Lainie's Way Heads up the Way

After considering a move for the last couple of years, stars aligned over the past six months for Lainie's Way to head on down the road.

Though the move is less than 500 feet from the place Lainie Litovsky's shop stood for 10 years, she's hoping double the space – about 1,200 square feet now – will permit the game shop growth that she has been hoping to reach toward for the past two to three years.

"We had been outgrowing the space we had," said Litovski, pointing to the former location at 109 Main St., a space where the large "Lainie's Way" sign was visible just upon turning from Broadway.

Last fall, after a storm of historic proportions hit Lainie's as hard as it hit just about any other shop around, signs started to point toward a reason to find a new home. And then in late January, all signs pointed toward elsewhere.

Just weeks after damage from Superstorm Sandy was starting to make its way into the rear view mirror, a pipe burst in the shop, which Litovsky called at the time "more devastating than the one we suffered during Hurricane Sandy." Quite a statement, considering a foot of water made its way into Lainie's Way last fall.

But looking forward in 2013, Litovsky secured a lease at 216 Main St. and moved in last Saturday. A discount sale last week cleared some items from the shop, provided a bit of capital to get a head start in the new space, and after closing for just two days, the shop re-opened in a brand new space.

"We've been talking about it at least two to three years," she said. "And when the flood hit, that started providing the motivation we should have had a long time ago."

While the motivation eventually came, though, she added that were it not for the kind hearts of her customers – many of whom showed up to support the shop in a cash mob after the pipe burst – the move never would have been possible.

"They have been supporting me, as far as my business is concerned, but they have also been giving me moral support during all the challenges we've had over the last five months now," she said. "The strong support from my loyal customers had helped give me the strength to figure out what to do, and to make it work."