Sleep a hot commodity for Mall at University Town Center store owners
UNIVERSITY PARK -- Getting everything ready for the ribbon cutting at The Mall at University Town Center is proving to be a nail-biter for some retailers.
Training, merchandise delivery, stocking shelves: All of it has to be perfectly well-timed for retailers who want an optimal payoff. That means rainy weather can't slow last-minute deliveries and workers have to be working in synch to get everything done.
Jackie Z Style Co. and Oil & Vinegar -- retailers directly across from one another on the mall's second level -- are sharing in the agony of dealing with unexpected delays from contractors, late deliveries and the lack of sleep.
"I haven't slept in three days," said Scott Palmer, a co-owner of Oil & Vinegar and a Lakewood Ranch resident. Brian Kins of Jackie Z has been at the store 24 hours a day, too, sneaking in five hours of shut-eye Monday night. His fiancee and store owner, Jackie Zumba, hired two nannies to take care of
her newborn day and night while she and Kins are at the mall.
"Really stressed out," Zumba said inside the store Tuesday. "On a scale from 1 to 10, I'm at a 12. It's really hard, but I feel that we're going to make it. I don't know how yet. We're going to work all night and day and not sleep."
As of Tuesday afternoon, Oil & Vinegar's storefront glass walls had yet to be installed, the store's shelves were still being assembled and the eight pallets of inventory had not been unloaded. But Palmer remained optimistic they would be ready for the preview event. During Wednesday's event, the store will have a promotion offering the first 100 customers up to $25 off their purchase.
"It will be worth every stressful moment we've had," said Kandy Kaak, co-owner of Oil & Vinegar.
Both store owners will forgo sleep for at least one more night to be ready for Wednesday's sold-out preview of the Mall at UTC and for the ribbon cutting and grand opening Thursday.
The mall's doors will open at 9 a.m. Thursday, followed by a ribbon cutting at 9:30 a.m. and stores will open at 10 a.m. Entertainment begins at 8 a.m. outside.
Zooming with Zumba
Jackie Z will be the mall's only Sarasota-based full-line boutique, and Zumba hopes she can have her full line stocked on time.
Half of Zumba's inventory is in the store and the other half was expected to be delivered Tuesday. A storm Monday night threatened to soak the boxes of clothes, so she canceled the delivery. By Tuesday afternoon, morning showers were still delaying delivery.
"The moving truck is on its way with more clothes and new furniture," Zumba said with hope.
Shelves still need to be assembled and tightened, glass installed, art work hung and wall finishings applied.
Unexpected expenses arose. And with a month to build a store, Zumba's fiance and his brother Kevin Kinz hand-laid the granite tile on the floor and entrance. Kevin Kinz also installed the mosaic tile by the window.
"Being a local business in this mall is a killer," said Zumba, who closed her Sarasota Main Street shop in favor of the mall location. "It's a fortune to get in here. Everything was so expensive that we didn't plan on. It saved us a ton of money and helped our bottom line by doing that."
Some plans were scrapped entirely. Zumba wanted the backsplash behind her register to feature the Jackie Z logo with a waterfall, but it cost too much. The waterfall would have required her to waterproof the entire store.
She also plans to open a store in St. Petersburg's Sundial in November. Maybe, she said, the deejays pumping music in the store over the weekend will help her find the energy to make it through the UTC grand opening.
"I can't believe we've made it and that I'm going to be open on time," Zumba said.
Finding time to shop at her neighbors' stores will be another story.
"It will probably be 2015," she said, laughing.
Oil & Vinegar
When the specialty store opens in the Mall at UTC, it will be the 19th U.S. location for the Netherlands-based Oil & Vinegar and the second store in Florida.
But the road to opening the 1,300-square-foot location has not been easy for the mother-and-son ownership team. During the last two days, Kaak said she has watched the store get closer to opening-ready. The store's 10 employees -- a mixture of part- and full-time -- were beginning to train Tuesday evening and, by the time the store opens, they will have tried all of the store's products, including the more than 80 types of oils.
"That's the fun thing about this job," Kaak said. "You create tastes as you go along. We want them to come up with different flavors so they can help the guest when they come in. We want them to come up with recipes. Local Sarasota people making recipes."
All of the oils at the store come from small estates predominantly located out of the country, which separates the store from the oil sold in most grocery stores, Kaak said.
"When they taste our oil and vinegar, they will taste the differences instantly," she said.
Sampling the products is encouraged at Oil & Vinegar and, if a bottle isn't already open, they will open it for the customer to sample, Kaak said.
"We don't want someone to get home and find out it is too spicy," she said. "Tasting your way around the world is what it feels like when you come to the store."
The store will have about 40 oils "on-tap" and a circular table in the center of the store for tasting the products.
"It was a world I didn't quite know existed until I walked into Oil & Vinegar," Kaak said.
Despite the last-minute stresses of pulling everything together, the pair plans to open two more stores in the next five years and have their eyes set on Orlando as their next location.
Charles Schelle, Herald business reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7095. Follow him on Twitter @ImYourChuck.
Claire Aronson, the University Parkway/Sarasota reporter, can be reached at 941-745-7024 or at caronson@bradenton.com. Follow her on Twitter at @Claire_Aronson.
This story was originally published October 15, 2014 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Sleep a hot commodity for Mall at University Town Center store owners."