A Summer Re-run: Rob and Maria Armanini say, “Feed the Birds!” And we do, in style.

The couple's bird boutique on South Riverside Avenue is an iconic village fixture. The business is thriving, part of a $3 billion industry that grew during the pandemic.

Rob and Maria Armanini/ Photo by Michael Balter

Editor’s Note: We occasionally republish older stories that many newer subscribers might not have seen. Here is one of our favorites, from 2024.

Rob and Maria Armanini came to live in Croton 35 years ago, shortly after they got married. They both come from Queens, where they had met through mutual friends. “Growing up in Queens in the 1970s and 1980s was no picnic,” Rob says, looking back on it. So they came up to Westchester County and just started driving around. Croton looked pretty good to them, so they decided to settle in the village.

But their working life was not all that inspiring. Maria worked in finance, and Rob handled travel operations for a chemical company, which involved a lot of commuting. When Rob got laid off, they decided it was time to do something radically different. They weren’t birders, but like many Crotonites, they had birds at home. At first they didn’t even realize that there was such a thing as a birdfeed store. They began doing research.

They thought about going with a birdfeed franchise, but decided that route was too expensive. So they rented a small building on South Riverside Avenue owned by local contractor Mark Franzoso, and opened up their own business. Fourteen years later, they are still going strong. In fact, the bird business is booming.

To a large extent, they have the pandemic to thank for that. Although they had to close for a few months, leaving birdseed orders outside for customers to pick up, the birdfeeding industry exploded during the plague years. Sitting outside (or inside) and watching the birds was one thing that we could still do during a time when so many other activities were shut down.

Also, of course, Croton sits in the middle of a major birding area, and folks flock here from all around to view birds at Croton Point and other popular spots.

Last year, Rob and Maria and Feed the Birds! were featured prominently in an Audubon magazine article about the birdseed industry. The article pointed out that this is a multibillion dollar industry nationwide. Rob and Maria were in the right place at the right time.

But unlike some other businesses in Croton, Feed the Birds! does not rely only, or even mostly, on local customers. Only about 35% of their customers are locals, Rob and Maria told us, with 65% from out of town. They come from all over the county and beyond.

“I do not consider us just a Croton business,” Maria says.

The couple also made a smart move in deciding where to locate their store. Rather than siting it in the Upper Village, for example, they opted for Harmon and “the business road in town with the most traffic,” as Rob puts it. “We have a lot of visibility.”

As a result, they sell a steady 2200 to 2500 pounds of birdseed each week, along with bird feeders, bird houses, bird books, bird baths, bird puzzles, birding binoculars, and other items. They have a whole room devoted to items for children, including books for all young age groups.

Photo by Michael Balter

As birdfeed entrepreneurs, Rob and Maria benefit from the research the industry has sponsored over the years into what birds like to eat and related scientific matters. Some of these studies have employed ordinary birdfeed customers to record the preferences of their honored backyard guests. For example, one study, led by birdseed investigator David Horn at Milliken University in Illinois, used data supplied by over 100 participants who recorded over 1.25 million bird feeder avian visits.

“Black-oil sunflower, medium sunflower chips and white proso millet were the three most popular seed types with 21 of the top 23 species observed in the study preferring at least one of these three seeds,” Horn reported in an article in Lawn & Garden Retail magazine.

As should be no surprise, Feed the Birds! has its own special Premium Backyard Blend, prepared for the store by Amish farmers in Ohio. Rob says that they try to stock only American products, although occasionally—for example in the case of some bird feeders such as a popular “squirrel buster” model—they have had to go with Chinese imports.

As anyone who has tried to start and run a business in Croton knows, this can sometimes be a tough town for free enterprise. But while people and tastes come and go in Croton, the birds are likely to always be here, and always want to taste the same food. Rob and Maria seem to have found a business model that really works.

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