Standing Up to the Big Boys

A longtime merchant once characterized the joys of being your own boss this way: "You are governed by your customers, your landlord, your suppliers, your employees, your competition, the economy and the government."

While some of those challenges can be met with savvy management, others, such as competition, aren't so easy to overcome. Recent months have brought reports of several long-time shops, from pharmacies to furniture sellers, shuttering their businesses, partly due to rising lease costs and competition.

Does the proliferation of chain stores and malls, including Miromar Outlets, Coconut Point and Gulf Coast Town Center, coupled with the rise of Internet and television shopping mean that small businesses in the area are headed for extinction?

Not a chance, say some local entrepreneurs who insist they're thriving, and staying that way by doing what the competition doesn't.

Paul Stanford declares his enthusiasm for the business he owns with Fran Formica is as hearty as it was when the two opened The Gift Tree in north Naples almost 20 years ago.

"We do things that the chain stores can't," he explains. "Last week I spent hours repairing a Christmas accessory that was bought here two years ago. I didn't have to, but I did."

The partners didn't have to-but did-offer a layaway plan to a nine-year-old when the store opened in the Pavilion in 1987. The boy wanted to buy his mom a special ring with his lawn-mowing and chore money, and visited often with some change or a crumpled dollar or two.

"Once, while he was making a payment, three ladies who were shopping asked about him; and when they heard his story they paid off his balance," Stanford reports. "He's an adult now and a regular customer."

Stanford credits the buying acumen and display skills of his partner for creating a selling space, in Greentree Shopping Center since 1995, that many shoppers find captivating; and customers welcome their product knowledge.

Know-how is also a major asset in the jewelry business, according to Bruce Yamron, owner of Yamron Jewelers in Old Naples, Waterside Shops and the Ritz-Carlton Beach Resort.

When he opened the shop in Waterside in 1992, he shared the luxury jewelry market with few competitors. There were even fewer when his father opened in Old Naples in 1972, but there are plenty now. The mighty Tiffany's is a new Waterside neighbor, and Fifth Avenue South is populated with several high-end shops.

"We almost didn't get here," Yamron muses. "Dad was about to sign a lease in Palm Beach when someone said he should see Naples. He did and opened in Pettit Square, four years before Julius Fleischmann had even built the building on Thirteenth and Third that we're in now."

Bruce Yamron came to the business in 1983 and bought out his father and uncle in 1986.

Establishing a second location was both exhilarating and scary, he says. "We were aggressive in making the move, but cautious in the square footage we took, because for us it was a whole bunch of money."

In 1996, the company opened a satellite shop in the Ritz-Carlton Beach Resort. Although shops and malls have filled in the landscape since then, Yamron says his style of doing business through customized relationships keeps customers coming. "Six of us will go to Basel, Switzerland, in April to buy for next year, and we'll not only buy what we think the public will like, but what we know our customers like. We know what events are coming up for them and what their collections are, and we make purchases based on that knowledge."

Yamron says people like to see the owner on the premises and enjoy doing business with familiar faces. Many who were hired for Waterside when it opened in 1992 are still there, he states, and all are adept at customer service. For instance, he says, "Late one night, a gentleman who was dining at the Ritz decided he wanted to become engaged, but it was 10:30 and our store was closed. When he confided his wish to the maitre d', that man called our manager, who came from home at the other end of town to open the store and help the man select a ring. The ring was presented, and the lady accepted."

As far as mall newcomers, Yamron welcomes them. "New stores bring new people to our locations, and that gives us a chance to show more people what we have and how we do business."

Longtime Waterside neighbor Kirsten James agrees. Competition is not a major concern for the women's apparel and jewelry boutique she and her husband, John, have run for 25 years.

James says the arrival of new shops is the least of their problems. "We have had to cope with a construction project that hampered our customers from parking near our store, and we have had to contend with a management that, shall we say, has been less than hospitable."

James says the inventory at Kirsten's Boutique can't be found elsewhere.

"We buy hand-painted linens from Canada and fabrics from Morocco and have our own designs manufactured in California. Our handbags and jewelry come from artists who create pieces especially for us," she explains.

An attractive Web site has spurred sales, and an annual catalogue has also increased business, she adds.

Another boost to the bottom line is the entry of her son, Kenneth, and his fiancée, Debra Lomonico, to the business. "Ever since the new restaurants, Brio and BrickTop, opened, we have a lot of traffic at night and better visibility than formerly," she explains. "Kenneth and Debra are now keeping the store open at night, something John and I just could not do."

James says her shop has always been a destination store, with some customers trekking from as far away as Palm Beach to shop. She's convinced her loyal clientele will have no trouble traveling a little farther up the road when the business is relocated to a freestanding building this year. She's still negotiating on the location, but says she looks forward to a friendlier climate and greater freedom that a non-mall location will provide.

Moving north has been the strategy of more than one small business-some to escape hefty lease fees, others to be closer to the burgeoning population of northern Collier and southern Lee counties.

Ben Yocom opened Pavilion Shoes in 1983 in a 2,500-square-foot store in the Pavilion center in Naples, but built his own 4,500-square-foot freestanding building on U.S. 41, just south of Immokalee Road, in 1994. His son, Ben, joined the business in 1991 and works with his dad to maintain a niche in the industry.

"Dad and I do the buying, and we can be more flexible than chain operations with central buying offices that make things uniform for all their stores. We carry lots of summer shoes and sandals in winter, and we can order a style in all its colors. We also offer assistance, which is sometimes a rare commodity in big stores," he says.

Connie and Tim Chestnut were ready to make a move when they took over West Coast Furniture in 2004. The senior member of the mother-son team had been associated with the original owners since 1972; the junior member has been connected since 1987.

"The McPhersons opened the business in 1956," Connie explains. "Their first spot was at Four Corners in Old Naples, and their better-known location was where the new post office is now." A 1992 fire at that location put the business in its warehouse space on Commercial Drive in east Naples.

When the Chestnuts took over, they wanted better visibility. They established a 6,000-square-foot showroom in Bay Landing, across from Bonita Bay, and they recently moved into quarters that are open to the public in the International Design Center in Estero.

"We wanted to be where the population is growing and where we have better exposure," explains Connie, the firm's president.

Her son, the company's data manager, says the advent of so many new stores in the marketplace is no deterrent to their game plan.

"Chain stores pretty much show the same things in Cleveland as they do in Southwest Florida," he states. "We feel our inventory is customized to the local market.

"Chain stores also need manufacturers who can mass-produce for them, but we have traditionally sought small, European sources who still do everything by hand because they do so in small quantities. They're the ones we use to create a distinctive inventory that allows customers to express more individuality in their choices," he explains.

"There's a time and a place when McDonald's-type, chain-store furniture is fine, but we like to think of ourselves as gourmet."

Mike Macaluso, manager of the British Open Pub in Bonita Springs, doesn't think of its menu as gourmet exactly, but he does classify it as authentic English fare that has customers coming back in droves. "We use Icelandic cod for our fish and chips, and the sausage for our bangers and mash comes from England," he says.

Although American entrées are available, it's the English selection that makes this spot, tucked into the northwest corner of the Old 41 Road and U.S. 41 intersection, a regular haunt for patrons who relish steak-and-kidney pie and the like. Owners Ann and Bernie Nabbs are English folk and veteran restaurateurs who built their 200-seat, golf-theme restaurant five years ago.