nothin Head Shop/Futon King Ends 45-Year Run | New Haven Independent

Head Shop/Futon King Ends 45-Year Run

Family and friends are filtering in and out of Rubber Match to console the owner, George Zito, in the coming weeks before the store closes its doors for good.

With a heavy heart” Zito announced announced in a Facebook video that he is holding a going-out-of-business sale.

His futon store has served New Haveners for 45 years. Its rich history of rock and roll and outlandish advertising stunts made his operation an unforgettable part of the city’s business landscape.

But the business eventually fell victim to, among other forces, the internet.

Zito was 23-years-old when he opened Rubber Match as a head shop, originally on Edgewood Avenue. After a brief stay on Edgewood, he purchased the iconic Rubber Match building on Whalley Avenue at the corner of Sperry, distinguished by a glass encased patio and Toad’s Place advertisements plastered on the walls. Futons became a staple of the business.

Zito built his local futon empire from the ground up. Following in the footsteps of California, he zeroed in on elusive pop cultural trends like the waterbed craze that tore through the 1980s. At the time, one in every four beds sold was a waterbed, he recalled.

His early marketing tactics are reminiscent of every 80s salesman cliché you’ve ever seen. In a picture from a cross promotional ad with A‑1 Toyota, Zito is crouched beside a 1980 Camry pointing to its front wheels, which are propped on one of his waterbeds. In the same year, he had waterbeds banned from participating in New Haven’s bed race after one of his burst open during the competition. (He never intended to win that race; he entered for the marketing buzz.)

His George-O-Pedic” approved mattresses might sound eerily familiar to another big personality in the furniture game: Bob Lapidus, founder of Bob’s Stores. Lapidus had a 20-year head start on Zito with a less psychedelic business model. Zito was too invested in his community to go corporate.

Zito is a true New Havener at heart with a passion for his city that has sometimes been expressed in various forms of vigilantism. He told me a story of how he almost pulled his biscuit” (gun) on a bike thief who stole a bike from one of his customers. Another time he saved a young woman from being attacked by a gang of bullies and offered her refuge in his store.

In his Facebook video, Zito blames high city taxes for his closing. In an interview, he acknowledged he has had a host of other personal financial setbacks in recent years. Hit by the 2008 recession, Zito started selling properties to compensate for his losses. Business is bad when you find yourself dipping into your personal funds,” he reflected. He sold a warehouse on Woodward Avenue and a property in Old Lyme. Most recently, the state judicial database records a foreclosure and an eviction.

He also suffered from new forms of competition. The growth of online shopping has been driving away business since 2005, he acknowledged. Before the internet, we could make 50k to 60k a month on dorm amenities like pillows, tapestries, bean bags, lava lamps, and beaded curtains,” he said. But now everybody buys that stuff online.”

Then IKEA delivered the final blow when it opened two miles away and dried up the remaining market of students shopping for furniture.

We touched so many lives, and so many friends,” Zito said. It’s breaking my heart. But I can’t survive.”

The store has not set a final closing date. but Zito is eager to sell his remaining merchandise. He said he has a buyer for his building who plans to rehabilitate the space into an Airbnb for students. He hopes that profit from the sale will help him launch a new career selling real estate.

I’m going to do the same thing I did for 45 years,” he said. Help people.”

In the weeks before Rubber Match closes for good, a melancholy George can be found in the store slouched in his office chair accepting condolences from friends, family, and customers.

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