Larry Collins, Principal
City Buddha

Inspired by a love of street markets in the Far East, one-time Cleveland live music guru Larry Collins opened City Buddha on West 25th in 1996 as a real world market. A self-professed “Coventry kid,” Collins and his friends stocked the store personally—bringing back an abundance of exotic furniture made from reclaimed teak and tamarind wood, masks, incense, bronzes, Buddhist and Hindu statuettes, baskets and jewelry from trips to Asia. It has been one of the consistently cool Cleveland stores for the last decade.

Collins continues to retail these and other Southeast Asian artifacts as he celebrates the 10-year anniversary of City Buddha. He and his wife Rai opened a second store, in the vacated Food Co-op retail space on Coventry Road early in June. They will continue to operate both locations. The new location is a source of pride for Collins, who really loves the neighborhood and grins talking about it.

"I grew up in Cleveland Heights, you know,” Collins says. “I was one of those Coventry kids, and I love it here. I'm proud to be here, and I think I really fit in." Check out the new digs when you visit Coventry Street Art Fairs & Farmers’ Market this Thursday, August 17. More details on the new location are expected shortly at the store’s website: http://citybuddha.com

The new Buddha is nearly double the size of the original store (nearly 5,000 sf) with larger pieces of furniture, clothing, jewelry and home décor. Collins concentrates on more higher-end items here than he does at the Ohio City location: the showroom features an enormous sofa-style bed, which magnetically seems to draw shoppers to sit on it and pose for pictures. (“There’s a lot of that, actually,” grins Collins). A few “Coventry kids” pull their best Olan Mills pose during our visit.

During a recent interview with Cool Cleveland, Collins shared some thoughts on 10 years of City Buddha, retail sustainability, doing global business from Cleveland and his involvement in the music industry.

Cool Cleveland: Happy 10th anniversary! That’s a big milestone for any business to achieve, local or otherwise. How does it feel to have two locations now?

Larry Collins: Thanks very much. It was scary when we started and it’s still scary now—especially when you consider the economy here in Cleveland and all of the lack of disposable income. But I had to take the jump, you know. I grew up here in the Heights. So, it’s like a little homecoming for me. I was one of those Coventry kids, and I love it here. I'm proud to be here, and I think I really fit in the neighborhood. And it was a good opportunity, really. The city worked with me on this and everything. I really couldn’t say no. We officially opened this store on June 10th.

Just in time for the CMJ Rock Hall Music Fest, which is when I first ducked in here. Any plans for a grand opening for this location?

We just did it, you know? We didn’t really announce it or anything, we just opened. (laughs) There was enough merchandise in here to open the doors when we did. Initially, I was kinda freaking out a little bit, worrying about all of the details… but then I just decided to open the doors and see what happened. I don’t know if we will have a formal grand opening later or not. We will see. Actually, no. I’m going to say no. We’re open and a lot of people know that we’re open. So, we’ll go with that.

The sliding doors at this location… this was initially a grocery store Food Co-op, correct?

Yeah, it was. And then the Nature’s Bin was going to move in here, but then there was some concern about two grocery stores being in the area at the same time. So it didn’t happen. It’s been pretty great so far.

Certainly fortuitous for you. Tell me about what originally inspired the opening of the original City Buddha. I know travel was a big part of it.

Well, let’s see. I was in the music business and got burned out. Quit. Just flat out stopped doing it. It was the right time, really. The music business was changing drastically—and it still is, when you look at it—and I couldn’t really tell where it was going. To be frank, I just didn’t want to deal with it anymore.

I needed to get away for a while and pretty much just went traveling. One day, I was in Indonesia and happened to walk past this craftsman’s house. We talked and I made some suggestion to him about what else he could work on that might look cool. When I walked by again the next day, there was my idea—sitting there right in front of my eyes. I’m like, “Whoa. This is way too easy!” That's where it started: I came back from that trip two weeks later to do some [initial] buying for the store.

How often would you say you get out visiting and doing buying excursions?

Usually, it works out to be a couple of times a year. I usually go every summer, but I’m not going this summer because I’m headed back to Texas for vacation.

Most of City Buddha’s merchandise is from Indonesia, but there are pieces from China, Thailand and Hong Kong… anywhere you’re not buying from that you would like to?

It’s the culture that makes the products that make the stores what they are. We’ll never have items from Spain or France. We’ll always sort of look to those Asian cultures for more options. I would love to get to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam soon… yes, we’ll get to all of those places eventually.

So, how did you arrive at City Buddha as a career choice?

I was probably floating around for a couple of years, trying to figure out what to do next. I kinda fell into this. One of my analogies for life comes from that “Popeye” episode, where Olive Oil is hypnotized and walking through the construction site, walking down those suspended beams, while Popeye and Bluto are fighting. (laughs) You wander and you don’t quite know where you’re going to step or what’s going to happen next. I’m lucky I fell into this and have been successful.

I like that! A great metaphor for life. So, this store is absolutely huge! And very much a different statement from the other store, which is intentional I’m sure.

Well, we pretty much had to work with the space and what it had to offer, which was daunting. My wife and I were looking at this big, white box and thinking, “OK, what can we do to make this space work?” There was nothing here that wouldn’t have made it work, but there were some fundamental differences between the two spaces. On West 25th, I have 20-foot ceilings, very long walls. Here, I have more room to do furniture and clothing. The fact that they are both unique is a good thing, I think.

What’s it like operating a business in Cleveland?

It’s great, really... despite my disposable income comment before. I guess it’s hard to have perspective on that from the inside. We have enjoyed great success and couldn’t do this without a fantastic staff. People talk about us positively and say they really enjoy being here. And they keep coming back. You know, there are a lot of people in Cleveland who get excited about something new opening. They come out and support it initially, but then that enthusiasm just tails off. We’ve been very fortunate in that regard. People keep coming out and supporting us.

What would you say has been the secret to City Buddha’s sustainability and longevity?

I guess you could say playing hard at this work. (smiles). Hard work, both on our part, and on the staff’s part… trying to keep the store interesting… because it doesn’t feel like a corporate store… because people enjoy coming here.

You mentioned quitting the music business… a number of Cool Cleveland readers might not know about your music business experience.

I was in college radio forever, at WRUW at Case Western Reserve University. I started in the late 70s and did that for sixteen… seventeen years. It was a frustrating position to be in, because we didn’t have any of the cool bands coming into town. Back then, they called it “New Wave” music! (laughs) So, I just started putting feelers out there and talked to some people and learned how to be a concert promoter and bring in acts I liked. I did that for a while, and eventually turned it into a job. I booked acts at Peabody’s DownUnder on the east bank of the Flats and some other clubs.

We used to see a lot of each other back then. I remember you brought Pearl Jam in the first time around at Peabody’s. And Primus and Fishbone at Babylon a Go-Go. A lot of shows.

Pearl Jam was one of those gigs at Peabody’s, for their first album. Good memory! There were so many of them over the years. And when the bands got too big to fit in there, I moved the shows to the Phantasy, or to the Agora… I did do some shows at the Euclid Tavern and the Babylon a Go-Go, too. So that was… geez, I’m really bad with years… I would guess that would have been about 15 years where I did that.

We probably could spend the whole time just talking shows, so I'll stop there. How does being a store owner differ from being a club operator; is there any overlap in the business approach?

I suppose there’s the awareness of what appeals to people, but that’s a really hard question to answer, because there are so many big differences for me personally. I would say the biggest difference to consider is that I was so much younger then when I was doing the rock and roll stuff… It’s hard to answer because of where I am in my life. When I was younger, I certainly couldn’t have done something like this; and I know I couldn’t do what I did back then now.

One thing I have loved about City Buddha from the very beginning is all of the ambient/downtempo stuff you play. I always leave here with a list of tunes to pick up.

That’s cool. Thanks.

Have you given any thought to adding a music section to City Buddha—knowing that what you play is not generally in the ether?

You mean, selling the music in the store?

Um, well… I suppose, yeah… I guess! (laughs)

Nah! I’m not in the music business anymore! (laughs) Besides, I think I like music better now that I’m not in that business anymore. There are acts out there that are brilliant that can’t seem to catch a break, and there are acts out there that have one really good single and everything else they do is not great, but they’re still getting bigger.

True that.

I get to avoid all of those trappings, being in the store and thoroughly enjoying what’s being played, without any follow-up. I’m not trying to figure out if any of these artists I play have a future or not. I get to listen for my own enjoyment and so do the customers. I’m not in the business anymore, but people do ask about what’s being played.

That’s how I make you come back to the store! Seriously, if you like something you hear, come up and ask me what it is. (laughs)

From Cool Cleveland Managing Editor Peter Chakerian peterATcoolcleveland.com (:divend:)