Ricky’s Unmasked – Interview with the co-founders of Ricky’s NYC

What if one week you had 400 employees, and the next you had 1,150? Now, imagine that in addition to 750 new temporary employees, you also had to open 23 temporary retail locations for them to work in, only to close everything down again a few months later. This may sound like an insane undertaking; however, these types of unorthodox decisions have helped Ricky's NYC grow from a few local pharmacies to a $40 million business in 10 years.

Ricky's NYC is a funky and irreverent beauty-supply and costume retail chain that opened in 1989. The business was founded by Kenig brothers Ricky and Todd, Todd's wife Carmen, and their lifelong friend and business partner, Dominick Costello. Ricky's and Todd's father, Al Kenig, owned a chain of retail drug stores—Love Drugs—in the 70s and 80s, but competition increased as a tidal wave of Duane Reades and CVSs hit New York in the late 80s, and Todd, Dom, and Ricky decided to transform the pharmacy chain into the funky beauty supply and costume store chain it is today. The company also produces Ricky's private label products, ranging from bath oils to hair clips, as well as a recently re-launched makeup line, Matisse Elite.

NY REPORT managing editor Daria Meoli spoke with Todd Kenig and Dom Costello about how they developed the concept for Ricky's, the beauty of buzz, and why the hell they chose to open more than 20 pop-up shops in and around New York City during the Halloween season.

Daria Meoli: Todd, although you grew up working in your father's stores, you left the family business for a while. Why did you come back?

Todd Kenig: I didn't enjoy the drugstore business; I thought it was awful. So, when I got back into the business, my wife, Dom, and I decided that we were going to completely change the image of Ricky's. We were going to get rid of the pharmacy. We were going to get rid of the paper towels, toilet paper, cigarettes, and the Lotto machine. We all decided that anything related to that old drug-store mentality had to go. We had to come up with something different, or we'd be just another Duane Reade, Rite Aid, or CVS in the city. Once we changed the image, four stores turned into five stores, and five stores turned into six stores pretty quickly.

In the beginning, it was a little hard for my brother Ricky and my father Al to understand why we were doing this, but they were game for it. We knew that we had to evolve; otherwise, we would die on the vine.

DM: Ricky's NYC is a unique concept. What was your initial vision, and why did you think that would be more profitable than a typical drug store or beauty supply store?

TK: My wife, Carmen, was one of the visionaries there. When we first started dating, we had the 58th Street location. Her idea was to make the store fun. This was around the time that Giuliani was closing down the adult stores, and she suggested putting sexy stuff where the pharmacy was. On the back wall where we had fragrances, we decided to put wigs. Fragrances cost too much money to move in volume. Wigs were $29.99 and you could sell them all day long. Once we did that, we grabbed Dom, who was running another location, and he said, "Hell yeah, let's do it. Let's try something new."