CEO Roundtable: Local Retailers

Springfield Business Journal Executive Editor Christine Temple discusses revenues and realities for independent local retailers in the Springfield area with Mandi Fritz, owner of 417 Cocktails; Kelle Long, co-owner of J.L. Long Traders; and Andrea Petersburg, owner of The Local Bevy.

What follows are highlights from the conversation, edited for length and clarity.

Christine Temple: Let’s start with your origin story. How did you guys get into retail – and tell us a little bit more about your store?
Kelle Long: My sister Kaleen and I grew up in Springfield, and we both left, a little bit on different timelines. Whenever we both moved home and ended up here, she’s a pediatrician in town, so she doesn’t get a lot of creative outlets. And I’m a writer, so I love creative outlets, and we love doing stuff together. So, we started thinking about what we could do for fun, that we could spend time together. And so we were going through some old family history, and our great-great-grandfather had J. L. Long and Sons Furniture Co., and it was in the location that we’re in now for part of the time, so opened in 1903 and ended up on Walnut Street. And so we saw that a little section of that building was for sale again, and we thought, how cool would it be to resurrect that? So, there’s no longer any sons in our family. I have a son, but he’s not a Long, and so we decided to change it to J. L. Long Traders. So that’s just the way that we got started. It’s been a really fun project.
Andrea Petersburg: So, the year was 2020, and being a creative myself and running in the art market and art/craft fairs and things like that, they all got shut down in 2020, and I had had this idea to open a store that sells local art. And it was kind of as simple as that. And that year really was the perfect year to do it. And so I opened in October of 2020, and I just started calling friends. That was it. It was simple as that. And I said, “Hey, who wants to sell stuff in my store?” Because I signed the lease, jumped headfirst into it, and I just had, yeah, five-year anniversary. So it’s been doing really good.
Long: Congratulations.
Mandi Fritz: Five years seems like a lot.
Petersburg: A lot of ups and downs in those five years.
Fritz: I, too, started in 2020 with the idea. Before that, I did a meal delivery service and a bakery. And when 2020 hit, you know, that all stopped, like everything, and I kind of woke up and realized I didn’t enjoy that anymore. And because it was 2020 and the shutdown, I then started day-drinking [laughs] and making just a lot of fun syrups. My sister was in Kansas City. I would send her these little cocktail kits. And she was like, “Hey, when the world comes back, you should add these to your meal delivery.” And I’m like, I think I’m just going to do the cocktail thing. So I subleased for about a year, and then found my spot downtown, and it felt like the perfect spot. And here I am. So, yeah, the shop just celebrated three years.

Holiday impact
Temple: Gallup did some polling about holiday spending, and even with all the uncertainty in the economy, the average consumer spending is expected to be flat from last year. Thinking about your customers and their habits, what are you kind of ramping up for? And how important – like, can you quantify this? If it’s a pie, what percentage of the pie is the holiday season to your overall revenue?
Fritz: 95[%]. I feel like it’s so big, maybe not 95[%], but I definitely feel like November and December probably paid for the first six months of my business, easily. So that’s just big, because January used to be horrible, but now, with Dry January, it’s amazing. There are people who come there and get things from the shop that they’re always going to have. Like, there’s certain bitters that they don’t want to run out of, or things like that. But I think when it comes to holidays, again, the people who want to shop local and keep the money where it matters, it’s a huge deal. I love it, and I love decorating the shop for Christmas.
Petersburg: Holidays are super important. I mean, they’re 20%-25% of my annual sales. So they definitely take care of January and February. Again, January used to be kind of a dead month, and January – don’t sleep on January.
Fritz: Yeah!
Petersburg: Because January has something to say, and it’s really fun. July also used to be a little sleepy, but again, I’m noticing that traffic that comes into the summer with the travelers, but yeah, so we’re really excited for the holidays, and I expect and know that it’ll be just slammed. I’m just gearing up for craziness.
Long: I haven’t broken down the numbers to quantify it, but our two busiest days of the year in store are Women’s Day [Downtown], which Downtown [Springfield] Association hosts in the spring, and then Small Business Saturday, right after Thanksgiving. So those are definitely the two biggest, so we’re really excited for that. We do pop-ups, we do discounts, we do treats. And then this holiday season, we’re going to Cup O’Cheer to support the Ronald McDonald House, and in store, we’re supporting Isabel’s House. So it’s really neat to be able to do local collaborations like that, too, and just really invest in the community. And so it’s just, it’s definitely a very important time. It’s a very fun time.

Value proposition
Temple: In this community, we still have a thriving mall, right? Which is surprising; not all communities have one of those. We have a really decentralized retail setup. We have kind of Brentwood and downtown and C-Street, and then kind of mixed all throughout, and then even get into Ozark, and Nixa. So how do you guys find that unique niche and tell your unique story?
Fritz: I think for me, it’s the social media aspect, like, just being me on there. Then it gets people to come in and be like, is she really that weird?
Temple: So you’re your own influencer?
Fritz: Yeah, yeah, me and Taylor [Swift]. I don’t really know on that, other than I do feel like I have things in my shop that no one else has. Like ... there just isn’t another cocktail shop. And even, like, the liquor stores, none of them have, you know, 40 different varieties of bitters or just things like that. I’m always shocked when a customer comes in, and I’ve never met them, and then they leave 45 minutes later, and it’s like, oh my gosh. They just told me about this vacation and this amazing drink that they just had, and we just worked on how to recreate it, and then, you know, now they’re starting to message me fun drink recipes. So it’s like, I guess, just more the personal connection that we get that maybe you just don’t get, well, you definitely don’t get, if you’re like a Walmart or Target or whatever. I think that’s just what we can offer – us.
Petersburg: Building relationships and creating the community. So, for The Local Bevy, I’ve always said if I had other locations, they wouldn’t look the same, and that would be the point. Five years ago when I opened, I was so excited. I wanted to franchise. A Local Bevy in Ozark would look completely different. A Local Bevy in Rountree, a local Bevy downtown would probably look a little different. Local Bevy on C-Street might even look a little different, and it should, and we would celebrate that, and it would be awesome. The whole store is all my favorite things. You know? I mean, I really, truly enjoy everything that’s in there.
Fritz: OK, I’m excited for a Local Bevy everywhere.
Long: We just always say that we’re not trying to compete. We love making a day of brunch and shopping and shows. … I go on vacations with my sister every year, and that’s what we do everywhere that we go. So we want a whole bunch of shops, and we’re big fans of 417 Cocktails, but we’re closer in similarity to The Local Bevy, but we are huge fans of The Local Bevy. We want to go shop there. We want to go shop at The Thicket. We want to go shop at Grayson Home. We want to go shop at The Market, all of our favorite places. So we’re very intentional about doing our market research and trying not to stock the same things that they do. We would love for more places to populate and come up. So we just try not to step on any toes, because we’re also fans, and we don’t want to do anything to be a detriment to their business, because that is just what we enjoy doing with our free time.

Excerpts of the conversation by Deputy Editor Gregory Holman, gholman@sbj.net