Monday, September 1, 2014

Happy 22nd Anniversary to Sweet Tooth

Today, September 1, is the 22nd anniversary of our owning Sweet Tooth Candy & Gift Co.  On this day in 1992, we stepped into the store at the Farm Shopping Center to take possession of Sweet Tooth from the previous owner whose husband was transferred to Houston, forcing her to sell the store.
On that day my sister Shirley, husband Willie (our business partners at the time), my Mom and Dad and our friend and attorney Richard all gathered to sign the papers and beginning looking at the store with new eyes.
How did we get there?  Along with Shirley and Willie, we already owned 2 laundromats and a cleaners.  Shirley thought that we should get into another business and through the classifieds in the Tulsa World, she found Sweet Tooth, which was less than a mile from where we all lived.
We had never been in retail and really knew nothing about this business.  It sounded fun, it was close to where we lived and we just did it!
The store was a bit "Farm-like" and the previous owner was a gourmet cook, so along with candy, she had a section of gourmet cookware....long before the Food Channel or any other cookware licenses from well known chefs.
The next summer in our Sidewalk Sale, we sold all the cookware and began searching for giftware which we could add to the store.  Many Sweet Tooth customers know that our first big category was Mary Engelbreit cards and other products.  Some people even referred to us as "The Mary Engelbreit Store".
A move across the parking lot landed us in a larger store and our last move to our current location on Harvard about 14 years ago put us in Mid-town and in a purple haven of gifts, jewelry and candy.  Although the walls have been recently painted a sea foam green and Mary Engelbreit is no longer the focus of our gift side, we are still in our Happy Place.
We are taking a big risk posting a photo of Jeff and me outside our first Sweet Tooth store on our Facebook page....as you will soon notice, Fashion was not a big part of our presentation.
So Happy Anniversary to us, to all the staff who have worked with us, to my family which has always supported us and to the thousands of customers who have made it possible for us to spend most of our time in our Happy Place.

Check our photo our on Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/SweetToothOK?ref=bookmarks

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