By DAVID CRUZ

For Fordham businessman Jason Mizrahi, the secret to operating a successful religious shop wasn’t taught in college, but told by his intuitive father–treat the customer well.

“We have a lot of people come in here looking for certain things, and if we don’t have it, we say ‘I don’t have it, but I’ll try to track whatever it is you’re [seeking],’” said Mizrahi. “You go into a big box retail store and you have a bunch of people there that really don’t care about the business, they don’t care about the customers, they don’t even care about their own co-workers. There’s no soul to it.”

It’s a hallmark to a business that’s earned great praise ever since he took over the family business, Original Products Co. Botanica, an enormous supermarket-style operation found within the borders of the Fordham Road Business Improvement District.

What’s a botanica? Well, even Mizrahi, the co-owner, admits that even though he’s 30 years into the business he still finds it hard explaining what he does.  “Unless you come here,” he noted.

But for the past 55 years, customers from all over the city and country have traveled to the spiritual emporium that offers a wide selection of aromas, oils, statues and its signature candle collection intended to weed out bothersome spirits. Yes, the store is for all types of religions, even those considered unconventional. It even boasts a booth for its in-house psychic, Chris Ochun, also a spiritualist book author.

Mizrahi serves as the co-owner of the spiritual emporium, though it may not seem the case, given his dressed-down togs, the laid back approach, and his direct interactions with frequent customers who’ve visited the store as far back as the 1980s.

A Family-Owned Operation
Mizrahi inherited the business from his father Jack, known around the neighborhood as Jacko. Back then, the store opened on Bathgate Avenue. The elder Mizrahi soon purchased a building on 189th Street and Webster Avenue. The location is fitting for the spiritual depository, given the property’s history as a former A&P supermarket. Walking into the store, one feels they’re going shopping for groceries, with neat aisles showcasing books on finding fortune, or enormous statues of Jesus Christ.

No religion is favored over the other. Religious items for Catholic, Santeria and even Wicca can be found throughout the store, reserving little judgment. It’s perhaps one underlying component to the store’s success.  “I never really had any kind of haters or people who say, ‘you guys are selling voodoo,’” said Mizrahi.

The family business really extends back to the 1930s, according to Mizrahi. A store owned by the elder Mizrahi’s father-in-law was operating in Spanish Harlem. But with a wave of an Afro-Caribbean population working its way to the Bronx, with Santeria and other practices to be the dominant religion, the Mizrahis tried their luck in the borough. They soon realized they hit a gold mine. “It was like a new frontier,” said Mizrahi. “There were no botanicas in the Bronx.”

The elder Mizrahi soon named the business Original Products Co., deliberately offering specifics over what was sold on the off chance the botanica business failed. “At least with Original Products Co., you can really sell anything,” said Mizrahi.

Linked to customer service is expansion, and Original Products Co. has certainly done that on the Internet front. These days, business has boomed for its online orders of its patently drawn candles featuring 150 religious figures sketched by a product designer. “Our sales online have started to be the really driving part of our business,” said Mizrahi, adding the store serves as a supplier for many tinier botanicas around the world.

Original Products Co. is located at 2486 Webster Ave., open from 9:30 a.m. to 5:40 p.m.