The greater good x retail =

A different way of doing business

NOVEMBER 5, 2010 11:41 a.m. (0)

With successful careers in hand, June Wilcox, John Hampson and Tim Mesaric sat around wondering what to do next.  There were two conditions: it had to do good, and it had to make money. In that order.

Out of the soul-searching came TimesTwo, a retail business that turns orthodox retailing on its head. Charity is the first goal and making enough money for costs and a profit follows, though with intent the purposes work in harmony.

The concept is simple. For every product TimesTwo sells, the company will give away an identical or similar item to a local charity.  Continue reading...

 

Legacy on Main Street

Sedran Furs celebrates more than five decades

DECEMBER 9, 2010 12:22 p.m. (1)

Stan and May Sedran set up shop selling furs on North Main in Greenville going on 58 years ago.   They still are there, and they are not going anywhere, not just yet anyway.

Along with the Ayers family’s leather store, Sedran Furs is the last surviving retail store of what once was the city’s lively shopping district anchored by the 200 block. Not a bad record of longevity for a couple of New Yorkers who were the first of their families to leave Manhattan for an unknown place and uncertain prospects.

“Fortunately for us, we came at the right time because the city grew and we grew with it,” says Stan. “We’ve always run a very honest business, and everybody knows that.  We are now selling to the fourth generation.”  Continue reading...

 

She's driven by fashion

Shop owner finds a niche in the jeans market

FEBRUARY 20, 2011 1:18 p.m. (0)

When she arrived from Colombia nine years ago, Maritza Hernandez “found everybody loves the Colombian jeans,” so she imported them for friends and friends of friends, literally starting a business out of the back of her car.

From that modest start, the 34-year-old Hernandez is approaching the third anniversary of her own store, Medefashion Boutique, in a strip mall on Wade Hampton Boulevard in Taylors.

She specializes in jeans made in Colombia and Brazil, blouses designed by her and made by her sister in Colombia, body shapers and dresses.  Continue reading...

 

A most seasonal business

Fireworks retailers head into the biggest weekend of the year

JUNE 30, 2011 11:34 a.m. (0)

Are these legal?

A father strolling with his two young children through Joey McCrary’s cavernous warehouse of fireworks on Wade Hampton Boulevard wanted to know.

“Under state law in South Carolina, it is legal,” McCrary replied, adding a caveat.  “You can’t do it after midnight.  They won’t get you for shooting off fireworks, but they can get you on a noise ordinance.”  Continue reading...

 

Augusta Road residents, businesses look to the future

Area just outside downtown aims for balance

DECEMBER 21, 2011 5:54 p.m. (0)

If Greenville’s commercial corridors were family members, Augusta Street would be a family’s well-to-do, quirky aunt.

“Augusta Street is unique to the city,” said Tracy Ramseur, the city’s development coordinator for the city’s economic development department who grew up in the area just outside of downtown and the West End. “There’s really no other area quite like it.”

Augusta has been called the city’s “boutique” with locally owned businesses that have been there for generations, such as Pickwick Pharmacy and The Grey Goose, and businesses that have opened recently, such as Zoe’s Kitchen.  Continue reading...