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Main Street Reimagined Podcast
This is a podcast for dreamers, creators, developers, and entrepreneurs to learn, share, and be inspired to change your community through small business.
Main Street Reimagined Podcast
Episode 16: Coffee & Community: The Remnant's Journey with Jamie Riffe and Abigail Jordan
What happens when two determined ladies take the leap to chase their entrepreneurial dreams? Jamie Riffe and Abigail Jordan, the mother-daughter duo from The Remnant Tea & Coffee, share their story of turning a simple coffee shop into a community gathering place in downtown Marion. Discover how their backgrounds in real estate and business, coupled with a shared vision sparked by the pandemic, led to the creation of a coffee shop…even though they didn’t drink coffee and hadn’t ever worked in a coffee shop!
Jamie and Abby open up about the sacrifices made and the amazing support from family and friends, which was crucial in transforming their dream into reality. They talk about the long hours and unpaid labor it took to create a place where they want everyone to feel like family. This episode also captures the thrill and challenges of expanding from their original cozy spot to a sprawling 8,000 square-foot downtown building, which created opportunities but also some challenges!
Jamie and Abby discuss the network of downtown businesses working together to all create a special experience, touching on how they’ve adapted and evolved their offerings to meet the needs of their customers. From introducing gluten-free options to their vision of a refillery concept, their commitment to innovation and community engagement shines through. We hope you get inspired by their incredible journey and learn how they’ve woven their personal and professional lives into a tapestry of success and community impact.
Guest Links:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/theremnantdowntown
Main Street Reimagined:
Facebook: facebook.com/MainStreetReimagined
The Main Street Reimagined Podcast, Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLqfkmF5bRH0od1d3iiYKs3oEn_gvMYk7N
Henry Development Group:
Facebook: facebook.com/henrydevelopmentgroup
Website: www.henrydevelopmentgroup.com
Developing News Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/33110524eb5c/developing-news
Luke Henry:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/luhenry
Facebook: facebook.com/luke.henry.148
#EntrepreneurialJourney
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#DowntownMarion
#CoffeeShopStory
#FromVisionToReality
#WomenInBusiness
#SupportLocalBusinesses
#FamilyBusiness
#InnovationAndGrowth
#BuildingCommunity
#BusinessExpansion
#GlutenFreeOptions
#RefilleryConcept
#InspiringEntrepreneurs
#DowntownCollaboration
We sell coffee, we sell food, we sell other stuff, but we want you to come and sit, and so that was the most important thing to us during this time is like we need to make the space the most inviting than it can be.
Speaker 2:It's about community. If you can't, if you can't be there for your customers and you can't give them the space that they need, then they'll go somewhere else. And and it's not about them going somewhere else, cause we don't really look at it like it's more about what do they need?
Speaker 3:like, legitimately, it really is customer first and everything that we do this is the main street reimagined podcast, a show for people ready to turn visions into realities and ideas into businesses. Hey, I'm luke henry and each week I lead conversations with Main Street Dreamers who took the leap to launch a business, renovate a building or start a movement, their ideas, their mindsets and their inspirations, as well as some of the highs and lows along the way. This is a place for dreamers, creators, developers and entrepreneurs to learn, share and be inspired to change your community through small business. Enjoy the show.
Speaker 4:Hey friends, luke Henry here and this is the Main Street Reimagined podcast. Thanks so much for being with us once again. So I'm excited this week to have with me Jamie Reif and Abigail Jordan from the Remnant. Hi, hello ladies. Thanks so much for being with me today. So they are going to be talking with us about their journey in starting a fantastic coffee shop here in downtown Marion. Now, on their second location, they've taken a foray into building ownership in addition to business ownership, and they have just become a mainstay, and so I'm excited to have this conversation today.
Speaker 2:We're excited to be here, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so thanks so much once again. So why don't we start with just a little bit of a description? If someone's never been into the remnant and they walk in, what are they going to find?
Speaker 1:Sure. So in addition to coffee, we also have a tea, a small cafe market. So we definitely have been expanding a lot, but there's kind of something for everybody there. It really focuses on atmosphere as opposed to just like the product that we're serving. So you're going to come in, you're going to get a cup of coffee and then you're going to sit down and find a nice comfy nook.
Speaker 4:So we have a lot of different places that you can sit and chill out A really good place for studying and stuff like that, located in downtown Marion a really good place for studying and stuff like that, located in downtown Marion, yeah, so you've got so many really great spaces that you've created there, where there's spaces for groups, there's spaces, like you said, for just kind of getting away a little bit and doing some studying. There's a little bit of outdoor space, some different indoor spaces, and so, yeah, it's really been fun to see that space completely take shape as you've transformed now in this second location. And I know that there's, you know, future plans to continue to evolve the space. So we'll get into that here in a little bit. But so, jamie, I'll ask you to kind of, I guess, start us back at the beginning a little bit.
Speaker 4:You know, I'm curious if this was always a dream to not only have this shop but also to work with pretty much your entire family, which is really a joy and a challenge, I'm sure, depending on the day. A joy and a challenge, I'm sure, depending on the day. So, kind of, take us through. You know where did this genesis come from and how did that evolve as you've grown up, and you know where are you from and how did this all come together?
Speaker 2:Okay, well, mary and girl, born and raised, love my community and, as far as the business evolving, I have always been my own person.
Speaker 2:I was in real estate for 17 years, loved it, went to work for Corporate America for a little bit the nine to five is great but I kind of got tired of all of the work I put in. Somebody else kind of benefited from it and I was like you know, nah, um, so you know, it kind of just evolved from there. Just, you know, with the kids and doing things, um, I was always that person who, just, you know, back in the day, I would always joke around with my kids being like, oh, one of these days when I own my own coffee shop, oh, one of these days when I own my own bakery, oh, one of these days when I own my own, whatever, and it was always a joke within the family of all the different crazy things that mom wanted to do. So when I finally, you know, when COVID hit, was in the corporate America kind of atmosphere and then we were trying to work from home and do all of that stuff.
Speaker 2:And I just decided you know what, we can't do this. So I kind of stepped out for my job. After about six months I got bored.
Speaker 2:And so we always say it's not good when mom gets bored, because it gave me far more time to really just sit back and be like all right, this isn't working. What do we need to do? So a lot of things were going on in our, in our life at that time, and so it just kind of dominoes just kind of started to fall into place for us to kind of start working together and kind of building the business.
Speaker 1:Abby can kind of go ahead and tell you kind of like how it started and and kind of some of the different aspects of it. But, besides it being just like a kind of joke that mom was going to start you know, 14 million businesses, um, I, I was back from college and I was getting ready to get married, my sister was getting ready to get married and, you know, mom, being able to do everything that she can, was like, oh well, I'll just cater your wedding, so I'm not paying somebody else to do that. And so she like started showing us all these pictures about, like, um, charcuterie actually, it wasn't even about a coffee shop, but she starts showing us all these pictures about charcuterie and she's like this would be so pretty and I can do this for your wedding. And we're like, okay, yeah, just go ahead and do whatever.
Speaker 1:Two weddings, save both of us the cost, everything involved in that. And so she starts looking into it and she's like, oh, I need, like a certified kitchen to do this. I can't just, you know, do it out of my house because the all meats and everything. So she gets in contact with, you know, one of the people that she's met in real estate, other circles of her life and she's like hey, you have like this kitchen space.
Speaker 2:Actually, it was made straight reimagined. I had messaged.
Speaker 1:Was it really and?
Speaker 3:I had asked if you guys had had any locations available.
Speaker 4:And at the time you guys really didn't have anything and I said, no, no, we don't.
Speaker 2:No, I can connect you and he's like Todd might be, you know. So main squeeze was going. They were not really struggling, but he was in that quandary of whether he was going to stay in business or not, because of COVID. Post.
Speaker 3:COVID, yeah, and so.
Speaker 2:I connected with him and we ended up just buying his location out, but it was not big enough to do everything that we needed at the time, but we made it work.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:So that was the foray. I had forgotten about that little little connection there that, uh, you know I won't, I won't take all the credit for your success, you guys. But uh, you know, no, I'm, I'm glad that we're, since we weren't able to to accommodate you could at least make a connection for you to start taking a step forward.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it was one of those things that kind of just fell into place. He was ready to leave and we were ready to step in, but at the time I was only actually. It's Casey at the Brickyard too who actually? Kind of helped catalyst some of it as well. She was like you did this and I'm like, yeah, she's like, I need this, she goes, marion needs this. So it actually worked out really well because she was kind of one who was like, encouraged me to help me take that leap.
Speaker 2:So it was kind of nice how it all fell into place. But then when we got the location, the location is great, but I only need a kitchen. I didn't need the rest of the space there. And that's where we started talking to Abigail and I was like, well, what are we going to do with the rest of this space? Like you know, I only need a kitchen, I don't need all of this. And then she just so happened to actually step in and was like I know exactly what we're going to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I had just graduated with my BA. I was in the process of doing my master's online. I was working at a bank. My plan was banking like foreign banking.
Speaker 1:I was just going to be a bank girl, do all of that stuff, and six months in, everything had started happening here and I'm like, oh my gosh, we have, like, this whole space. Marion doesn't have a coffee shop. That's been able to sustain super long. Uh, we're coming out of COVID. Everybody's disconnected, nobody's really able to, you know, join together in um, really fellowship together in spaces Like it's just so disconnected and separate. I'm like we'll just start a coffee shop, it's fine. So, after six months of working at the bank that was supposed to be my lifelong dream I quit my job. So your catalyst might've been Casey, but my catalyst was just like full on masters. I was prepping for a wedding, my sister had just moved out, I didn't have a place to live, I was couch surfing between all my family and I'm just like, yeah, we'll just start a coffee shop, it's fine. My life is already like crazy, why not add some more? So it was March that we started thinking about it, like fully thinking about it, and like saying what if we did this?
Speaker 4:This is March of 2021. 2021.
Speaker 1:March of 2021 is when mom started really looking into this. With the, with Casey, with the charcuterie. April, I quit my job. We opened the coffee shop in the first week of June.
Speaker 2:The last week of June right at the beginning of July. We signed our lease in April. And when we decided to do it. Within three months of deciding to do it, we were open.
Speaker 3:It was crazy, God just.
Speaker 2:God just really opened doors Cause we just really felt like we just really felt called to it. Um, we were coming out of that season again in COVID where everybody was just so disconnected and we just really felt that, you know in our heart, like Marian's community needed to come together. We needed a space, we needed a place and we just felt like that, literally the doors just opened to kind of have that space where people could just come and reconnect and fellowship. And what better way to do that than a cup of coffee.
Speaker 1:We didn't drink coffee.
Speaker 2:We were just like oh yeah.
Speaker 1:OK, coffee shop that's what people connect over.
Speaker 4:And none of you had worked in a coffee shop. No, no, anything like that.
Speaker 1:No, we had. I had three months of food experience.
Speaker 2:I had one of my previous lives you know, I've done a lot of crazy things over the years, but you know I mean I had worked in my early teens and 20s in the food industry, but that was it, but nothing related to this realm of business no. We've had a lot of learning.
Speaker 4:Yeah, oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:But I mean we felt that it was a calling, so we thought you know what then we're? We're going to do it and we'll just learn together. And I mean, if we screwed up, we screwed up, it can't. I mean, what's the worst to do? You close down and you lose a little money. You start over and do that.
Speaker 4:It created, it also catalyzed certain things where you know, just kind of interrupted our just sort of like cruise control about certain things. And so you know, you guys were just kind of cruising along, then COVID came, kind of disrupted and as you reset you're like, I think, we want something different, right?
Speaker 3:I mean, you know so yeah, and we want something very different from, from banking and all of that.
Speaker 4:That. You know you guys were involved with corporate and stuff. So well, we're glad that you did. And so now it's been quite a journey over the last just over three plus years. Us, um, I guess, while we're there, you know I I shared, I love to do this leap segment where you know it sounds like, uh, you didn't have to have anybody push you off the diving board, but but there was still probably that time where it sounds like you've been thinking about this and a lot of things are starting to fall into place and you're having conversation around your family and and everyone's getting excited about it. You still had to say like, okay, we really are going to do this. Do you remember? Was there a specific, like you know, family meeting or certain day that you can recall where you were like, okay, this is, we're doing it.
Speaker 2:I think for me I mean again, I've had been self-employed in the past, you know, being in real estate for years and that kind of thing and I'm blessed enough that I have a husband who, who has taken very well good care of our family to where we've never depended on my income. So we've always been very blessed in that and he always kind of lets me do what I want. To a degree, it kind of keeps me reined in in some of my crazy. You know, god gives us our opposites for a reason.
Speaker 4:Yes, he definitely gave him mine Spouse like that as well.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I think that I think for us we'd kind of Abby and I had had a good conversation one day and we just we'd really been like OK, is this really what we feel we need to do and we really feel called to do this? And I think the final thing was when I sat down with my husband and we were like this is what we think. Normally, this point is when he would rein us in. But I guess, when he looked at us and said, if you really feel that this is what God's calling you to do and you really feel that this is what Marian needs as a community, then who am I to tell you? No, let's do it.
Speaker 2:So I think that was finally the final like oh.
Speaker 3:That's awesome.
Speaker 2:So I think we were both a little shocked on that one.
Speaker 1:I wasn't present for the conversation, but I got the text afterwards. That was like we have a go.
Speaker 4:And I was like, have a go. And I was like, okay, I'm quitting okay.
Speaker 2:So I mean that was the final confirmation. Yeah, I mean we joke and say he funded it. So I mean that was kind of the straw, like hey, we're gonna start tapping into some income here that, uh, we were setting aside for other things and now we're gonna spend it. So are we good with this? There went my hawaii trip.
Speaker 4:That was well, this has been so much more exciting than Hawaii. Yeah, that's great. There's been several previous episodes where we've really focused on the fact that without the support of family and friends and I know that you guys have talked about that from the very beginning that these types of things can never happen you know, so I mean, tell me a little bit more about that than you know.
Speaker 4:when you decided and I know that you've said, hey, we had, you know, our whole community kind of came around us and just helped us get this launched in a short amount of time with a steep learning curve you know what did that look like?
Speaker 1:Let's see, it was three months that we got everything ready and put together. Every spare minute that anybody in our family had was working on our original tiny location and it was like painting walls and deep cleaning stuff and it was like 12, 16-hour hour days and people would just come and go. But like that would have been so much longer if we didn't have the extra five, six people that you know just showed up yeah, that just showed up and they would work and they were still going on with the regular lives. Um, the only other one that joined us from the get-go was my youngest sister, hannah, and she was actually still in high school at the time. So she had a little bit more flexibility, she was over there a little bit more, but we homeschooled.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, but everybody else still had jobs. So any spare minute that they had they were just showing up and working, showing up and working, and I think that was what made it possible to open and really eliminate some expenses, obviously in the beginning of not having to delay and put money into man hours that we could do ourselves in that capacity, but then, after we opened, it was still like completely family run. It would be Saturdays when everybody from downtown was like let's go check out the new coffee shop, and it was me, mom and Hannah and we would just be there. It would take us like two hours afterwards to do all the dishes from the day.
Speaker 1:And Mimi, the middle sister, would show up from her job working in the factory and she would just sit there and do dishes with us for hours, not getting paid, not doing anything, just showing up.
Speaker 2:None of us got paid.
Speaker 1:None of us got paid but they had other responsibilities besides their life and soul. At the time, my fiance at the time he would just come and I trained him on the system. He would take orders for us when he wasn't working, like it was just any spare minute anybody had. They were there and that is what made it possible to get up off the ground, like there were the three of us backing it entirely. But other than that, it wasn't enough without them.
Speaker 2:We have been a great support system.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Well, I think that those early days I mean first of all it makes you appreciate everything when you've put in that kind of work, but also I think that it was really refreshing to the community to be able to get to know all of you, to have that consistency of you guys, you know, working the counter day after day in those early days, and so yeah, I think that's what really helped build community.
Speaker 2:I mean because we made awful coffee. Nobody came for that.
Speaker 1:They came because mom chatted to them for hours about their lives and everything like that. They came for mom, yeah we used to.
Speaker 2:I mean, our whole concept from the beginning was not about a cup of coffee, it was more of community. So I think that that's really what did it is is we love our customers, we have the best customer base. It's, it's phenomenal, it's community, it's family. We have customers from the very beginning who came and they still come.
Speaker 2:Right and it's just, you know, it's getting to the point where there's some of them. If we don't see them for a week, we're like are they okay? Has anyone heard from them? They have to tell us when they go on vacation. Because, if not, we'll get a little nervous on why they're not.
Speaker 2:here Is somebody sick, like it really is, more like it's family and community. Our coffee was horrible in, I mean honestly, we couldn't even take a barista class because of COVID. So we literally had an espresso machine that we had just bought, knew nothing about, and a laptop, and you have the 16-year-old. Who's the one who's legitimately?
Speaker 1:sitting there learning how to be a barista, Barista, kitchen cashier and that's what it was every day, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I mean, it really just came down to family, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, there's the saying that people don't buy what you do as much as why you do it.
Speaker 4:And you know, I think that that obviously was what fueled you from the beginning and continues to. So that's awesome, I mean, it's a beautiful story, so let's, let's get into a little bit then. So you had this smaller location and it was consistently busy and cramped both behind the counter and then some days out in the dining area as well, and so I mean we've kind of focused on the remnant piece of it. But then the board B, your charcuterie business. They were sort of co-located there and co-mingled a little bit kind of from the public standpoint, but you were doing pretty much like coffee through the week and kind of charcuterie on the weekends especially although you did that some through the week as well, I know but eventually it got to the point where you were like, okay, this is just.
Speaker 4:you know, we can only knock elbows here for so many weeks in a row and we need to think about expanding.
Speaker 2:So how did that?
Speaker 4:conversation and everything go.
Speaker 2:It got to be where we were just too close. I mean, the catering is really. I mean we've been blessed enough with the catering as well that from the very beginning we stay busy, we're booked, we're busy. We don't even really advertise a lot because we really are just that booked. But it got to be where the space was just too cramped, and not just for us in the back of the kitchen, but even the customers out front, I mean you'd have somebody trying to study.
Speaker 2:at the same time, you have an amazing group of, you know, six or eight ladies, and they're cackling and enjoying themselves, which is what we're about. But, then you have this cute little sweet girl who's trying to get her homework done. So we really kind of was slammed with the fact that we really do need a bigger space for both the front and the back we had completely tapped out.
Speaker 1:On Saturdays we couldn't go past a certain amount of transactions because if you came within the first hour you'd have a seat and then after that it was takeout and you could only line up to the door and then after that it was takeout and you could only line up to the door. So we were completely stalled in absolutely every single direction.
Speaker 2:We'd even broken into— we ended up expanding next door, so we didn't even— For storage.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, we literally—we were—the business next to us at one time. Apparently there was a door there. So we actually ended up running an additional space next door for about six months to a year. That was about a year Because we just completely ran out of room. There was not enough storage room, there wasn't enough refrigerator room. I mean we just we were busting at the seams and actually that's when we had kind of approached you and had said, you know, we need, we need a bigger location. And we so we were looking around, just we need something bigger, we just we can't, we can't keep this up. And then, you know, we just kept sitting back and praying about it, like we need something, either two locations. But we didn't want to really split it, we wanted to try to keep everybody together. I mean, that's what the whole thing is about is family and community, and everybody just pitches in. So I was very torn about if we were to separate, because one of our plans was really just maybe even just move one of the businesses.
Speaker 2:But then, you know, as we're in the process of looking, then we were blessed enough that we found out that there was a building for sale that was coming up for sale and we're like, oh okay, and God really kind of orchestrated that as well so that we could really have a much bigger location, and then it allowed for us to have so many neat nooks and spaces that accommodated every. We were looking for bigger, we weren't necessarily looking for that much bigger.
Speaker 1:We weren't looking for that much bigger, so you went from like what was it like?
Speaker 4:800 square feet to 8,000 or something like that.
Speaker 3:right yeah, pretty much yeah.
Speaker 1:Yes, so yeah, barely half a kitchen to two whole kitchens, yeah.
Speaker 2:It was crazy. Yeah, it Richens. Yeah, it was crazy. Yeah, it just all kind of fell in our lap and we just were like, well, okay, if the Lord's providing for it and he's done it, then we're going to step out in faith and do it, yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so it's been smooth sailing from there.
Speaker 2:Totally yeah. That brought in a whole different level of learning curves it took us a year.
Speaker 1:Once we got the new building, it took us a year, was it? It took us about six months to just get in there and kind of clean it up a little bit and start working on the spaces, because we were doing not major construction, but enough construction that there was no way to open. There wasn't a coffee bar.
Speaker 4:We had to build all of that out, right, right right and there was a couple of businesses that transitioned out Right, right and there was a couple of businesses that transitioned out.
Speaker 3:So those spaces?
Speaker 2:were open and updated and renovated and all of that no-transcript.
Speaker 1:anybody that could show up was showing up and working, but it was that one we contracted a lot out, thank God. It was a much more chaotic time.
Speaker 2:Plumbers and electricians and painters were much easier. But yeah, there was no way we were doing all of that big space Because we were also trying to run the business at the same time. Right, so it just made it even harder, I think, for us, because you know we're still trying to run. You know, at that time the businesses were separated. We had the remnant and then we had the board B, which was our catering side, and so trying to run those two businesses at the same time.
Speaker 2:Now we have the building just kind of brought in a whole different level of crazy for us, so we had to we had to put another learning curve, so it was like starting all over.
Speaker 4:Almost yeah, it was yeah and then so you moved into that space. When was that?
Speaker 2:Exactly Pretty much one year ago.
Speaker 4:About a year ago.
Speaker 2:Okay, during the week of the popcorn festival.
Speaker 1:We closed and moved everything over.
Speaker 4:Okay, so it would have been so late September of last year 23.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 4:Okay, so then, and then it's been kind of an ongoing evolution since then?
Speaker 1:Yes, you kind of moved in and then continued sort of updating and expanding and renovating, moved things like 15 different times around to try to find the best way. We thought we had it all planned out.
Speaker 2:You know, we literally built this. It's all those other layers though like you know, dealing with the fire code and the health departments, and so it's those learning curves that you get, that you think in your mind this is how it's going to be, and then, when you get in there, you're like, oh, hold up. And then when you get in there, you're like, oh, hold up. The whole thing has to change. Well, there's also the customer feedback part of it. Yes, absolutely yeah that's been a lot.
Speaker 4:Where you're realizing yeah, how are the customers interacting with the space? How is the flow of traffic? Where do people like to gather and where do they not?
Speaker 2:And they don't like stairs Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, even in addition to all of the work we did for six months, we still closed down the last popcorn festival and did even more changes to make the Nooks cozier. Kind of listening to that customer feedback of OK, this is what they're wanting in the space, because overall, that's what we're focusing on the most. We sell coffee, we sell food, we sell other stuff, but we want you to come and sit, and so that was the most important thing to us during this time is like we need to make this space the most inviting than it can be. It's about community.
Speaker 2:If you can't, if you can't be there for your customers and you can't give them the space that they need, then they'll go somewhere else. And and it's not about them going somewhere else, cause we don't really look at it, it like it's more about what do they need? Like, legitimately, it really is customer first and everything that we do. So I mean I think almost every step of the way it has been, a lot of our changes have been feedback and it's not just what one customer says.
Speaker 2:We stop, we listen. When we hear multiple times, then it's like okay, it needs to be addressed yeah, so, yeah.
Speaker 4:So, even just before we went on air, here you're mentioning some customer surveying that you did and some specific feedback that you got around some different things. So what did you learn from that experience?
Speaker 1:Open on Mondays. People want coffee on Mondays. So this is this is our first time trying that we're going to see how it goes how it goes, but we have enough of a regular customers that I'm assuming are the ones that fill out the survey that wanted it that we've already seen many faces and they're so excited, so they're grouchy and uncaffeinated. Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:They're like give me coffee. Monday is the most important day for me to have coffee.
Speaker 4:It's their loved ones that are saying really you need to lean on Remnano.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly so. Doing the survey was a great way to help just kind of narrow in on what exactly we were looking to change and to see what exactly they were wanting Besides, just you know them coming in and saying over and over again well, we want Mondays, we want Mondays. And then when we formalized it and filled it out, it was, I think, a 98% open on Mondays.
Speaker 4:Yeah Well, and it's one thing to receive that customer feedback, but then you still got to be able to make that work from a staffing perspective and inventory. Sometimes people use those days off not just for days off. That's what sometimes the public doesn't always recognize, right Is that? Some of those closed days are actually prep days or meeting days or training days.
Speaker 1:That's what Monday was. For us, mondays are ordering. We worked all day, we would order, we would have our office time, we would prep for the rest of the week. So we're definitely still having to adjust, but we're not far enough into it to know how's this going to turn out.
Speaker 3:We're feeling it out.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it to know how's this going to turn out. Yeah, we're feeling it out, yeah, yeah, well, it's important to listen to your customers but, uh, you know it can still be challenging to put some of those things into place. So good for you for making the effort here to to try to make that happen. So so we've talked a lot about, um, you know this, this journey I mean, as you kind of look back now on three plus years of just roller coaster ride what are some of the kind of the highs and lows, the joys and challenges that you'd point to that have come along with the journey. There's a lot of people listening to this podcast that are maybe in business or they're considering going into business, and some of these things are encouraging to hear that others are taking this rollercoaster ride.
Speaker 1:Sometimes yeah, I think specifically of those customers that we have made specific connections with. We see a lot of customers. That's been even more so since we moved into the new place and have just more room. We also get a lot of, you know, out of towners. People just Google like local coffee shop and then they'll go there just to check it out, as opposed to going somewhere that's, um, you know, mainstream or, um, a chain restaurant.
Speaker 1:So we'll get a lot of that, um, and we're here for them, like, don't misunderstand that at all, but, uh, we're here for the people that come in every day, for those ones that make connections. And I think some of the best high moments is when you're able to have, uh, those genuine conversations, uh, with these people. Like I know about their lives, they are friends to me, um, I have these relationships that I wouldn't have been able to have, and I see other relationships between other customers that have formed because of the coffee shop. So it's not that we are this, uh, this new light thing in itself. It's that we're like, uh, an outlet. We, we plug people together.
Speaker 1:And so I think that's probably like the most of the highs. Is there specific instances? I could be here all day talking about different conversations that I've had with some of our customers. Uh, but it's just making those little connections that makes it worth it.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean for me the highs and lows is working with your family, and that's both High and low yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean as the mom and the matriarch here, it's sometimes it's hard. I mean for us, I mean the great thing is is I get to work with my kids every day, even our days off. I mean we, we go to church together and they all they come to lunch, so I mean I get to see my kids every single day. Now we were blessed enough that we did homeschool, so I mean our kids are kind of always used to being with each other every day, all day. So I mean it's not like a huge leap for us, but I mean that was kind of something that kind of prepared us for this and now we have
Speaker 3:to work yeah.
Speaker 2:Now you get paid to do it, but on the flip side sometimes that's also. You know that's the hard thing. I mean being mom who has to come in, and I'm not just mom, I'm boss now. Like, hey, I want it this way and this is the way it needs to be done, and we bump heads a little bit, but we're good about.
Speaker 1:Only a. I mean, I think we have good systems in place to make sure that we let it. There's the work and then there's home and we keep it separate. And that's the biggest thing that's helped is we've been very specific to separate work and family, even though we work with each other, even though we have a different dynamic at work. There were multiple times that you know it's typically me on one side of the fight, between everybody else, I will admit that, but it would be, you know, some of us clashing and we would have to literally look at each other and be like, okay, this is, this is not a work thing, this is a personal thing and we need this is a family thing.
Speaker 1:We need to separate this, and so we have to put that aside and be like. I'm not frustrated with my coworker right now. I'm frustrated with my sister because she's my little sister and she's annoying. So you have to address that and then you just have to put it away until later and then, honestly, it's probably better for the family portion, because then you have to put it away and you calm down a little bit and then you can bring it out. Yeah.
Speaker 4:It's challenging, for sure, and some families, I think, do it really well and some really struggle with it. It's never perfect, no, and we still.
Speaker 2:I mean we have to. Sometimes we'll be sitting there and we'll have conversations and we'll start to do things and we're like, oh, hold up, hold up. There's customers Hold on. This needs to happen upstairs because they think we're upset with each other. We're not. This is a conversation. It's like like, oh, hold on. So it's just being mindful. I think more of of everything we do is looked at. So we need to make sure that we're, yeah, just portraying and you know, and just having our best foot out there, and then let's take care of that in the private yeah, but to compliment that there is something that you have with your family that you're not going to have with everybody else for sure even your other co, other coworkers or customers Like I know that when I'm working or if I need something or whatever, my family's got my back.
Speaker 1:So there is a special element to it when it comes to that that we just work really well together. We're able to pretty much reach other's minds. I mean, we've been with each other from pretty much day one and it does transfer over. So you got to take the good of being family members. You got to leave the bad.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, absolutely so, Jamie. I mean, how do you kind of balance the tension of both in the mom role and in the the boss role, I guess you'd say, with things that you really want done a certain way, with also allowing some autonomy on their parts? Kind of the delegating, or that push, pull right.
Speaker 2:That's been hard. I'm very much a hands-on. I like it my way. But now that the girls have gotten older and they've kind of settled in, you know, to their ownership roles, because I mean, it's me and Abigail but we also have Miriam, who's the third owner. So it's who's the third owner. So it's realizing that, yeah, I may have somewhat final say, but I don't. They're just as invested as I am. They've given their heart and soul to this as much as I have. They've given up on a sacrifice as much as I have. So sometimes I have to be like, okay, hold on. I also need to let them do it and then fail sometimes.
Speaker 2:And that's the hard thing for me as a mom is is letting them try stuff. And you know it's okay to to as the the owner of business owner. He's like, oh, I can see that not not happening or that's good, that's not going to work. I've been there, I've done that. That's but then it's stepping back and be like okay, let them, let them do it, and then if it works, great, if it doesn't, they they're going to learn from it and that's what they need.
Speaker 2:So it's, it's, it's being able to just step back a little bit and let them grow.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Constantly having my hand in there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's. It's been hard, we've we've bumped heads a few times, I mean, but overall my girls are. I'm so blessed that I have such amazing kids. And I said, all of my girls are just fantastic and they all each have their own just uniqueness and their strengths and by letting them each run in the business with their strength, I think it's it's been a benefit for us. I mean, abby is more of that business mind. That's what she went to school for, that's what she has her degrees in and she's really good. And in college she did a lot of the PR stuff. So I mean that's that's her strength. So we let her run with that. And then you know we have Miriam, who is just the organizational queen. I mean she can just operate and run and she makes it smooth and by letting her run in that strength it's just it's been good. I mean just kind of stepping back and like hands off and just let it go.
Speaker 1:Mom's the idea. If you couldn't tell mom comes up with the ideas, and then we all got to try to fulfill some of them, so to implement each, of your pieces. We would not have grown, had mom not come up with every single idea, because we were only supposed to be charcuterie coffee shop, now charcuterie coffee shop, tea market food.
Speaker 2:And it's baby steps.
Speaker 1:Because I mean even the market.
Speaker 2:I mean we've had to put some of that on hold. You know again, families. First my mother wasn't doing well and she was sick for a little bit there and then passed, so for a six-month period the whole family just kind of had to step back and just fill in and take over. So it's just baby steps. I mean I think that's what's done. It for us is not trying to jump in and do everything at one time. It's one area at a time, one thing at a time time, and let's do it right and then, once we get that mastered, then we go to the next thing.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so it's been really exciting with seeing your move, not only your evolution through your growth and evolving the business itself, but also I really think that it was a great synergistic benefit to kind of that emerging block on West Center Street. Yes, you know, because right before you came Spruce and Sparrow opened, then Lulu's. Of course we had the Visitors Bureau that had just established there, max Air then, to have you all come as well and build upon what Brenda had started there with the Charleston Place and with her store there at Southern Accents. But the amount of foot traffic and just community that a coffee shop can bring and then how that complements both ways with event spaces, boutique retail, and just to really see that start to wind up in a good way, I think has been really exciting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree the old location.
Speaker 1:We were very segregated from it, not on purpose or intentional in any way way, but we were the only place over there so, moving over, I've definitely seen a lot of reciprocative um customers and just a lot of people that are like, oh, we came from swiss and sparrow, or they'll be like, hey, where's like a good place to shop, we'll be like, go over there, yeah, yeah. So that has been really nice just to see that little semblance of downtown form and and then just the whole broad spectrum of oh, this is, this is downtown, it's, it keeps expanding and it keeps growing, which is the different businesses.
Speaker 4:Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, I mean that's really kind of a little smaller snapshot of what you know we're really trying to do in the downtown as a whole to see the cooperation and collaboration between the various retail and food and event businesses that are all kind of working together to put on, you know, some of these larger scale events as well as just be advocates for one another you know, that if somebody gets a customer to try to you know, gently nudge them to go try some of the other places and get out of their comfort zone.
Speaker 4:because we're all kind of creatures of habit. Sometimes we kind of, you know, we figure out something that we like with our routine and then if we can help people expand their horizons a little bit, that can be really great.
Speaker 1:So find all the hidden gems, because there's a lot of them now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's only getting better.
Speaker 4:I mean, yeah, I agree with that. So you know, as you look forward, tell us a little bit about some of the plans that you have to continue to expand and grow your business and then how you kind of see that fitting in with the larger downtown Marion picture in general.
Speaker 1:I think what we bring to downtown Marion is obviously just a place for people to meet. So we see a lot of faces and they're able to come in here and then they are going to the different shops. So I'm really appreciative of kind of being a hub for many of the customers of downtown and then they each have their own um places that they end up going afterwards, which has been really nice, and then it's just kind of it makes downtown more of a one-stop shop so you don't have to go to the other side of town where you're going to find everything. Now there's coffee here and coffee is the big draw. Um, you're going to get coffee and then you're going to go shop at all the downtown places. So especially around the holidays it's been really nice, for you can tell people are making days of it to locally come down.
Speaker 1:So they find more draw, knowing that they can get, you know, fun little treats or coffee or something like that while they go to shop at all the downtown. So I think just bringing the small piece that we do to downtown, I'm really happy for and really appreciate that there are other businesses established that we're not the only one down here now too, so it's not that they're just coming here. They were also riding on their customers too that they were already coming down here. Well, now they're going to grab a coffee.
Speaker 1:They were already going to shop there, so now they're going to come over and shop at ours. So it's been really nice just being a part of that community and I feel like the overall community of the shop owners has been really nice to be a part of as well. They're just super responsive and encouraging within that capacity, I think.
Speaker 4:Yeah, anything to add to that, jamie. No, I think she's going to discover a lot of it, Anything that you can tell us that are in the plans for the remnant specifically. I'm not trying to put you on the spot but, anything that you're working on, Guys come on down.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's exciting. Come on down Get coffee on Monday, I think right now.
Speaker 2:I mean mean we've done a little shifting again within the building. We had a lot of customer feedback as far as they they love the juicing and the smoothies and stuff upstairs, but they didn't want to go upstairs. The stairway is definitely a an issue. Um, and then our catering is a little crazy. Um, it's been blowing up quite a bit. We've done a lot more catering, um. So we just we kind of had to do some shifting of some spaces and so we moved some of our stuff downstairs, downstairs and then we have just the space upstairs for catering. But I mean, I think, as far as plans is, is our plan overall would be to you know, we're trying to get that market grown. You know, dealing with a lot more of just the sensitive foods, like you know, the gluten free, the, the options. You just can kind of have that more of a focus because, it's needed in the community.
Speaker 2:We see the need, we have the need ourselves within our family. So we just we feel like that, that's just something that's needed. So we would love to grow the market a little bit more. I think, abby, we were going to bring in the refillery, so that's in the works.
Speaker 3:These are all things we were hoping to get up before the good fall holiday, but you know again we just had a few setbacks, a little bit, so we're going to be bringing in the refillery.
Speaker 2:So that would be the only other two things right now that we're going to kind of focus on within what we have and then we just continue to grow our catering.
Speaker 2:We actually brought the businesses together. So one time they were separate. We had the remnant and then we had the board B and then, now that we're at the new location, we just found that people were just too confused. They would call the remnant one in the catering they. You know it was just. It was sometimes a little bit confusing that we are. They were two separate businesses, um, so we have actually now just incorporated them into one, so now it's the remnant catering, so it's just all in one. It's one place. That it makes our backend a lot easier too just as a business side of things.
Speaker 2:It just makes things flow and staffing is a lot easier because I can pull from her staffing if I need it. So I mean, by merging those together it's kind of so. Now it's just that kind of reshifting people within it to make sure we're where we should be and then growing the other couple of areas that we want to grow by the end of the year. And who knows what next year holds. We'll have our planning meeting for that in January.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Good, yeah, that's exciting for sure. As you were kind of talking, it came to mind as well, like obviously you're not the only coffee place in town and, being the size of city that we are, we have a lot of chain coffee. You know kind of the big boys that you're going up against. I mean, how do you view that? You know in terms of how do you differentiate from those big competitors, and you know how do you view those kind of big boys in the market.
Speaker 1:Do you want to say how about that? I can, if you go ahead. Okay, well, to be super blunt and honest, we understand that we both serve coffee, but we're aware that our mission is completely different than what theirs is. So, while they are a competitor, they're not really a competitor. We're not going to be able to compete with a drive-thru. We're not going to be able to compete with a drive-thru. We're not going to be able to compete with the fast, not consistent coffee that they're going to serve.
Speaker 2:We are here for the atmosphere.
Speaker 1:We're here for the community. We do serve coffee. That is a side effect. That is just what the customers want. We are here for the space. So, while we do have the competition you know of Starbucks and stuff, we realized that there is a level that we're never going to touch and we don't want to touch that because that's not our game. Our game is creating the community and the meeting places that happen to revolve around coffee, and I think that makes it a lot easier when um looking at them as competition or anything like that. Like there, there's just some things they do and there's some things that we do and they're not the same thing. So you're not going to go into Starbucks for the vibe or sitting down or something like that. You're going to go through the drive-thru, but you're not going to come to us for a two-minute coffee that you pick up on your way to work, unless you're super dedicated and you plan to come in.
Speaker 1:We do have those people, but every morning we know that we're not going to compete on that level and that's not our game, so it's okay. Um, as with, like the other local coffee shops, marion does have such a big um population that it's amazing that we're able to support, uh, multiple local coffee shops, and I wish that there would be more coffee shops that we could have that would combat the fast pace of the chains that it's like, hey guys, let's bring it back to the real meaning of coffee and meeting like a meeting house instead of just running through to get your caffeine fix. So I really appreciate the effort that they're putting in and we're kind of covering our different territories and I love that and I appreciate that Marion is able to support all of that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Cause the other coffee shop in town we love. I mean they are amazing ladies, and I mean they have. They're the same pool that we are. They have the same mission and the same heart and we support each other. And people think it's crazy because they'll hear us talk and we're like, oh, did you, did you have you got it? Their chicken sounds amazing. Like I love you know, when Carly makes me my drink, just the way I like it, like it's. It's that that love for community that we both have too. So even like even the only other coffee shop, that's similar to us.
Speaker 2:I mean we love and support them and I think that's what Mary needs is more of that it's yeah, I mean there's a McDonald's and a Wendy's and a Burger King on every corner. We can have a few coffee shops in every corner.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's fighting your niche.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, very well said. I totally agree. I think that it, you know, competition can be friendly. Yeah, absolutely, and you know, and, like you said, each has their own niche and their own market that really resonates with them. I mean, you know, there might even be people out there that you know, maybe they would they like this thing and you're not that thing. And you know.
Speaker 4:I mean, we all have those customers that resonate a little bit differently and, as you said, with a town our size there's certainly plenty of room for other players. And especially, hey, we like the local guys. So I'm with you that even if there was another to come along at some point, if it's a local one, we can take a little market share from some of the big boys.
Speaker 2:And they'll still be just fine. Yes, yeah, so yeah, I think just do what you do and do it well, and don't worry about everybody else. I mean that's kind of been. Our motto is as long as we keep what we're doing and we keep our consistency and sometimes competition's good, it keeps you at your a little bit better of a level. You know if you, if you're the only place some on it, just it keeps you sharp keeps you accountable.
Speaker 4:So competition can be a good thing as long as it's not, like you know, right next door and a little too much like some of the places. Yeah, yeah, that's, that's really good, really well said. I think that that's a, that's a great attitude, you know. I think that you guys have certainly shown that. Just know what your purpose is, your why behind it. Do it with excellence, learn as you go, Iterate, you know, don't be afraid to say, hey, we, you know we're. We reserve the right to get better as we go. We, we didn't have it all figured out in the beginning, but we're, we're trying to get a little better every day. So, yeah, that's really, really great.
Speaker 2:Even now, I mean we still there's plenty of room for improvement and growth.
Speaker 4:So yeah, yeah, absolutely. I always ask maybe something comes to mind if there's been a particular resource that you found to be particularly educational or inspirational along your journey of learning small business and family business and all of that. Is there anything that specifically comes to mind?
Speaker 1:and family business and all of that. Is there anything that specifically comes to mind? We have a family that used to live in town, that now lives in Arizona, that opened a coffee shop with a similar mission to us. Yeah, so they're actually probably our number one contact, so basically like a coffee shop mentor almost. So I think, we reach out to them more than anything. And then there's multiple Facebook groups that I know you're a part of, yeah.
Speaker 2:There has been a lot of good wealth there being just in the right groups where you can ask questions and learn from other people who've done it. We're also blessed that. I mean, my husband has a business mind and that's what he does for a living. So even though he's not a big part of it, the everyday running, he's the one on the back end going. Oh no, do this fix this? Change this?
Speaker 2:I mean with what he does for a living he has really good insight and he can kind of guide us from the back Like, hey, this isn't doing great, how do we fix this? And you know he's the one who's got the mind of, oh, where's your margins, where's your at not working, what are we doing wrong? And then he can look at it and be like fix this, do this. I mean that's been a big help as well, just having that network of family and people.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah, Really good, really good options there in terms of just relationships with people that are doing it and other places We've had other guests and I mean I always encourage that as well. Find somebody that's doing the thing that you do in a different market. You're not competitive then in that case, but you probably have a lot of the same challenges. You're probably able to learn from each other and those are just hugely helpful, and obviously you spoke to that and the Facebook groups are a great idea too. I don't know that that's anything that anyone's mentioned specifically, but I'm sure equal parts education inspiration there as well, Because, again, sometimes it's just comforting to know that someone else has the same problem as you, that you're not the only one.
Speaker 2:This is common.
Speaker 4:miss you that you're not the only one, and sometimes if there's a hundred or a thousand other people that are in a similar scenario and they're like, oh yeah, we have that problem too. Oh yeah, we've got that problem customer or that little hiccup in our operations, and you're like, okay, we're not crazy, and maybe they've got some ideas too on how we can fix it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just having again. That community comes down to your own community too.
Speaker 3:It does yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Well, this has been so great Lots of nuggets you guys have shared and it's been so great to hear your story and just recount the journey of of what has brought you here today. We're so thankful to have you guys in downtown Marion and the the passion that you bring to your business and the community that you bring, and the way that you're trying to invest also in the other businesses and in the downtown as a whole. I know that we are very aligned on that mission and so I appreciate that, before we go if again, if somebody is out there and they haven't walked through your doors before, or maybe they haven't been there in a little while and things have changed share a little bit more about where they can find you, how they can find you on the Internet and all of those other places too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we are on Facebook, instagram and we do have a website, so it is the Remnant Tea and Coffee. This is our logo. We do have a website, so it is the Remnant Tea and Coffee. This is our logo. And then our website is thereminantdowntowncom. There is another coffee shop in Indiana called the Remnant, so don't confuse us please. So thereminantdowntowncom.
Speaker 1:You'll be really out of your way. Yeah, yeah, you'll be driving a while, let's see. That covers social media. Our address is 18 87 West center street. We are located inside the Charleston place uh, along with Southern accents boutique and a few other different shops and store things going on in there and uh.
Speaker 2:I have a lot of local vendors too.
Speaker 1:So, yes, yes, a lot of different local, local people, so you might also see a bunch of other people that sell their stuff in there too.
Speaker 4:So if you're looking for us, not just for coffee, they've got that in there too, and your newly expanded hours are now Correct.
Speaker 1:Monday, tuesday, wednesday we're open 7 to 2 pm. Thursday and Friday we're open all day from 7 to 8 pm, and then Saturday from 8 to 3. So please come see us, very good, okay, well, jamie Abby, thank you again.
Speaker 4:Thank you for being with us here on the Main Street. Reimagined podcast.
Speaker 3:Thanks for listening to the Main Street Reimagined podcast. To learn more about Main Street Reimagined Henry Development Group or our work in downtown Marion, ohio, please visit MainStreetReimaginecom If you want to connect or if you know someone who we need to interview. Shoot us an email at info at MainStreetReimaginecom. Until next time, keep dreaming and don't be afraid to take the leap.