At first, it would seem like a seamless transition: a candle store moves to the old site of another candle store.
This was the case with GKB Candle sliding into the Shoppes at Grand Prairie location formerly occupied by Yankee Candle.
Of course, things are not that simple in reality. Yankee Candle had a loyal base in Peoria, and when visitors came to Grand Prairie for the national brand, they found something different.
“We had quite a few people coming in looking for Yankee Candle,” said GKB Candle owner Kourtney Greene. “When they found out it was a small business, they turned around and walked out the door. They didn’t even give me a chance.”
Greene’s frustrations with the lack of foot traffic at her new location forced her to close the store this month, after only three months open in Grand Prairie. GKB moved in June from a previous location in Junction City, much to his frustration.
Greene’s tough tenure in business in Peoria taught him many lessons, some harder than others.
From Nashville to Peoria
GKB didn’t start in Peoria. Living in Nashville in 2020, Greene started selling beauty products online when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The idea to start selling scented candles didn’t come until family members had a chance to try them out.
“I started making candles as a therapeutic thing for myself,” Greene said. “I was letting friends and family smell them and taste them and they all said, ‘You should sell these.’ I took the time to learn how to make a candle because there’s a science behind it.”
After moving to Peoria, she began selling her candles at local markets when the COVID restrictions eased in 2021. She often sold her candles at markets in central Illinois, which was enough to convince her to open her own candle shop. candles not only sells candles, but teaches people how to make their own.
“My business is mostly for you to come in and make a candle,” Greene said. “I do events on the weekends, usually themed events like Harry Potter events or fun things for girls’ night, bachelor’s night or whatever. They come in, have a candle, I’ll have a chef come in (and) drinks, that too would be his experience every weekend.”
Greene opened in Junction City in 2022, but the road to opening and keeping her store open proved more difficult than expected.
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Trouble at the new Peoria location
Opening in Junction City, Greene’s store was initially next to Preckshot Compounding Pharmacy. It was later moved by the mall’s owners to a new location, just below the former Peoria Public Schools District 150 administrative office.
A week before the store opened, a pipe burst. As a result, he almost had to start from scratch, because 85% of the store was affected by water damage.
Junction City moved her to a new suite closer to many of the bars and restaurants that call the mall home. Unfortunately, it came equipped with the original HVAC system installed when the mall opened in 1959. After two years in Junction City, he decided it was time to move on.
“My HVAC went out and Junction City said I would have to pay $10,000 to get a new one,” Greene said. “I didn’t have $10,000 as a small business.”
A Junction City official declined to comment for this story.
All of that came in the context of unpleasant interactions with other entrepreneurs there. On one occasion, he said a fellow shopkeeper couldn’t believe the kind of business he was getting and didn’t like what Greene had told him about how he was able to succeed.
“I wasn’t doing anything wrong,” Greene said. “One lady asked, ‘How are you getting all these customers to your events?’ I told him, ‘This is what I’m doing,’ and he didn’t like that.”
Greene also found that his business partners and customers tended to gravitate toward stores with established brands in the Peoria area. Having only arrived in Peoria in 2020, Greene said it was difficult to grow a brand on her own, as shoppers had so many other options.
“When you’re not from the city and you don’t have a solid audience before you open your business in Peoria, it’s very difficult to get the support you need,” Greene said. “My events sold out at first because I was using Facebook ads, but what I’ve noticed here is that once people try something, they don’t try it again. I’ve had a lot of repeat customers, but it’s not enough to keep the lights on.” .
“I refuse to give up”:Peoria company moves to new location after unexpected challenges
Fights in the stores of Grand Prairie
Their move to Grand Prairie came just as their problems with the Junction City HVAC system occurred, along with plans to open a second location. Greene said he restructured his deal with Grand Prairie to ensure he could move there without having to deal with a second surcharge.
Unfortunately, as people expected Yankee Candle and got a little business, she didn’t see the kind of foot traffic she wanted out of the deal.
“Hardly anyone came out,” Greene said. “People coming in, because I was at the old Yankee Candle, it was always, ‘Is this Yankee Candle?’ and I’m like, ‘No, but I’m a small business.’
Before he closed his shop in Grand Prairie, he realized that despite the fact that many people claim to support small businesses, they prefer familiarity more than anything else.
“It’s very cliquey,” Greene said. “If you’re not in the group where people know who you really are, the support isn’t there.”
More:Three businesses are joining The Shoppes at Grand Prairie in Peoria
Tips for those taking the leap
Fortunately, Greene is not going to stop selling candles and his other products. She’s just going back to what made her so successful in the first place: primarily online sales. She feels she made more money doing that before opening her storefront.
“I was making really good money,” Greene said. “I had clients from all over the United States of America, and I even served people in Canada. My experience had been better, just from a financial standpoint.”
However, she doesn’t want her story and experiences to discourage other entrepreneurs, especially people of color like her, from setting up shop in Peoria. His biggest recommendation is for people to have a good amount of capital available when they open, so that some of the bigger problems they’ve faced aren’t as much of a problem.
“If you open a brick and mortar, make sure you have enough savings to get you through slow months,” Greene said. “What I’ve learned doing this over the years that I’ve been doing it, it slows down in the summer here for a lot of businesses. It slows down because people are on vacation. I noticed in June, July, I hardly saw anybody, anybody. I was getting to the my events.After school starts, it picks up in October, November, but once Christmas comes around, it slows down again.
“If you’re going to open something, whether it’s retail or food, just making sure you have enough capital set aside to be able to pay your rent or be able to buy materials or do inventory, that’s the most important thing.”
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