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Made In Walker
The Made In Walker Podcast connects you to the people, stories, and ideas shaping our community. From local innovators to everyday change makers, we are diving deep into what makes Walker Michigan a great place to live, work, and grow.
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Made In Walker
Beyond the Double Dip: Finding Purpose in Community Service
What happens when a teenage promise becomes reality? In this heartwarming conversation with James Dewinter, we explore the remarkable journey of a local entrepreneur who transformed from a 14-year-old ice cream shop employee to the proud owner of Walker's beloved Double Dip Depot.
James shares the serendipitous timing of purchasing his business in February 2020—just weeks before COVID changed everything. While many businesses struggled, Double Dip Depot's walk-up model became an unexpected sanctuary for community members seeking normalcy. "So many people were just driving around looking for something to do and they'd come by our shop," James explains, highlighting how adaptability and community connection helped his business thrive during unprecedented challenges.
Beyond his entrepreneurial endeavors, James serves Walker as a paid-on-call firefighter, balancing emergency response duties with running his ice cream shop. He offers a fascinating glimpse into how these seemingly different roles complement each other, from applying business acumen to departmental budgeting to creating innovative community programs like "freeze cards" that reward good deeds with free treats. With approximately 275 hours of initial training and ongoing commitments, James exemplifies dedication to community service alongside business ownership.
The conversation illuminates the soul of small-town America—where business owners understand their neighbors' needs, maintain nostalgic spaces that foster connection, and find creative ways to give back. Whether you're a small business supporter, aspiring entrepreneur, or someone curious about the hidden commitments of local heroes, this episode celebrates the community-minded spirit that makes places like Walker special. Ready to discover how you can better support the businesses and services that form the backbone of your community? Listen now and be inspired by one man's dedication to keeping both his town safe and sweet.
Our guest today, you could say is known for staying cool under fire. I'm actually here with James DeWinter. He is the owner of a small business, double Dip Depot in Walker, and he's also a paid-on-call firefighter. James, thank you so much for being here. I know you're busy, so we definitely appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Oh, no problem, it's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, walker. Resident small business owner, firefighter. What does that mean to you to do all of this and achieve so much within your same town? Yeah, you know it's great being community is kind of my expertise.
Speaker 2:You know, I've always kind of been a community guy so I really enjoy, you know, owning the business and also supporting the business and the community by firefighting through Walker.
Speaker 1:And we'll get into all of those details a little bit. First let's talk about Double Dip Depot. How did that come to be?
Speaker 2:So my journey with Double Dip started a little over 15 years ago. I started there it was my first job when I was 14. And the previous owner, Kevin, hired me, and day one I actually ended up telling him I would own it someday and buy it from him and never really actually believed it to be, true, but it did.
Speaker 2:So I started working for him, learned everything. He taught me everything about the place. So any questions with business, I was able to talk to him. I was able to learn all the product, all the suppliers, all a lot of the salesmen's I, you know, was around and you know, anytime I had business questions cause I always had a business mind I like, okay, I would always talk to him and he taught me everything that I basically know about business and and the ice cream shop.
Speaker 2:yeah, so I worked for him about eight, nine years, uh, until I was trying to find my own career and get out from a part-time job to an actual career, and, and at that time, you know, I had multiple different jobs that, I think, led me, you know, up to this point and provided me a lot of experience for owning the shop. But it came down to him wanting to retire and he kept saying, you know, to the right person, I'd finance them through it. And finally, uh, him saying that a few times I kind of realized is that me, you know?
Speaker 2:And so we still had some funding to figure out, uh and so, but I was able to buy it from him and uh he was able to finance me through it, which is basically the only reason why I was able to actually buy it and uh, yeah, so then I was able to take it over from him, and it's been a joy ever since.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's been about five years, right? So we're looking back at 2020 when you ended up taking that over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, february of 2020. Wow.
Speaker 1:So a month kind of, before everything changed. What was that like? How did you make it through?
Speaker 2:So yeah, covid obviously hit, and when you talk struggles of owning a business, covid was probably one of the biggest ones that I've had to deal with. I've been pretty lucky, I haven't had a lot of issues, but it also isn't a brand new business I took it over so that helps too. But COVID definitely was a game changer. I didn't know a month in what I was going to do. I didn't know if I was going to be able to stay open. If I was going to have to close, I didn't know if I would make it. I mean, I was hoping I wouldn't be in that percentage. That doesn't make it the first year.
Speaker 2:Luckily, with our drive-thru and being a walk-up shop, we were able to stay open and so we were able to shut down the patio, shut down the golf course and then put a lot of restrictions on the inside. So we were kind of playing that by the wing of it and kind of what the health department would say and news would say, and we were trying a lot of things and learning what best would protect us and our customers and we were able to get through and actually it helped us. Covid hurt a lot of businesses and I feel real bad for a lot for all those businesses, but for us it actually helped, because so many people were off and so many people were just driving around looking for something to do and they'd come by our shop and see that it was open and swing in and we didn't even know you were here. We'd just seen you were open. So it helped us a lot. We were busy and we were able to get through, so that was really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really a bright spot in some dark times. Yeah, that's very fortunate. And how do you think being a Walker resident, growing up in Walker, has really influenced how you run a business?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you know, I think any business that lives and grows up in the city that they're in is going to have a lot better chance of succeeding. You know, I mean, we've all seen businesses that come in from big corporations build this building, never go into it, or they they're there for a short time and it's not what the community wants.
Speaker 2:You know it might be, it might be a shake. That's 14, 15 dollars and, you know, very delicious, very good, but also just too trendy and too expensive for the area. You know, talking with my neighbors who are my customers, talking with family who live in the area who come up talking to you know, people on the fire department and in the city and you know all that kind of stuff that I I'm around a lot, they're all my customers and they they're not there, especially when I know them. They're not afraid to tell me what they think, and I'm also not afraid if somebody tells me what they think, because all it does is help me. But so they don't want these high-priced, trendy items, you know. So we try and keep it a mom-and-pop shop. We try to keep prices reasonable and just be able to, you know, provide a good product for a fair price.
Speaker 2:So that's what I've really tried to do.
Speaker 1:Yes, Trying to find time to be a business owner, a father, a husband and a paid-on-call firefighter. You've been doing that for a while. How did you get involved with that?
Speaker 2:Yes, so I started paid-on-call firefighting about nine years ago, uh, so before I owned the Depot, and I was looking at maybe turning that into a career. Uh, once I fell in love with that, I started I use that as kind of a gateway of do I like it? And once I found that I liked it, I was thinking of creating, uh, that as a career until Depot came available, um, but so I started out doing that and it was a great, you know great gateway, like I said to, to see if firefighting was something that I wanted to do or not. And you know, so I was able to do that and it's, it's great. But it also comes with struggles, and so does owning the business, you know, I mean, time management is kind of a big thing. So, and that's one struggle I think most businesses have is time management, because, you know, we're not just the cashier or we're not just the maintenance guy.
Speaker 2:We're not just the accountant, we do it all. And so in order to do all that, that takes time. You know a lot of people will see the shop and see me there a lot and but they might think, okay, he's here when we're, when they're open, but they don't see the running around beforehand or they don't see the billing, you know.
Speaker 2:and then you know even fire calls they don't see the billing you know and then you know, even fire calls they don't see the fire calls that I run at night or in the morning before work, and so time management is a struggle, but you kind of just have to work through that and try to. You know, give yourself time when you can, and my time is, uh, after the kids or after my kid goes to sleep and my wife goes to sleep. That's when I try and get a lot of my work done, but time management is probably one of the biggest factors.
Speaker 1:And do you think that any?
Speaker 2:skills that you've learned as a firefighter helped with running a business, so yes, but more the opposite. So, starting with firefighter to business, uh, I am medically trained as a firefighter and then I also have, obviously, firefighter training, so if something happens at the shop, I'm able to kind of uh help take care of that without you know needing extra help.
Speaker 2:And if a medical comes in, I'm medically trained so I I might, I at least have. And if a medical comes in, I'm medically trained, so I at least have. You know a lot of the basics right away. We can get extra help started from life or, you know, you know our PD and stuff like that. But I at least have some of that training as well and I can start some of those medical. You know, business owner to firefighter.
Speaker 2:I think that's where it helps more because I'm able to kind of give back a little bit through the business. And you know we try and take care of the community a little bit as we can. So we came out with PD and the fire department and then we teamed up with Foremost Graphics and they do our printing for us. But we came out with these cards, these freeze cards, and most of the firefighters and all the cops carry them and so if they see some child typically child, but it could be an adult as well If they see them doing something good, they give them to them and it gets them a free cone or a slush or a free game of mini golf and it's just a way that I can give back and uh, but I also see as the business owner.
Speaker 2:I know you know budgeting and what's needed and wanted and stuff like that, and I'm able to kind of bring that to the fire side as well and understand. You know, when we as firefighters want something or we want more, we might not be able to get that right away because there's wants and needs and we need to kind of, you know, go back and forth on which one's which and you know, so I can understand some of that stuff, but I think you know it's more business to firefighting.
Speaker 1:No kidding. Yeah, Very unique perspective with that. And for paid on call firefighting. For those who may not have heard, what exactly is that? What are you required to do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so the first year of paid on call is probably the hardest. And it's the worst because you get on and if you don't have the training yet, you know you get hired, you have to go through firefighter one and two.
Speaker 2:That's don't quote me, but give or take 275 hours of class time. It's a couple days a week, sometimes three days a week, and so you do that for about six, seven months or so, give or take. And so you do that and then basically from there you start doing trainings twice a month and you run calls at night or in the daytime.
Speaker 2:So, right now we have seven day a week, full time from just before 6 am to just after 6 pm. So they cover a lot of the calls during the day when most of the paid on call guys are at work. But if it's larger than what just a few of our full timers can handle, they'll call in the paid on call as well during the day. But at night it's all paid on call. So whether it's a pin in at night or a structure fire or you know, if our police are busy and tied up and we're running a medical or we have a fire alarm, we handle all of that at night. So we're running from our house or wherever we are to the station and then we go from there.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So you know the difficult factor with that is family time, you know you're with your family, you're eating. You might have people over and a call comes out and we're not looking at how to get out of going to the call. We're typically looking at how to go to the call. So you know I'll be like, okay, we're going, I'm running this call. And it's more wait what? You know, and Right now, yeah, and it's right then you know and I mean somebody's calling for help they need it now.
Speaker 2:So, you know we'll run any time of the night or day, and you know. But yeah, we have one duty week a month, one duty weekend a month and then a duty day a month and then two trainings a month.
Speaker 1:So it's a lot, but it's also not too bad.
Speaker 2:And as long as you're able to manage it you know, it works really good and it's very rewarding. Absolutely, and we are looking for people, yes, so if you're interested, yeah, walkercity, slash fire, get all that information. And then we also post on Facebook a lot too. Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:And with Paid on Call. You all are coming from different walks of life. Maybe you have some engineers. You've got an ice cream shop owner. Yes, you have so many skills that you can share with one another.
Speaker 2:Yep, so, and you know, that's really good in a way, because, uh, even full-time guys that are that are doing 24 hour shifts, I mean they might have side gigs or you know, they've all come from different, uh, different, walks of life and they know different things, and you know.
Speaker 2:so having a variety of people on a call that know different things is a game changer because, I might not know engineering or I might not know this very well, but you know, I know that one of my other guys does, you know, and so you can take opinions from everybody and then build a plan to do something. And that's one of the great things about the firefighting side is, you know there's I've heard that we shouldn't be called firefighters, we should be like an all hazards department, because you just never know what it's going to be. And by having people that are in so many different things like that, they're able to kind of take care of all those hazards.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sam, we are so grateful to have you all in our community. And going back to the small business and that community support and such, what do you think the community and residents should know about the small businesses in our area and how best to support them, especially during these times?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know one of the big things is support local. Local businesses are. You know, they're born and raised in our community, they're based off of us, you know, and so if you can support local, that's the best thing you can do. I understand sometimes it's a little bit more money than you know than going to the big black store or something, but it's better and you're supporting your neighbor or you know something like that neighbor or you know something like that.
Speaker 2:Some of the best ways, I think, to support your business is social media. You know as good as social media is, there's a lot of bad to social media as well, we know that. But you know the good side of it is. You know, if you share their posts, you know, engage with them on Facebook, it really pushes their post to the bigger audience. And you know, engage with them on Facebook, it really pushes their post to the bigger audience, and you know so.
Speaker 2:And then also going to the businesses when you don't think about going to the businesses. So for restaurants, usually we all know Friday nights, saturday nights, restaurants are busy, but some of the slow days for restaurants are Mondays and Sundays, and so if you look around, you can actually find a lot of specials on different days of the week and those specials are usually when they're slower. So take advantage of the specials. You get a little bit out of a special, but yet you're supporting that business when they're slower and they need it most. That you're supporting that business when they're slower and they need it most, and I know that's the key with me. You know, this week it was 70 degrees, it was great.
Speaker 2:But also we have snow on some of the days. Right, and on those days I mean those are days that it's not long lines. We're slower, you know. So on days like that is when you can really support your local business.
Speaker 1:Wonderful to know. And then finally, just looking forward in the next few years, where do you see your business going?
Speaker 2:So I hope the business kind of stays about where it's at. My goal is to kind of keep it as it is. I don't want this crazy fancy shop. I don't. You know, I like the mom and pop ice cream shop. Uh, you know, this kind of got that little bit of rundown feel to it, but you know not yeah, it's nostalgic, we love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, exactly, and you know, as I redo things I'm trying to kind of keep it that way. Uh, I hope to maybe eventually, as I get paid off, put on a little bit little addition, new roof stuff like that, um, so some of those are the changes that I I'd like to make, but that's what time and money and all that stuff and uh, we'll see how it goes. But I kind of want to keep it the way it is because it's just nice and nostalgic, like you said, and yeah, I just it's a good feel.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, james, we are so fortunate to have you, not only as just a resident walker or a small business owner, but for all that you do, to give back as a firefighter as well. Thank you so much for your time today.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no problem, I appreciate you having me.
Speaker 3:Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Made in Walker podcast. If you have comments or questions about this podcast, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. Please drop us an email at podcast at walkercity. Made in Walker is the official podcast of the City of Walker, Michigan. You can find Made in Walker wherever you get your podcasts.
