Business Profile: Celtic Aer Gift Shop, Mohegan Lake
Celtic Aer has more than one meaning, the owner of the Celtic Aer Gift Shop in Mohegan Lake said last week.
“Celtic Aer translates to Celtic Air (like Aer Lingus, the major Irish airline), but the ‘AER’ also doubled as my initials,” Peekskill resident Ashley Rooney noted.
The run up to St. Patrick’s Day is a particularly busy time at the store, which is the only store that sells imported Irish items in the area, Rooney said. “After five years it’s been very successful,” she said. “There’s lots of Irish people in the area up here. So we’ve been very lucky.”
The store features a wide variety of items including Irish jewelry, which is particularly popular, Rooney said. It also sells wool clothing, tee and sweat shirts, pottery, gift items and baby and children’s items.
“Right now we’ve got a lot of the St. Patrick’s Day flags, of course,” Rooney said.
“Our expanding section is our food. A lot of people come in for the Irish food.” Rooney said. Some of the Irish foods sold are sausages, bacon, candies, cookies, and marmalades.
“When I first opened there were about five or six (Irish stores) within about a 30-mile radius of my shop,” Rooney said. “Unfortunately, with the economy and rents and whatever else, I’ve seen all of them close.”
One of the keys to the success of her store is its location, Rooney said. “We’re in a very convenient location. We’re between the Cortlandt Town Center and the Jefferson Valley Mall,” she said. “People come from up to an hour away now.”
Several of her family members help out at the store, Rooney said.
Many of her items have been purchased at trade shows, Rooney said. She has gone to a trade show in Dublin, Ireland once and she often goes to an annual show in New Jersey. Rooney said she has traveled to Ireland in the past and plans to attend a family wedding there this summer.
Though Celtic Aer has been open since October of 2010, the Rooney family has had a business in the area for decades. “My dad (Patrick) has had the garden center on this same corner for about 24 years now and he was always the Irish guy on the corner. That’s how people knew him,” Rooney said.
Patrick Rooney, a native of Northern Ireland who resides in Yorktown, continues to operate Celtic Farms and Nursery, which is adjacent to the gift shop. “We share the same parking lot,” Rooney noted. The gift shop building had previously been used for storage of gardening supplies, she recalled. “I moved my stuff in here and kind of moved him out,” she quipped. “I said I think I could do a better job filling it up with Irish stuff.”
Celtic Aer Gift Shop is located at 1451 Strawberry Rd. (just off Route 6) in Mohegan Lake. For more information call 914-526-3361 or visit www.celticaer.com.
