Business

WEST OCEAN CITY — Jan and Louise from CraZy LadyZ want you to recall Dear Aunt Sally. You may remember her from eighth grade math class as My Dear Aunt Sally — the mnemonic device for the order of operations — but if you happen to you’re already way ahead of the game. The game, for the fifth year running, is Death By Chocolate, a kind of poker run wherein players visit shops to get chocolate and clues. The theme is “Are You Smarter than a Third Grader?” but even if you feel as if it might be a dicy proposition, depending upon how long it has been since the third grade, the point of the game is to have fun. The point of the game is not to worry about facts that may have slipped your mind during the 1980s. “I would imagine this year chocolate will be at toxic levels,” Jan said. The chocolate, as everybody knows, is a good in itself whereas the clues are a means to an end. In this case the end is being entered into a drawing for prizes d...

BERLIN — Patricia Fischer was doing double duty, manning the Town Center Antiques counter and flipping through the store’s financials. Mid-morning is typically a quiet time in the Main Street shop and the owner was taking advantage of the lull to catch up on some paperwork and talk about the company’s newest destination — the building formerly used as a Donaway Furniture storage facility. During the week between Christmas and New Year, Fischer arranged to have the entire setup of  Town Center II taken down at its former North Main Street local and re-erected in the Pitts Street building. It was a formidable task, completed without incident, but worth it not only to Fischer and the Town Center II vendors but to the Downtown and the local economy generally. Incentive is the centerpiece of the story and the main catalyst of Fischer’s decision to relocate after 12 years on North Main Street and it begins with an opportunity fulfilled. Town of Berlin Ec...

WEST OCEAN CITY — Having the Dew Tour come to Ocean City was driven, in part, by the fact that for decades, Northern Worcester County has been home to a thriving skate and surf subculture. Although to be a subculture  a group has to be defined by more than what its clothes, the clothes act as a kind of signifier. It’s in that way that the clothes don’t so much make the man as they send out a signal as to the type of man he is. Similarly, surf and skate culture, while not defined by the clothes that come with them are dominated if not by brands than certainly by types. Recognizing and responding to the rise in what might be called urban skate culture, Dani and Ryan Pogge decided to open Bungalow Seven as an alt shop for the alt. Pogge spent last week at the premier East Coast skate and surf show, which draws retailers from all over the country to meet up with the wholesalers on the cutting edge of everything from skateboard wheels to surfboard and everything in...

WEST OCEAN CITY — It takes a certain amount of confidence in both your business and your regular clientele to pick up an move after 10 years in the same place. But after a little more than a week in their new Ocean City digs John Meyers and Ron Saunders, owners of the Monkey’s Trunk in West Ocean City have had their faith in both validated. They didn’t move far but still people have been happy to re-find them. “Really, you just have to make a U-turn,” Meyers said, “People have been so supportive already.” Anyone who has taken the opportunity to stop by the Monkey’s Trunk understands why the shop was worth re-discovering. The home furnishing and decor store has a different attitude than many people have come to anticipate. The difference is subtle, in fact if it isn’t pointed out it is easy to miss, but critical to the experience. A common furniture store trope is to package rooms together, grouping the store as if it is a large ...

PITTSVILLE — Mount Vernon native Robert Taylor has been trapping muskrat for the better part of his 72 years. He rises early, even for a farmer, and heads out to start checking his traps. During muskrat season, which ends in March, he will be able to sell as many as he can catch to Dave White, owner of the Pittsville Diner. For his part, White will be able to sell all the muskrat he can buy from Y to grateful and enthusiastic customers. If you are not one of them, it is time to ask yourself why. The first and most obvious answer is that the delicacy  is poorly, or maybe unfortunately, named. This is a fact that hasn’t escaped many on the Lower Eastern Shore where the meal’s more palatable name, marsh rabbit, tends to soothe the mind enough to allow the taste buds ample room for exploration. White, however, is no fan of the euphemism. “I don’t use the fancy name, just call it what it is” he said. “People will have to go down the road to g...

OCEAN PINES — When Elizabeth Stout opened Elisabeth’s Treasures two years ago she was completely content with occupying the bottom half of the converted split level home between Ocean Parkway and Manklin Meadows Lane, but had her eye on the upstairs. Stout wanted the second floor not so much because it would provide her additional sales, although it surely would, but more because the wide range of items she had available to her for display outnumbered her floorspace almost two to one. So last month, when she had the opportunity to expand into the second floor of the building she moved in immediately and almost exactly two years to the day after she first opened her doors. “We used to have two [warehouses],” she said. “Now we just have one.” Stout’s success has been counter-intuitive for a shop that sells pre-owned furniture, jewelry and accessories in addition to original works from artists and artisans. One of the most significant aspects o...

OCEAN PINES — Woodlands owner Rick Handelman had a devilish look in his eye as he approached the front desk. “Watch this, they hate this,” he said waiving his hand in front of the three-foot-tall Santa standing guard next to the desk.  “They” were the staff and residents at the Woodlands and the result of his frantic waving gives the best picture of what it is like to live at the Woodlands. The Santa didn’t move. Handelman looked up at the small number of people lounging in the lobby with pretend accusation and hurt.  “They sabotaged it,” he said. “Again.” By the time he got it working it was pretty clear why the Santa has been repeatedly sabotaged. The Christmas message was long and loud and more than a little grating. The whole scene gave the impression that Handelman had purchased the decoration with the express intention of giving the residents and staff an opportunity to engage in this fun little war with h...

WEST OCEAN CITY — Somewhere there is an old photograph of a very young Chuck Dondero messing with the display in his family’s Boardwalk shop. While it’s not, strictly speaking, a point of dispute, Dondero claims he was showing his budding talent as a stock boy, arranging the items for sale. His wife, Linda, claims he was just caught playing. Whatever he was actually doing is really secondary to the point that Dondero has spent the better part of his life in his family’s Ocean City shops. Christmas Pointe moved round the lower Boardwalk for decades before settling in the 45th Street Village and spent the better part of its first decade of existence as a seasonal Ocean City shop. So much so that it was with more than a little anxiety that the couple moved across the bridge to Ocean City Factory Outlets five years ago and decided to make an all year go at running the shop. Setting aside the kind of exhaustion that comes with running a large store full time lookin...

BERLIN — While the big retailers inch Black Friday forward in an attempt to stretch the holiday shopping rush, small retailers are taking the opposite tack with the help of an unlikely sponsor: American Express. Last year the credit card company inaugurated Small Business Saturday to highlight supporting small local businesses not only as part of the shopping season but also as a more approachable, sustainable way of conceiving retail. This year six Berlin businesses — Abigail's, Bruder Hill, Bungalow Love, j.j.Fish Studio, Simply Shades and Victorian Charm — are participating by offering special Small Business Saturday discounts. Community and Economic Development Director Michael Day said he hopes the local merchants’ success spawns greater participation as the program continues. “I think it’s a great opportunity for the town and the merchants,” he said. The idea of a coordinated, national movement that focuses on supporting local small...

 WEST OCEAN CITY — The upside to the economic downturn is that it gives entrepreneurs not only the opportunity but also the means to strike out on their own in establishing a new business. It was, in fact, a primary motivator for Jill Ferger and her mother, Joan Ferger, in establishing the Six Eleven Salon and Gallery. With more than a decade of makeup and manicure experience, Jill had gone as far as she was likely able to as an employee, but as an owner she recognized that the sky was the limit, providing she could find and appoint the right place to showcase her skills and the right staff to fulfill her vision. She said both endeavors took a significant amount of courage and effort but in the end, she said it was worth it “It think it’s important for my daughters to see it’s possible to be an independent woman,” Ferger said. “You keep going if you have the passion and the drive.” The place she found — in the Trader Lee’s ...