MOUNT HOREB — The timing is good for Jeff Luitjens to make a change with his glass bottles of soda and bags of popcorn and kettle corn.
With the space he has been renting for more than four years in this village’s downtown scheduled to get a complete remodel, his lease due at the end of March and the need for a popcorn production facility, Luitjens is adjusting the business model for The Pop Place.
Luitjens, 60, has announced that he is planning to close his retail shop at 213 E. Main St. and take the coming months to focus on his mobile kettle corn business, where the profit margins are much higher. Ultimately, Luitjens is hoping to find a new location that includes a popcorn production facility so he no longer has to buy popped white popcorn and other flavors from the Popcorn Kernel in downtown Platteville.
Luitjens is looking at Mount Horeb, Verona and other communities in western Dane County to reboot his business while the lower level of his building and the building next door will be converted by Kingsley and Melissa Gobourne into Artemis Provisions & Cheese, a $2 million project scheduled to begin later this year and when completed sell locally raised and produced meat and cheese.
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“I think what they’re going to do to this building is wonderful. I think it’s great for downtown,” said Luitjens, as he sat behind the counter of his 750-square-foot shop. “It’s a good time now to reassess and rethink this.”
Luitjens and his wife, Brenda, opened their store in fall 2017 after seeing a similar store in Duluth, Minnesota. To make it happen, they borrowed against Brenda’s 401(k) retirement plan at Springs Window Fashions in Middleton while Jeff quit his finance job at Lands’ End.
When it opened, the shop was home to over 450 varieties of soda from around the country and Mexico, but that number has decreased amid the pandemic, although the selection is still impressive. The store features a number of soda companies from Wisconsin, including Stevens Point, Sprecher and Gray’s breweries; Sun Drop and Sprig’s in Shawano; Baumeister in Green Bay and Wisco Pop in Viroqua. The shop also carries soda from more than 20 other states. Soda is sold for $2.25 a bottle but decreases in price per bottle with the more that is purchased.
Popcorn includes bags of double orange cheddar and double white cheddar, old-fashioned caramel, fruit salad and plain white. The mobile kettle corn operation is set up at local festivals, picnics and art fairs.
About 80% of revenue for The Pop Place comes from soda with the remaining 20% from popcorn. Those numbers need to be at least 60% popcorn and 40% soda in order for the business to be more profitable, Luitjens said.
“The margin is in popcorn,” he said. “That’s where you make your money.”
New local leader for Goodwill
Michele Harris, who has worked for Goodwill entities for nearly 30 years, has been named president and CEO for the Madison-based Goodwill of South Central Wisconsin.
Harris’ most recent role was as the chief mission and workforce advancement officer for Workforce & Family Services at Goodwill Industries of the Inland Northwest in Spokane, Washington. She also served as the president of Good Works, a nonprofit incubated by the Spokane Goodwill.
“I have a huge passion for Goodwill. Goodwill of South Central Wisconsin was known within the Goodwill International network as a strong organization,” Harris said in a statement. “My commitment to Goodwill runs strong and I promise my new neighbors my dedication and partnership in service of their success.”
Goodwill of South Central Wisconsin serves 14 counties and operates 13 stores that support the organization’s mission services like supported employment, job training and supportive housing programs. Its more recent openings include retail operations in Stoughton, Verona and on Sherman Avenue in Madison.
Harris’ accomplishments at the Inland Northwest Goodwill included a 106% increase in mission growth revenue and an 80% increase in the number of persons served, Goodwill officials said. Harris received her bachelor’s degree in workforce education and development at the Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and her MBA at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.
The Soap Opera marks 50 years
The last two years have been challenging for State Street businesses due to the pandemic, civil unrest and development projects that have displaced businesses like A Room of One’s Own bookstore, Community Pharmacy and soon, B-Side Records.
But one of State Street’s oldest retailers is about to celebrate a landmark anniversary.
The Soap Opera, 319 State St., will mark 50 years on March 3 with refreshments, cupcakes from Looking Glass Bakery, giveaways and specials. The business was founded by Chuck Bauer and Chuck Beckwith in 1972 and sold by the couple in 2016 to Sean and Stacey Scannell.
“It is truly an honor to have been a part of the downtown Madison community for 50 years,” the Scannells posted on their Facebook page. “We cannot thank you enough for your love and support over the past 50 years, but we are going to try our best on our birthday.”
The business was founded in a 100-square-foot space on the first floor of a boarding house on Lake Street between State and Langdon streets and had room for an 8-foot-long counter where Bauer and Beckwith sold soaps, hairbrushes, herbs and their artwork. They paid $30 a month in rent and in the summer also sold their products out of a small pushcart at Library Mall.
In 1974, they tripled their space by moving to 312 State St. They remained in the location until moving in 1982 into the current space at 319 State St. They also did away with rent and purchased the building, which has an outdoor garden space in the rear. Buying the building provided more financial security for the business, Bauer, a former president of the Greater State Street Business Association and former chair of the city’s Landmarks Commission, told the State Journal in 2016.