Retailer: Biggest Little Kitchen Store
Owner: Janie Williams
Location: Jackson, Calif.
Founded: 1975
Square feet: 2,600 sq. ft.
Website: biggestlittlekitchenstore.com
In the heart of California gold country, the Biggest Little Kitchen Store finds its riches in family. Just as owner Janie Williams took over the helm from her parents, she now prepares to turn over the store to her two sons, Jess and Travis.
“They are both buying it from me,” says Williams. “They weren’t interested in the store growing up and I never dreamed they would be interested at all, but they gave up what they were doing to work in our store.”
It helped that both her sons met and married women who wanted to live in the Jackson area, known for its gold rush history, scenic roads and wineries. It also helps both her sons have complementary skill sets. “Travis is a go getter and very friendly, so he’s the buyer. Jeff is more analytical, has an engineering background and he handles the books,” Williams says.
Williams herself took over from her parents, who ran the store (then a converted Shell gas station) as a butcher supply shop, with kitchenware on the side. She guided the store through a move to a bigger, better location on Jackson’s historic Main Street, and built up its kitchenware business until The Best Little Kitchen Store has become a local legend.
The store, despite being 65 miles from Sacramento, has been named that city’s top housewares store three years in a row by Sacramento TV station, KCRA. With more than 5,000 skus in store, and over 1,000 of those available on line, Williams and sons juggle tasks of inventory and reordering on a daily basis. They not only supply the store, but also do special ordering for events held at the store. (That rapid inventory turn leads to some frustrations with vendors, for more see the Retail Wishlist blog post.)
These events–demonstrations held in the full working kitchen–for community groups like The Junior League, generate positive word of mouth about the store far outside the quiet town of Jackson, says Williams. She adds the events are her primary method of advertising.
“We aren’t as concerned about selling product at an event as we are spreading the word that we have a great kitchen store here,” Williams says. “Most of those people are not from Jackson, and it is a great form of advertising for future sales.”
And when they get to the store, those visitors find an elegant showplace with roots deep in the Jackson economy. Store fixtures are custom made by a local cabinet maker; windows are stained glass made by another town artisan; and black walnut cutting boards from still another local craftsman are sold alongside locally produced beef jerky, barbecue rubs and the usual round up of homegrown food products like jams and jellies.
Even more local are the owners, with roots in the Jackson community–as well as the business–going back over three generations. While her boys may have been forced into the job as kids, “when you are in retail you spend seven days a week working, and there are no vacations or holidays, so they had to help us,” Williams says. And now she is ready to pass the business to the next generation. “It would be hard for me to walk out right now, but in the next four to five years I will be phased out. And I want to be.”
