CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio — Four and a half years after they closed up shop for good, Big Fun has returned to their former location in Coventry for the holiday season.
3News' Lydia Esparra spoke to owner Steve Presser who was overjoyed to see the return of his former passion to the same location they called home in the past.
"It's wonderful. Nobody is more excited than me. I live two blocks away from the store. I drive past my story more than a few times every day. So it's nice to be back home."
The happiness from Presser is genuine, however the idea to bring it back for the 2023 holiday season was born from a less happy reality.
The storefront had laid vacant for all of those four and a half years after the initial closing, with many locations throughout Coventry telling similar stories.
The once thriving and vibrant town has seen many businesses go down the same route Big Fun did.
From teens vandalizing stores and causing chaos on the streets during the summer arts festivals, to the pandemic and all of the negative outcomes that time had for small, local businesses.
Presser told 3News that Coventry is like a second family to him. And now that he feels the past trouble that plagued the town a number of years ago is gone, he wants to be apart of bringing Coventry back to it's glory days and spotlight local businesses.
"There are a lot of news businesses coming in, and that's great because we want to see more and more vibrancy. I think it's important to showcase local owned businesses because they have a lot to offer and giving them all of this space together is great."
What is great is the return of Big Fun. From unique gifts, clothing and vintage items that tug on your nostalgic heartstrings, the one of a kind store has a track record of drawing people in from all over. And the response these last few weeks has been overwhelmingly positive.
"So far we have been here two weeks and the public has gone crazy. It's been wonderful and they found things they never thought Big Fun had."
The only catch? You'd better hurry if you don't want to miss out on experiencing Big Fun again.
The pop-up-shop is only open until January, but Presser's hoping this is the first of many stores for the revitalization of Coventry.