Nostalgia may be the biggest seller at the South Jersey Shore, but businesses must try to bring in something new each year if they are to thrive. Sometimes it happens organically - one reality show invades every novelty shop - but it's often more a balancing act between serving up memories and staying trendy, between enticing customers back and persuading them to stay. Whether it's roller coasters or a rib sauce recipe, Shore entrepreneurs are always juggling the past and present.
"There are always rides, but there has to be at least one new one every year. There are always T-shirts, but they can't be the same one every year," said Michael Busler, associate professor and a fellow at the William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Richard Stockton College. He studies the Shore and its economic trends. "The idea in marketing is to get someone to come to the boardwalk year after year, but always ready to buy something new to distinguish that year from the others."
Morey's Piers, comprising the three main amusement piers along the Wildwood boardwalk, has tempted the nostalgic fates by disassembling the Giant Slide at Surfside Pier, which was the first ride that patriarch Will Morey Sr. erected and operated in 1969. In an era of water parks and coasters, the Giant Slide, despite its sentimental cred, was considered antiquated.
New this year - the Moreys try to have one new ride each summer - will be "it" (that's the name) at 25th Street and the Boardwalk. Capsules appropriately shaped like headache medicine hold as many as 24 riders, who are hurled in a 65-foot arc while spinning.
As for what those riders will be wearing this summer, they likely will - even still - be donning T-shirts emblazoned with quotations from Jersey Shore, MTV's highest-rated show ever.
