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TWO
DOWNTOWN BUSINESSES REACH
THE 30-YEAR MILESTONE
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Two
downtown businesses reach the 30-year milestone
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| by
Deb Wuethrich |
November
14, 2002 |
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Two
businesses
have
a lot in common. The
owners are originally
from Ohio. They
chose Tecumseh as a
place to open new
businesses, even
though they were not
born here. And they
opened their doors in
November, a few
buildings away from
each other, 30 years
ago. |
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JIM
AND BARB
McCANN
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JAN
FOX
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"We've been friends ever since," said
Barb McCann about Jan Fox, Grey
Fox Floral owner. Barb and her husband, Jim, own the
Chocolate Vault .
GREY FOX
www.greyfoxfloral.com
Jan grew up in eastern Ohio, but attended
Michigan State University's
floriculture program. She met her husband, Gary, at
Vine Street Flower
Shop where she was involved in a placement-training
program. He was
also employed there. She said they learned through
word of mouth that
Edward's Floral Shop in Tecumseh was for sale when
she was eight
months pregnant.
After Benjamin was born, they purchased the
building, which currently
houses Innovations. A few years into the venture,
there was a fire. Jan
remembers it well because she had just had her
wisdom teeth pulled when
they received the call at their Fairfield home.
"We took Benjamin to his grandparents and
headed for Tecumseh," she
said. "It was amazing to me that there was a
building left standing." She
recalls sitting on the curb by Martin's, watching
the firefighters try to put
the flames out. They lost their entire inventory.
Grey Fox then moved into temporary quarters at a
former barbershop in
the North Plaza.
"We later negotiated to buy this
building," Jan said of the present location
at 116 S. Evans Street. Like many of Tecumseh's
structures, there's
history. It was once a boarding house. Jan said
Tecumseh resident Opal
Dickinson can remember having her arm set there when
it was a doctor's
office. When Grey Fox came along, it had last been a
custom drapery
shop. The Fox family lived upstairs for several
years before purchasing a
home.
"It seems almost yesterday we went through some
of those times," Jan
said. She started with two employees, now there are
seven. She said her
business has had to learn to adapt with the times,
since changes have
occurred in other industries, such as the funeral
business.
"There used to be ample time for people to send
flowers," she said. "Now
it's been de-regulated and other changes have come
about because of it."
She said there are fewer visitation hours and often
cremations have
already taken place when the notices appear in the
newspaper.
"Sometimes people don't know what to do when
there are memorial
services, but it's okay to send flowers, even
then," Jan said. "It's what
flowers do - remind the living of the importance of
the deceased to
others."
To keep up with the times, Grey Fox is being more
aggressive in its
marketing and now has a marketing person on staff to
help hit untapped
markets.
Jan said she loves being in a business that brings
the recipients such
pleasure. She particularly likes helping students
with corsages for proms
and holiday functions.
"They tell us what color they're wearing and we
try to make a custom
match," she said. "You want it to be just
perfect."
CHOCOLATE VAULT
www.chocolatevault.com
Barb McCann had been decorating cakes from her home
for several years
when she and her husband, Jim, and their four
children moved to Rogers
Highway from Toledo in 1970. Jim had taken a job
with Manchester
Plastics, and within a couple years of coming to
Lenawee County, Barb
said there were cakes and supplies on every surface
in the house - tables,
counters, dressers.
"We liked the atmosphere in Tecumseh and walked
up and down the
street looking for a place to put the
business," she said. Their first venture
in 1972 was the Cake Shoppe. Glenn Kohler, who had
an insurance
office, then owned the building. They said Kerby's
Diner was also there,
and Whatley Realtors was in the portion of the
building that was once a
bank. The McCann's purchased the building when
Kohler retired.
Barb said she has a book that holds the complete
history of the building
and its tenants over the years, including businesses
that occupied the
upper floors.
"This was actually Tecumseh's first post
office," Barb said. "Tecumseh's
library was on the second floor where my kitchen is
now, before it was
moved up the street."
Barb held her first cake-decorating classes upstairs
when students had to
enter from the outside. A few years into their
venture, the rooms were
remodeled into dormitory style bedrooms to
accommodate a new turn
their business took.
"I had traveled to South Africa to teach
advanced decorating methods,"
Barb said. She said the deal involved a reciprocal
arrangement. After that
trip, a unique cultural exchange took place with
instructors visiting
Tecumseh from Australia, England and South Africa,
among others.
Students would come from all over the country to
receive instruction for a
week, living above the shop. The McCanns also
traveled regionally to
accommodate their business venture.
"Barb judged shows and the kids and I entered
decorated cakes in
contests," Jim said. He said not the ones she
was judging, however.
Like Grey Fox Floral, the McCanns have adapted with
the times. They
said they have "morphed" through several
changes before reaching their
present niche. When they realized people were doing
less of their own
cake-making at home, the couple dropped the supplies
from their venture
and opened The Bridal Suite, a service that planned
bridal events. They
had made so many wedding cakes by then, they were
quite familiar with
all that went into getting ready for the big day.
Their daughter, Susan,
helped with the floral designs.
"We had a lot of time at the beginning of the
week," Jim said, "but then the
big crunch came on the weekend." Barb said they
literally had piles of
materials for each person's event and someone was
responsible for
adding the appropriate items.
"Then on Saturday, I'd hold my breath,
especially if the phone rang," she
said. "I'd wonder what we forgot, or if
someone's stuff was on the truck
going to Toledo instead of here."
One day Barb was looking at the vault where they
stored chocolates and
found herself thinking about her experiences with
candy making. She
realized she and Jim knew a lot about chocolate,
which led to opening the
present Chocolate Vault.
The McCanns have remodeled their building, carefully
to preserve the
basic ambience. They had to cut a doorway between
the two present
stores that house the old-fashioned ice cream parlor
and a confectionery
shop. They've been living upstairs since 1985.
When starting the first venture, Barb had one
employee, but said Jim has
always been there, even while holding down a
full-time job.
"He'd make the icing for the cakes or feed the
kids so I could do it," Barb
said. "Later, he'd come down and bake all the
cakes at night. So he
actually worked two full-time jobs." Jim joined
the business full-time in
1985, and they now employ 18 others. They've morphed
again and
conduct much of their present business via the
Internet. Orders come in
from all over the world. In July, a Food Network
crew came to film the
making of chocolate turkeys after finding them
on-line. The McCann's
aren't sure what to expect when the final cut airs
at 9 p.m. on Sunday,
Nov. 17. They do know they're not interested in mass
production of
chocolate.
"We've now found our niche and what numbers are
good for us," Barb
said. They like being a small, novelty
chocolate-maker. "It's difficult to say
no when somebody asks for thousands of something,
but we'd rather do
ten orders of 50. That's about our limit."
©Tecumseh Herald 2002 |
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