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Lori Broesamle

"Not really shutting down, but moving online," is how specialty shop Lori Broesamle describes her decision to close her South Washington store, Mia Mahalo. Chatting with me over an organic coffee at Sugar Kisses Bakery, Lori rather regretfully reviewed her experience as a Royal Oak downtown retailer since 2003, after moving here from Plymouth where she owned a bead shop for six years. Mia Mahalo carries organic products from baby clothes through skin care to mattresses.

Asked to describe what she experienced when she came to town, Lori collected her thoughts out loud: "The landlord was great. . . . Since I was making no real changes to the space, which had been vacant for two years, I didn't really get involved with city hall, but it took them a year to issue my merchant's permit. . . . The DDA proved not to be a supporter of retail. . . . Downtown Royal Oak is experiencing the benefits and the problems of being a party town."

Why did Broesamle come to Royal Oak? What's it been like? "Downtown Royal Oak looked as though it was shifting to an environment in which traditional retailers would thrive," but it didn't work out that way.

Why not? 
Again, Lori collected her thoughts out loud: "Nobody -- not the DDA, not city hall, not the many landlords -- put any effort to encouraging, promoting, retail. . . . The restaurant people do their own thing, but they have no interest in retail. . . . DDA does no real event planning. . . . Because downtown has become a party town, retail-focused foot traffic doesn't develop. . . . This may not be the place to sell organic products because the party crowd has other values, and party towns support party stores -- look at the clothing; would you buy clothes there?. . . . all of which is also negatively affected by Michigan's depressed economy, compared to the rest of the country.

I first encountered Lori three or four years ago, when she was one of several retailers -- long-timers and newcomers -- who tried to rejuvenate a downtown retailers association, having given up on the DDA. There was a burst of activity when the DDA seemed to be paying attention and appointed a couple of the retailers to a promotions committee; then the committee stopped meeting and seems to be dissolved.

Acknowledging that the state's depressed economy is a contributing factor to the discouragement being felt by many retailers, Lori offered several observations. Among them, in no particular order:

• The City "has too many rules." Mia Mahalo has been among those local retailers who occasionally served free alcohol to customers. "It's done all over the country. There was never a problem." What problem did the city commission see which caused it recently to ban the practice, without having to jump through bureaucratic hoops?

• Landlords should form an association, not to fix rents but to work to get city hall to lighten up and to encourage the DDA to think about something other than developing bricks and mortar.

• Retailers don't socialize among themselves much these days. They're getting burned out.

• Condo-dwellers haven't yet made a difference in generating the retail mix that's needed -- drug stores, dry cleaning shops, eye glass stores, small food markets, and the like.

• A way must be found to create a balanced downtown. As long as you have more bars than retailers, the market will support a few shops carrying "club clothes," not grown up clothing.

• Parking problems are just a normal part of having a dynamic downtown.

• The city needs to listen to the young people to determine their wants and needs.

I asked Lori what her plans are for after she shuts the Washington store.

"Going through this is a bit like going through a divorce, so I'm taking it one day at a time, and will decide what to do next after this is taken care of." Aiming toward a late June deadline, she has her website. www.miamahalo.com, "but the customer has to come to the store to get sellout prices."

Moving out of state has been suggested to her, to escape Michigan's economy, but there is the personal/family dimension to consider. Her husband operates a client-based business with four others in his office.

On a lighter note, I ha suggested meeting in my usual place, Hagelstein's Bakery, but she countered with Sugar Kisses, which serves organic coffee. When I joked about being forced to drink that organic stuff, Broesamle said, "I can't imagine why someone would not want to be healthy." -- FJV 07 Apr 06

My quiet conversation with Broesamle came at the same time that I was being bombarded with much louder complaints about working with city hall from a mix of architects, property owners, commercial tenants, and construction contractors. I'll write about that later.

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