Civil Moves Next Door, Doubles Store Size

is, without a doubt, the stuff of fantasy for many a teenager. The Main Street store sells skateboards, snowboards, clothing and shoes and is run by a couple of guys who love - surprise - to skate and snowboard. That fantasy got better last weekend, when they moved to a larger space right next door.

“We had the option to move into a bigger spot and we figured, why not?” said Guido Silvestri, who owns the business with partner Rob Asselin. In a group effort over the weekend, Civil moved in to the former home of Stevens Oriental. (Don’t despair - Stevens will be reopening in Civil’s old spot in a few weeks.)

“We need the space. We had a lot of space constraints before,” Silvestri said. The new store is big enough, in fact, for a quarter pipe toward the back, where the owners can have a little fun when things are slow.

Civil has found success not only in East Greenwich (just ask an EGHS student where in town they like to shop) but around the state and, now, online. They launched online sales two months ago. On Wednesday, Silvestri said, he had two orders before the store even opened - one from New York City and the other from Kentucky.

“The whole idea was we want to be the ‘it’ spot” for those people looking for a special board or shoes. But while they may carry what Silvestri refers to as the “best, most exclusive” merchandise, the store also carries items for the skate or snowboard beginner.

In addition to Silvestri and Asselin, there are a couple of parttime workers, and that’s it. But the store has a lot of fans, so when it came time to move, it was easy to muster a couple dozen people to help.

Some of those are members of Civil’s two teams - the store sponsors both skateboard and snowboard teams that compete around the region. Still, Silvestri conceded, it not as if it's always fun - there are bad days.

In the long run though, he said, “This is kind of always what we thought we wanted.”