It Takes a Community
Jane Kitchen -- Gifts and Dec, 10/21/2010 4:43:51 AM
Suburban Hill‘s merchandise mix incorporates the work of local artists as well as unique products not found at the big box stores.c
After six years in the wholesale business with Suburban Silk, Edward Vanegas and Paul Chansingthong decided that they needed to be smarter collaborators with their retailers.
"One of the ways we thought we'd learn was to become a retailer ourselves," says Vanegas. "We wanted to learn what retailers do every day and respect that."
So in September 2006, Vanegas and Chansingthong opened Suburban Hill in Prospect, CO - a New Urbanist community near Longmont. The store features a merchandise mix that incorporates Suburban Silk products with other gift items, including Mine Candles, Waste Not Paper, Susan Shaw jewelry, Skyros tabletop, Rock Scissors Paper, Vapur flexible water bottles, and Offensive + Delightful cards.
"We feature ourselves when we can, but we don't make it the dominant theme," says Vanegas. "It's not an 80/20 Suburban Silk store by any means - it might be more like a 20/80."
LOCATION, LOCATION...PRODUCT
Prospect is a master-planned New Urbanist community similar to Celebration, FL, featuring unique architecture and a downtown park with merchants surrounding it designed to create a sense of community. Suburban Hill is located in a 1,600-square-foot space facing the park, in a building that was originally designed as an art gallery. It's an open, contemporary environment with an upstairs wood loft and lots of hidden spaces to poke around in. "People always comment on how unique the space is," says Vanegas.
Neighbors help a shop move its location.
With a nod toward the building's original purpose, Vanegas and Chansingthong have incorporated local artists' work into the merchandise mix, which adds an important community element to the store.
Vanegas says he spends more time in the store than he ever thought he would, learning from the customers and speaking with them about their shopping experiences. He says he asks questions - even when they don't buy - and keeps a journal of things customers would like to see in order to better meet their needs.
Vanegas finds that one key to the success of the store is his ability to ferret out new and unusual products at gift markets across the country. While Suburban Silk is showing as a wholesaler, Vanegas takes a few hours out of each day, for 12 shows a year, and shops the show.
"My goal is to make sure the customers do not compare what we have with a Target or another big box store, because the price point will kill you," he says. "We want to be unique enough in our own market."
Vanegas learns from customers by asking questions. He keeps a journal of what they would like to see to better meet their needs.
BRINING THE COMMUNITY TOGETHER
Suburban Silk’s bedding line is part of the store’s mix.
Aside from their merchandise mix, Suburban Hill also does its best to be unique in its relationship to the market, becoming an integral part of the community through special events and celebrations. They sponsor the neighborhood Easter egg hunt in the park, take part in the neighborhood campout in the park (even leaving the doors to the store unlocked for the night so campers would have a late-night restroom to use), host cookie exchanges and other social events, and bring in the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus for photo sessions with the kids.
"It's just another way to get people in the store [without placing the emphasis] on selling," says Vanegas. "We want the store to be the social center of the neighborhood, but there's a motive in the store being part of the neighborhood."
One of Suburban Hill's most successful ongoing events is the Friday Afternoon Clubs, or FACs, a tradition that started in the community and also takes place at residents' houses. Suburban Hill has become so much a part of the neighborhood that they host their own FAC quarterly. With beer, wine and Thai curries that get progressively hotter, they do a "tremendous" amount of sales during the events, says Vanegas.
Suburban Hill hosts the Friday Afternoon Clubs event once a month; this popular community get-together features beer, wine and Thai curries.
But the surest sign that Suburban Hill has become an integral part of the neighborhood? When they moved to their current location last October, Vanegas and Chansingthong asked the neighborhood to help them move. For every load taken the two blocks away in a neighborhood truck, SUV or minivan, that neighbor received a $25 gift card to the store.
Vanegas reports that dozens of people participated, but one neighbor's comments stuck with him. "He said, ‘We're not moving a store in our neighborhood, we're moving a neighbor that's a store,'" says Vanegas. Now that's becoming part of the community.
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