J’s Arrays to offer unique shopping experience

Janette and Jonn Robbins met and married in Dryden in 1996 but have made their home in Groton since 2000. While both are employed at Cornell University by day, they are about to launch a new business in Groton on Saturdays that will offer shoppers an array of merchandise and services and will rotate different vendors, crafters and products every week.

With a grand opening on March 5, J’s Arrays will be located in the storefront at 211 Main St. from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every Saturday during March and April. Janette and Jonn are leasing the building initially for those two months but hope to continue beyond that if the concept is successful.

Janette is a fashion consultant and distributor for LuLaRoe, a women’s clothing company known for its elevated sense of style, regardless of profession, that is also affordable. And that will be a consistent feature every week at J’s Arrays. In addition, it will be a gathering place for four or five local vendors and crafters to showcase their offerings and will be different every week.

“We are interested in suggestions for the types of crafts, art, vendors or anything customers would like to see available in J’s Arrays,” Janette said. “We want this to be a place for fellow community members to showcase the amazing goods and services they have to offer.”

Janette and Jonn are both graduates of Dryden High School (DHS), but that is not where they met. And although they both currently work in the Department of Food Science (DFS) in Cornell’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, they each followed different paths before arriving there.

When Janette graduated in 1992, she immediately began working full time at the Tompkins Cortland Community College Childcare Center in the pre-kindergarten program while she attended Tompkins Cortland part time until she earned her CDA (Child Development Associate) degree in 2000.

“After that, I went from little kids to big kids,” Janette said.

That was because she took a position as a student program coordinator in the DFS. She enrolled in accounting and marketing courses at Cornell and transitioned into a financial position in the same department, where she has remained for 22 years, the last 15 of which have been at the Cornell Dairy.

Jonn graduated from DHS in 1980 and then worked for eight years as a seasonal employee at Cornell Plantations (now Cornell Botanic Gardens) doing landscaping and stonework and planting, as he said, “a lot of trees!”

Over the course of the next 10 years, Jonn worked in a few other places before he became the manager of the Groton American Legion Club. For the next 20 years, Jonn said he “managed the business end of things” until 2018, when he took his current position as lab attendant and research technician in the DFS.

For a while, Janette worked part time at the Legion Club. They both agree that they developed deep relationships with the people they met there and said the main reason they moved to Groton when they did was “to be closer to the Legion.”

As it happened, Janette’s grandfather, John Basil, who was a tank driver in the U.S. Army, and Jonn’s father, Glenn Robbins, a PFC in the Army, were best friends for years.

“My dad passed in 1986,” Jonn said. “He was one of only two people who survived off a landing craft on the beaches of Normandy in WWII. They weren’t even found until two days later, but he made it.”

Basil died in 1994. Janette had been very close with him and said, “The vets at the Legion really filled the gap for me. Everyone there was like our adopted family.”

Jonn spoke similarly about the camaraderie and sense of family that he also experienced.

Jonn and Janette both said they love Groton’s small-town community feeling and are very excited about the potential for J’s Arrays.

It wasn’t long after Janette launched her LuLaRoe business when she began longing for a space outside her home to display and sell her clothing.

“I saw the ‘for rent’ sign at 211 Main last October,” Janette said. “I thought it was a cute location and I loved the windows. This past January, we decided we would rent for two months, but I knew it was more space than I really needed.”

That was the point at which Janette began to think about all the artistic talent in Groton and the surrounding area and how nice she thought it could be if others had an outlet to sell their wares or services.

J’s Arrays offers a 10-foot-by-10-foot space with table, chairs and electricity included for $25 on a first-come, first-served basis. Weekday evening space is also possible free of charge for youth organizations in need of space for fundraising.

If you are a local vendor, crafter or service provider and would like to reserve a space, contact Janette at (607) 229-4543 or jsarrays@gmail.com or visit J’s Arrays on Facebook (page available soon).

If you are a shopper, the first two Saturdays in March are already booked with vendors of makeup and skincare, jewelry, furniture, quilting and embroidering, tinctures, salves and body butters, syrups and honey, paintings, antiques, bags and totes, gently used/like new children’s clothing, wreaths, handcrafted crocheted items and more!

Groton on the Inside appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Submit story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com or text or call Linda at (607) 227-4922.

In brief:

Dinner to go at the Legion

The Groton American Legion Post 800, 307 Main St., will be serving up a ham and scalloped potatoes dinner with vegetable and dessert for $10 per meal beginning at 5 p.m. Feb. 11. Dinners are take-out only. Call ahead to reserve at (607) 898-3837.

Ridge Runners spaghetti supper

The Groton Ridge Runners Snowmobile Club will hold a spaghetti supper from 4:30 to 8 p.m. Feb. 12 at its clubhouse, 748 Salt Rd., 1 mile north of Route 90. Meals include all-you-can-eat spaghetti and meatballs, salad bar, dessert bar and beverage. Cost is $10 for adults, $9 for senior citizens and $8 for children ages 5 through 12. Children 4 and under eat for free.

This is a perfect way to enjoy a unique dining experience in a rustic country setting. Take-out dinners are also available.

GPL Book Club

The Groton Public Library Book Club will meet at 7 p.m. Feb. 17 in the Great Room. This month’s book is “Fly Away” by Kristin Hannah. Call (607) 898-5055 or email director@grotonpubliclibrary.org to get your copy.

Les Misérables faux paus (correction)

In the Feb. 2 edition of this column, the character roles in Groton High School Drama Club’s upcoming performances of “Les Misérables” played by Donovan Mitchell and Trey Dwyer were inadvertently switched. Mitchell will play the part of Enjolras, and Dwyer will play Gavroche.