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RETAILER PROFILE KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW n JANUARY 2019 n www.kitchenwarenews.com 16 Retailer Profile The Leap to the Kitchen Drawer (cont. from Page 1) fantastic kitchenware store here in Tyler, but then it sold and then went out of business. One or two other stores popped up, but they never really stayed true to a kitchenware store," she said. It was while she enjoyed a cooking class with her husband that Halbert had the idea to start her own kitchenware store. The building she found was about 800 square feet – just large enough to start her dream of a kitchenware store. Using her discretionary income and a small loan, she signed the lease of the small building, remodeled it and by October 2007 she'd opened the Kitchen Drawer. She rented the space for about five-and-a-half years, and each year, the kitchenware store saw dramatic growth. Halbert, who was a one-time manager in the healthcare field, says even though she was a new business owner, after only five years of business, she knew that in order to help the Kitchen Drawer thrive, it was going to need more space. " When I started my business, I said I was going to reassess every five years to see what we'd accomplished, what our goals were, and do it in five-year increments," she said. "I thought five years was a better barometer than one year, and so at five years, I knew I needed more space. So rather than continue to rent, we were fortunate enough to find a plot to build on and start f rom scratch," she explained. The construction crew broke ground on January 10, 2013, while the business owner was at market. " We got out ahead of the curve as far as prices went, and sometime in the future, we'll be able to recoup and sell the lot as opposed to paying rent," she said. Months later, she had her ver y own building, but she says the move was a little rocky. There was some confusion with the construction company on when she could make the transition to the new building that caused a delay in sales, and on top of that, the little store wouldn't see any growth in business for the next year. "D uring the fall when we made the transition to the bigger store, I didn't see any growth. Our numbers maintained the same as they were the year before," Halbert said. "But pretty much, there was nonexistent growth, as far as I'm concerned." Then, a year after they moved in, the holidays hit, and the business saw double- digit growth. Every year since the Kitchen Drawer made the transition, their business has doubled. "The store moved into a better part of the city where we're at in Tyler and the growth has been exponentially huge," Halbert said. W ith the move into a bigger space, Halbert has been able to expand her product lines and inventory. " We refocused on primarily the nuts and bolts of kitchenware. For example, if you need a 13-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, we're pretty much the only store in town who' ll have that," she said. "You can order it on Amazon, but if you have all the ingredients at home and are waiting and ready, usually, you don't want to wait to get it in the mail." The new location also includes a kitchen for cooking classes. "There simply wasn't the room to do cooking classes at our old location," Halbert said. "There are people who do cooking classes with induction cook plates and stuff like that, but that wasn't what I thought our customers were asking for." Classes are small – limited to around eight people, and the setting in the new kitchen is intimate. "The kitchen doesn't have commercial appliances," Halbert said. "It has the same appliances you could have at home. It 's small and designed for around 12 people." The kitchen was designed with the option to bring in additional tables to expand the seating for larger parties into the surrounding space. Overall, the business owner says the risk was the right move. "There's always risk involved with real estate and with business," Halbert said, "...and I knew I had enough backing, and I knew that if it wasn't going to work, I'd know within two years…. You lose sleep over it; there's no doubt about it. That's just the nature of owning your own business, I believe. Nobody cares about it as much as you do." KN BY ROBIN MATHER A floor inlaid with pennies in the ice cream parlor at Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop's flagship store in the Strip District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, might be the best metaphor for owner Christopher J. Beers's success. The floor was a wacky idea that came to Beers out of the blue. It took a fair amount of planning, but some serendipity came into play, too. It cost more than he expected – more than $1,000, "or $2.14 a square foot," Beers points out. It was much more work to finish than he thought it would be, and his trusted employees helped with the work. And yet the floor, with its giant ice cream cone motif made of shiny new pennies just inside the door, and its carefully designed border of darker, older pennies, is a stunning success. Customers remark on it the minute they enter the ice cream parlor, one of three side-by-side storefronts in the Strip that Grandpa Joe's occupies. Beers opened the store in the Strip, Pittsburgh's functioning warehouse district and a popular tourist destination because of its ethnic grocers and restaurants, in 2012. "I chose this neighborhood because the area was missing a candy shop," the 39-year-old Beers says. Back then, the store occupied only one storefront. But as years passed, and neighbors retired or went out of business, the store expanded to occupy three storefronts at 2124 Penn Avenue, the Strip's main drag. With two floors, the store stocks 265 kinds of soda from around the country, and more than 750 candy bar brands, for wholesale and retail sales. The upstairs is devoted to bulk candy packaging, but the downstairs, with its floor- to-ceiling displays and its creaky wooden floors, is a maze of candy, toys and novelties, including a bacon-scented stick-on mustache, squirrel underwear and other oddities. A big part of Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop's role in the community is generosity, Beers says. "We say yes to every donation request," he says. "We take part in community events and festivals, too." He notes that the company's Dilly Pickle Cotton Candy was such a hit at the end of a community charitable run that the company ran out on the first day. Beers says he uses social media, like Facebook, to promote Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop, just as many business owners do. But he also looks at the photos that his competitors post. Perhaps they have brands that he should be carrying, he says. In fact, "staying alert and fluid" is part of his business strategy by design, he says. KN Grandpa Joe's Candy Shop Caters to Sweet Teeth

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