Officially, Romp has its grand opening at 3:33pm today, July 4 (the time of this posting). It may seem like a bit late in the day for a grand opening, but Carol McIlmurray and several of her friends were working since midnight, with no sleep, to get ready. There isn’t much on sale yet, mostly a mix of food items and art, but Carol says that it will evolve, and be different every day you walk in. At the moment it has the feeling of a garage sale, where it is hard to tell the difference between what is for sale and what is part of the store.
The storefront artwork is still there, and it indeed has changed each day. The Village has apparently abandoned the idea of getting work to cease. The elephant is gone, and now the storefront boasts a red, white and blue theme, appropriate for July 4.
July 4th was the grand opening of this venture, Romp. Unfortunately, nothing was inviting about the look, or the condition of the place.
In the morning, it looked as though a pickup truck had come by and dropped off all sorts of second hand junk on the sidewalk. Passing by required some deft footwork, and an occasional side step into the street.
After a few hours, once the staff had time to sort through this treasure trove of garbage, the inventory was moved inside. I saw secondhand, dusty computer keyboards on display, a broken sink, some plastic flowers…bottles of juice from ShopRite. A weird array without question.
In the later part of the afternoon, the artist, Carol Mcllmurray was obviously exhausted from all of the hard work putting together this spectacle…I walked by at around 5:00 and she was sprawled across the front of the entrance on the sidewalk, taking in a little late afternoon sun. If you wanted to go into Romp, though I doubt there were many that did, you would have had to step over the artists body to get through the door..
At this point, I can only hope that the upcoming meeting on July 15th will bring an end to this madness….if I were the tenants living above Romp, I would be camped out on Harold McCartneys doorstep until something was done. It’s beyond ludicrous…
there is going to be a trial.
Carol,
I’m quite impressed with your dedication to stick to this project. If I wasn’t banned from Romp, I’d be in there shopping. I’ve got a new respect for your energy level. Good luck.
Place looks like an unmade bed….
Do the food items have expiration dates on them?
Didn’t the Arch Review Board make an agreement with Carol, owner of Romp, to remove the
picture window/art work within two weeks of the last meeting? Which was three weeks ago?
Did the ARC change it’s publicly announced position — or is Romp going back on that agreement?