Michael Powell, president and CEO, and Print Cates, director of franchise operations, couldn’t be happier with their 18-store enterprise, Powell’s Sweet Shoppe. The themed stores deliver a moment in time, 5,200 different candies, and perma-grins all over the West Coast.
The minute Print Cates walked into Powell’s Sweet Shoppe in Windsor, Calif., he knew he found his calling. “I quit my job that day,” deadpans Cates, who is now Powell’s director of franchise operations, and is responsible for all store openings, training, décor, merchandising programs, and product selection. Cates, who previously worked retail at Home Depot, exudes energy and creativity, and it shows in all 18 independently owned franchise locations and the corporate website, www.PowellsSweetShoppe.com.
Customized Looks
Each Powell’s Sweet Shoppe in California, Colorado, Oregon, and Idaho has its own flair, and nearly all store owners live in the same town where their shop is located. Cates works with each franchisee to source every last display fixture and store prop. “We integrate a franchisee’s interests throughout the store so they can lead customers around without the candy,” says Cates.
Randall Emry, co-owner with his wife Victoria, of the Laguna Niguel, Calif., store, is a pilot, and worked in the automotive industry, so there is a toy pedal plane hanging from the ceiling with the couple’s photo in the driver’s seat. A 1939 Tokheim gas pump doubles as a merchandiser, and a 1956 Chevrolet panel truck with Powell’s logo painted on it sits outside the shop. The owners of the Chico, Calif., store, Nancy and Hal Carlson, spent 25 years in the agricultural industry, so Cates plopped a red tractor on the sales floor and it’s now a can’t-miss product display. Also in the Chico store, a large, antique almond scale is stocked with Wonka products.
In preparation for their five major holiday seasons—summer being considered a fifth major holiday at Powell’s—store owners deck out their digs with copious holiday decorations. “This past Christmas in the Bend, Oregon, store, the beautiful, old-fashioned stamped ceiling was dripping with snowflakes and lights,” says Cates who adds that he gives store owners pictures with seasonal decorating ideas to help them. “I don’t care if they go to the dollar store to find [decorations]. Many are gun shy at first, but what typically happens is they then go out, shake it up, and end up sending me photos of their decorating schemes.”
Microsections
Within each store, Cates creates what he calls “microsections,” which are vignettes made up of seasonal or novelty candy items mixed in with everyday items. Once a microsection has run its course, such as Mardi Gras, all items from the vignette go back to their “zones.”
Cates tells store owners to squint their eyes in the store to help them pull together a microsection. By squinting, stores owners can scan the store to find items by color vs. brand. For instance, a Thanksgiving microsection could be pulled together with obvious Thanksgiving novelty items, plus yellow-, gold-, red-, and brown-packaged everyday candy—which are easier to find with a quick squint.
The most recent microsection, “Bacon,” has become a shining star for many Powell’s locations. “There are so many pig- and bacon-related items out there,” says Cates with a laugh. “Bacon lunch boxes, pooping pigs, bacon tooth floss, you name it. Those items could be in different areas in the store, but when you bring them together, it’s so fun … and elicits that ‘need to buy’ feeling.”
Other microsections include:
- April Fools’ where gummi eggs and bacon are a hit;
- Mother's Day, Father's Day, Grandparent's Days, Groundhog's Day, Back-To-School, etc.;
- Local Themes, like high school prom, town parades, and seasonal city events.
Each store has its own permanent sections, too, such as:
- International chocolates,
- Gelato,
- Nostalgia,
- Theater boxes,
- Bottled soda,
- Custom chocolates/truffles.
Stack It High, Watch It Fly
“I merchandise from the ceiling down. I call it ‘layering,’” says Cates, who deals in dollars per square foot. “If I stack products on top of more products on top of more products, I triple my sales per square foot.”
Layering is a technique Cates learned while working in grocery, where end caps are all about maximizing a small sales space. “The customer has been trained, If there’s a pile of something, they automatically think it’s on sale,” he says.
There’s an art to layering at Powell’s, and a key component is the silent salesman: manufacturers’ counter display boxes. Rarely are big display shippers or metal displays used, but manufacturers’ smaller, colorful counter display boxes add to the organized chaos in each store.
“Our tactic is to keep it edgy,” says Cates who has his franchisees constantly asking themselves, “How can I entertain my guests?” To that end Cates like to “shake things up” by creating new microsections, reconfiguring permanent displays, coming up with new in-store promotions, and bringing in the latest everyday and seasonal candies.
At Powell’s “Keeping it edgy” also means “cutting edge.” Cates scours the trade show floors, and calls on manufacturers and brokers before product catalogs drop to get scoop on the latest merch before anyone else. “We’re trendsetters and are always looking for the newest, latest, and greatest,” says Cates. “We like to have things no one knows about yet.”
In the event an item won’t sell, no matter how it’s stacked (typically a ripe seasonal item), the general rule of thumb at Powell’s is to start with a 50% percent markdown for two days, a 75% markdown on days three and four, and a 90% markdown until it’s gone. “I tell retailers to get it out. You don’t have time to deal with slow movers,” says Cates.
Special Events
Birthdays do not go unnoticed at Powell’s. Each shop offers “Sweet Birthdays,” and all partygoers receive a candy scavenger hunt map with pictures of more than 30 pieces of candy that need to be found in the store. Children keep their candy booty and the day is topped off with scoops of gelato from Concord, Calif.-based manufacturer Café’ Classico. Three Powell's locations (Chico, Calif., Healdsburg, Calif., and Laguna Niguel, Calif.) have dedicated party rooms.
During summer, the flagship Windsor, Calif., store hosts family movie nights every Tuesday in the five-acre “Town Green,” which faces the shop. Fifteen minutes after sunset, ushers from Powell’s come out to take soda pop orders and deliver them from old-fashioned serving trays. (The most-ordered soda is the Dublin Dr. Pepper, the original formula made with cane sugar). Sodas come from the store’s retro soda section where everything is bottled in glass.
Eastward Bound?
Powell and Cates are currently in cautious expansionary mode and say they want to make sure all of their programs are running smoothly before adding additional franchise locations. “We’re not going to be the next Krispy Kreme statistic,” says Cates. “Our model will be here for a lifetime, so I have a lifetime to do it.”
Over the last year, on average, one store opened every 45 days. Each store’s build out costs approximately $350,000, not including the initial $30,000 franchise fee or $90,000 worth of start-up inventory. Each store also pays a royalty fee of 6% of gross revenue, plus an advertising fee of 2% of gross revenue.
While it’s not a cheap investment, Powell and Cates both say they get requests almost daily from entrepreneurs wanting to open stores and have a long waiting list ready for when they head back into franchise mode. In addition, three existing stores are now scouting sites for second locations.
“The stores are my babies,” says Cates, and he’s not exaggerating, even though he has three kids of his own. Both Powell and Cates have found their passion melding candy and community … and in the process they’ve created a unique, people-first franchise that’s got no end in sight.
Shoppe Talk
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Average Number of Different Candies Stocked in Each Shop: 5,200
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Average Store Size: 1,800 to 2,000 square feet.
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Tagline: “Life Happens at Powell’s.” Powell’s Sweet Shoppe proudly sells memories first, candy second.
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Fragrance Free: No colognes or popcorn are allowed in stores to keep the sweet smell of candy untainted.
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Buying Behavior: According to Print Cates, Powell’s Sweet Shoppe’s director of franchise operations, the majority of customers circle the entire store first and then start buying. Apple buckets serve as shopping bags.
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Cameo: Megan McDonald, author of the award-winning children's series “Judy Moody,” featured Powell's Sweet Shoppe in her book, Stink and the Incredible Super Galactic Jawbreaker.
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Book Deal: Powell’s Sweet Shoppe is soon to release its own book, Spy Candy, featuring the adventures of the Gumshoe Gang. The children’s mystery book will be sold in all 18 Powell’s Sweet Shoppe locations. “Barb [Giddings], Michael [Powell], and I are writing the book and it is being illustrated in Fun with Dick and Jane genre,” says Cates. “We have vendors that are being written into the book such as Pez, Annabelle Candy, and Flicks, to name a few.”
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Super Sweet Story: While watching Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, which is on a constant loop at all Powell’s Sweet Shoppe locations, two customers met, fell in love, and eventually tied the knot.
First Birthday Bash at Laguna Niguel Store
On Saturday, June 20, 2009, Randall and Victoria Emry, owners of Powell's Sweet Shoppe in Laguna Niguel gave their first 1,000 customers a free Nestlé Wonka Bar in celebration of the store’s one-year anniversary. By the time doors opened at 10 a.m., 700 customers were waiting in line. Five of the 1,000 bars given away contained a golden ticket good for a year of free candy (a store gift certificate with a monthly allowance) and a Wonka Golden Ticket T-shirt.
“The first little girl who won ran in circles. She was so excited,” says Victoria Emry.
As part of the celebration, the Emrys rented a Jelly Belly costume, offered face painting and cotton candy, and held hula-hoop and bubble gum blowing contests as well as a jelly bean guessing game.
To promote the anniversary, the Emrys sent out a press release to local press and sent direct mailers to community members. For their efforts, the anniversary party landed in a handful of local newspapers and on KTLA-TV news and KFI AM 640 talk radio.
A Regional Favorite
“I grew up in Spokane, Wash., so I love the Idaho Spud,” says Print Cates on his favorite candy. First manufactured in 1918 by the Idaho Candy Company, the potato-shaped candy bar has a soft marshmallow center coated in dark chocolate and sprinkled with coconut. It is still manufactured by the same company, and is carried in all Powell’s locations. Not surprisingly, the sweet spud is a mega hit in the Boise, Idaho, shop. |
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