithaca Alliance
darlene@downtownithaca.com
ABOUT THE DOWNTOWN ITHACA ALLIANCE: The Downtown Ithaca Alliance a State of New York chartered 501c3 not-for-profit organization charged with the revitalization, development, promotion, and management of the Downtown Ithaca Business Improvement District.
