What is the Second Sole story?
We’re going on close to 25 years now. The store used to be close to Kroger and Walmart on 23 South. It was a shoe store since 1897, and that family owned the business until the 1980s. I have all the records from late 1800s on my second floor, from this place selling shoes to people in Delaware.
How has the response been to your business in downtown?
I should have been closed years ago. Eighty five percent of the business I do is online. But I have to have a store front to have an account on Amazon. Couple years ago, I did $1.4 million business on Amazon, whereas walking business I might do $100,000 a year.
There is more demand to shop online. People complain there is no parking downtown, which there is. If you go down to Polaris mall, I guarantee you, you are going to park farther away from a store than here in downtown.
I don’t do any business with Ohio Wesleyan (OWU). I don’t get any athletes in the store. All the new businesses coming downtown, if they think they’re going to make it from Ohio Wesleyan, they’re not going to make it.
Was it a big change from storefront business to online business? Were you reluctant?
Had to. That is the only way to keep my business running.
What marketing strategies have you used to keep storefront business going?
The previous owner had tried every strategy in the world. No one reads the Gazette. We don’t get the Ohio Wesleyan newspaper (Transcript).
Columbus Dispatch is stupid expensive. One time, I placed an ad in the Dispatch and I said, “Stop by Second Sole Delaware for a free $5 bill.” That’s it, free five dollar bill. I gave away no 5 dollar bills. And that ad cost me almost $500-600. It was a nice ad. There is really no way to advertise.
What do you think about Chamber of Commerce and Main Street Delaware?
Main Street is so small. They have 5-6 solid members that they deal with. It’s the same ideas every year and same 5-6 people.
When they bring in traffic for First Fridays and Famers Markets, does that help your store?
I close my doors early on First Fridays. It is shop lifter paradise. Every First Friday, I have to hire extra staff just to keep shop lifters out. I get packs of 10-20 kids, so I hire OWU students to just do that.
How are your profit margins online?
How have you seen downtown change over the years?
There’s always the ebb and flow. You always have businesses coming in and going out. Businesses sign three year leases, and don’t last a year. I just don’t see how small businesses can ever make it with outrageous rents.
People who have lived their entire lives in Delaware don’t know I am here. They just don’t come downtown.
Everyone has the same story. Polaris and Easton have become destinations.
Have you ever considered downsizing?
No, never have. I own the building. My problem is, I don’t have a stairway to the second floor. If you don’t have access to a floor, you don’t have to pay a state tax. So if you look around downtown, most of these buildings don’t have lights on the second floor, because there is no stairway to them. Every year the city comes around and checks if I have a stairway.
I have 1,800 sq. ft. up there and it’s just not being used since almost 50 years. It’s full of displays, records, documents.
And everyone thinks why I don’t renovate it for college housing. It’ll be $50,000 to put a stairway in.
How is the future of downtown looking like?
With the outlet mall coming in, the city will bring in huge tax dollars so they are going to push everything into that. They’re going to want more big businesses, factories. Little man downtown, I don’t bring much tax revenue for them, they don’t care if I exist or not. And I wouldn’t blame them, one little Second Sole store or 65 stores. Downtown is going to hurt.