LS1

Summer 2009

localshops1.com
Find out all about the Web site that’s helping local
businesses thrive despite the recession.
Find out how you can become a part of the
LocalShops1 movement...

Intensity
Academy
See how a home-made
sauce became a
nationally awarded
company with its
original recipes!
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W
e are so happy to introduce you to the That’s how you can help us become an even more
first localshops1.com magazine! comprehensive site for independent businesses and
shoppers.
We hope that you, sitting in a waiting In our first magazine edition, we’re featuring Mi-
room, having lunch in a local, independently owned chelle Northrup, owner of Intensity Academy. Her
store, enjoy reading a little bit of some of the over story is truly an inspirational one.
700 businesses listed in our Web site. She started her company just two years ago, and
And we want you to know how much you mean to she’s already received 21 national awards. Northrup
them, how you make a difference. An article at the St. these days is busy not only creating hot sauces,
Petersburg Times last March mentioned that at least but also teaching other independents how to mar-
15 small businesses and restaurants in St. Petersburg ket themselves. And localshops1.com will always-
have closed within a year, during the economic let you know when, where and how to
downturn. participate of such events.
With so many ownership switching We hope to see you at lo-
hands or closing, we see how creativ- calshops1.com.
ity has been more necessary than
ever to get shopper’s attention. It’s free to browse, free
It’s your money, and your to register, free to get
choice where to spend it. listed.
We are not saying “Don’t
buy at big chains!” Many Help us reinvent
times there is no choice or our neighborhoods,
you might prefer to. Yes, one store at a time.
you you might run into us
at Publix or Target.
What we want to show you
Marisa Barbosa
is the creativity, beauty and
uniqueness that Indies have!
And we want to show you that
shopping at independents can
be quite affordable. That’s why
we have forums on the site, where
businesses— and shoppers — can
list specials, for free.
Let us know your findings and fa-
vorite shops by writing reviews about a
shop listed or by listing a shop that you love.
 LS1
localshops1.com
LocalShops1.com
won a
$250,000
marketing
package!

We are working with Teasdale Worldwide

and will be in Tampa Tribune, WFLA 1040,
Tampa Bay business Journal, TBO.com,
Tampa Bay Magazine and TBO.com!
This is a great opportunity for all
independent businesses in Tampa Bay!
 c o n t e n t s

Ester’s Letter,
page14

LS1 Magazine - localshops1.com

Marisa Barbosa: Writer, photographer, designer and localshops1.com intern.
Xiao Peng Wang: Creative Director Sara Romero: contributing writer and localshops1.com.
Ester Venouziou: localshops1.com founder.
Working in her kids’ school
garden, Michele Northrup
found the perfect natural
sweetener for the hot sauce
—the carrot! Than she
started her own company,
Intensity Academy
 5X7.5
1/2 PAGE
$350

2.5X3.75
1/8 PAGE 5X3.75
$200 1/4 PAGE
$250
A
bout 4:30 pm on March 19,
Michele Northrup’s Facebook
status says: “Finishing the
final details on the Chai Curry
Chup!!! Can’t wait for it to be
released.”
Later she posts: “In honor of the upcom-
ing release of Chai Curry Chup’ offering
my Facebook special. Any 5 bottles for
only $20!!! Just send me an Inbox Mes-
sage w/ your choice 5.”
That’s how Northrup, founder of the In-
tensity Academy, has been marketing her
products lately. Spending one hour a day
on the social network websites Facebook
and Twiter, for the last six months her
pepper sauce sales quadrupled. “What I
like about Facebook and Twitter is that
you choose to be part of a network, you
are not imposing on someone to buy your
product,” Northrup said.
It all started with the vegetable of the
week at her three 11-year-old boys’
school. Northrup came up with a car-
rot based habanero hot sauce approved
by her kids, husband, school parents and
friends.
“Everyone loved it,” she said.
After researching the market around
North Tampa, Northrup realized no one
offered sauces like the ones she created:
they are carrot based (no water based)
and made with all natural and fresh
from Florida ingredients. Michele Northrup shows off her products and the trophy from the 2008 Fiery
Intensity Academy was launched dur- Food Challenge. Intensity Academy received first place under “condiments.”
ing the same year Northrup was run-
ning for the title of Guv’na of Lutz Civ- added organic chai tea instead of wa- Where you can find
ic Association, where the candidate that ter.
raises more money for the association’s
Intensity Academy
Intensity Academy products were just
non-profits organizations takes the title. approved to be on the shelves of every products:
Since then, her company has been linked Whole Foods of the State of Florida, the
with a special marketing to charity. first big company to take them over. Still, Facebook, Twiter (look for
“I don’t pay for advertising, instead, I the only “staff” of Intensity Academy is Michele Northrup);
donate to charity,” Northrup is proud to Northrup and her husband, Tom Was.
say. They develop the recipes at home then
In 23 months of business, these local take to a bottler company in Clearwater, intensityacademy.com
home-made sauces received 21 national never exceeding 100 gallons per produc-
awards, including the Scovie Award for tion to keep the flavor and freshness. Whole Foods statewide
best condiment with the Chai Chipotle
Chup, a sauce that she
A family owned and opperated business in Gulfport that offers full-service landscape and gar-
dening center, fresh produce and locally made honey.

B
By SARA ROMERO
LocalShops1.com intern

anyan Scapes is a beauti-

ful, full-service landscape
design and gardening cen-
ter on 49th Street South, in
the Gulfport-St. Petersburg
border.
Owners Stefan and Lissa Kaschkadayev
offer landscape services, including main-
tenance and installation, and offer a huge
selection of plants, pots and accessories
in their garden center. And of course, all
the products you need to have the best
yard in the neighborhood.
We talked with Lissa about their busi-
ness, products and services. And she gave
us lots of tips, too, especially targeted for
Florida gardeners and property owners,
so you’ll definitely want to keep reading.
Banyan Scapes isn’t the couple’s first
business venture. Lissa and Stefan oper-
ated a landscaping business called Rothe-
man’s, in Rochester, N.Y., since 1989.
In 2001, they closed Rotheman’s and The garden center has a large selection of plants, pots and acessories.
moved to Florida for a better climate.
After taking a little time off from very helpful in selecting what products to Lissa also recommends buying native
landscaping, the couple opened Banyan sell in the nursery and also on giving rec- Florida plants, which can tolerate our
Scapes, which has been operating for the ommendations to customers. weather better. Lissa and Stefan are both
past six years here in Florida. We asked Lissa for tips to help us -- and very knowledgeable and eager to help
Banyan Scapes services residential and our gardens -- survive this tough drought. in any gardeners’ or property owners’
commercial properties. The couple han- She explained that she tries to educate needs.
dles most operations and have employ- customers on how much water they truly Their nursery offers a huge selection of
ees to help out in their rapidly expanding need to water their lawns. Many people plants, flowers, gardening tools, accesso-
business. Stefan is in charge of selling err in leaving their sprinklers on a timer ries and special products to keep lawns
jobs, overseeing landscaping projects, and walking away, rather than monitoring healthy and make it through the drought.
and maintenance; Lissa runs the store how long they are running. Not only does Their creativity and expertise can help
and does most of the landscape design. this overuse scarce water, it also does anyone beautify their residential or com-
When Lissa and Stefan met, he already damage to the lawn. “Lawns only need mercial property.
had his landscaping business. Lissa joined about an inch of water,” Lissa says.
him in his work. It was a perfect match: When grass is overwatered, the roots
With her background in art, she was able get used to getting all this extra water, so
to take the landscaping to a new level. they don’t grow deep enough. That’s not
After moving together to Florida, Lissa healthy, she says. Lissa tells people to wa- Banyan Scapes
and Stefan enrolled in courses at PTEC to ter less often. Ideally, water just enough 932 49th St., Gulfport
improve their business, and they studied to cover the root base And be sure to use a 727.323.5484
Florida plants to gain better expertise on nutracoat fertilizer, which is available in
the unique conditions of the local climate the Banyan Scapes garden center. banyanscapes.com
and their customers’ needs. This has been
 By MARISA BARBOSA
SARA ROMERO contributed
LocalShops1.com interns

F or us, shopping at consignments always

brings nice surprises. Now making a living
out a consignment, that’s an art!

These days, more and more people want to shop at

consignment shops, but might not know where to
go. So we thought we’d make the hunt easier for you
by going around town to check them out, and re-
porting our finds back to you.

At Fantastic Clothing & Much

More, Gulfport, you can find
items at a price range that goes
from $1 to $25
CoCo’s Couture for Designer
Consignment
(1614 Central Ave St. Peters-
burg - www.CoCosCouture.biz
Tel:7272897122)
One of the area’s most exclusive
consignment stores. Anette Desbaillets
opened her store six months ago, after
running a home-based Internet business
selling ballroom dancewear. Why? She
figured having a store was better than
having people come to her home all the
time!
Desbaillets is a ballroom dancer and re-
ally knows design. She knows the needs
for lighter fabrics and models for a better
performance. The handmade ballroom
gowns here are most unique. The selec-
tion isn’t huge, but it’s certainly impres-
sive. Some even have Swarovski crystals
Designers Consigner
(1033 Central Ave St. Petersburg
Phone: 727-894-3326)
Designers’ Consigner is strict in which
brands it accepts, but it still has a huge
selection, from causal to formal.
The store opened 16 years ago and has
built a loyal following of shoppers and
consigners, so there’s always new mer-
chandise coming and going. They accept
brands from Ann Taylor and up. No Tar-
get here. Gap or Old Navy is acceptable
sometimes, depending on the item.
The recession has actually helped the
store. People who before never shopped
at consignments are starting to show up,
because they can find the same high-end
brands they’re used to.
The prices at Designers’ Consigner
are a third, sometimes even just half, of
on them!
“I’d rather have less but good quality,”
she sayd.
Besides ballroom dancewear, CoCo’s
Couture offers consignment women’s
clothing on brands including BCBG,
Escada, Ann Taylor and Liz Claiborne.
Almost half the clothes in the store still
have their original price tags on them,
so you can see you’re getting brand new
styles, but at lower prices.
On a recent visit, for example, we
found a $98 Ann Taylor skirt on sale for
just $45. We saw another outfit, original-
ly priced at $400, on sale for ... $36!
Desbaillets’ store is right next to her
accounting business, where she provides
services to small business owners.
retail for brands including Channel. We
found a Dolce & Gabbana jacket (with
an original tag price of $1,800) for just
$599. Except for some brands, prices
automatically drop after an item is in the
store one or two months.
The owners have good practice in find-
ing out if a Louis Vuitton bag is real,
fake, or if it’s a good imitation or bad,
so prices vary accordingly. One that’s
tough to know if it’s real is Prada, says
owner Julie Karikas, who also owns
Designer Exchange, on 7038 Central
Avenue, St. Petersburg. (why is prada
hard to tell?)
Consignment at Designers’ Consigner
has a 90-day period and a split 50/50%
after the item was sold. The consigner
FANTASTIC CLOTHING &
can get cash or store credit. They
recommend dry cleaning or pressing MUCH MORE
clothes before consigning. 1305 49th St. S
33711 Gulfport
Phone: 727-557-8434
Is a great place if you are looking for
low prices. Owner Lucia Gammage is
from Haiti and offers everything from
dress clothes to casual, for women,
men, children. There are also household
goods. Everything sells for $1 to $25.
Gammage has a great collection, thanks
in part to her family in New York: they
send her things from consignment shops
there!
Spinderella’s Steals-Re-
saleBoutique (6393 Ninth
Street N., St. Petersburg 727-
522-3325)
Jennifer Steele opened Spinderella’s
in October 2007. The resale bou-
tique sells only quality items in great
condition. The store offers mostly
clothing, but also handbags, shoes,
jewellery, candles, soaps and belts.
Steele says she opened the boutique
because, as a single mom, she would
shop at consignment and thrift stores
and thought prices sometimes were
too high. She saw the need for a
boutique that sells stylish, good-qual-
ity clothes at affordable prices. Sequins and Denim
To consign at Spinderella’s, bring
your gently used items. Steele will After being in Downtown St. Pete for 8 years, Sequins and Denim or “a fashionista’s
look them over, decide what she can playhouse,” had to move and will reopen soon on 4th Street and 10th Ave.
accept and figure out what she’d sell The store has been family owned and operated for 21 years. Sequins and Denim is
them for. Customer/consigner gets specialized in Vintage clothing but offers also different styles, and not only clothing
half of the value in store credit. but handbags and other accessories, “If it’s a good piece I’ll keep it on the shop,” said
Spinerella’s carries some of the owner Shannon West.
trendiest brands, including Lucky, It all started in Atlanta, where Shannon West’s mother lived and gained the taste for
Old Navy, Lily, Ann Taylor, Gap, Ba- vintage clothing. “She always had the best outfits and wanted to have her own busi-
nana Republic, and anything Steele ness,” said West, “then she moved to Florida and opened it in the Tyrone area.” Today
thinks looks good, from department West runs the shop with the help of her daughter Ashley Smith, 21, third generation
stores to big brands. We recently involved with the shop.
found a $300 Robert Rodriguez dress To consign clothes at Sequins and Denim, bring your new item or vintage in good
on sale for $60. condition for a 90 day period policy. The shop keeps 50% of whatever is sold, and
what is left goes to CASA.

Ollie’s Treehouse Children’s

Resale Shop
7925 Fourth St. N
33702 Saint Petersburg
727-329-9543
www.olliestreehouse.com
Ollie’s Treehouse Children’s Resale
Shop is the little pink house on Fourth
Street. The resale shop for children has
toys, gear and clothing in sizes newborn
to 14. Sandi Grebe runs the shop with
her daughter Tricia Schmitz and has been
in the location for one and a half years.
Ollies pays cash for items. Many items
generally sell for a third of what it would
retail for. A $150 stroller, for example,
would sell for $50. The consigner (per-
son who brought in the stroller) gets half
of that, or $25.
I
By Ester Venouziou,
LocalShops1.com founder
love to shop. I grew up in
Brazil, and some of my fa-
vorite memories have to do
with shopping, mostly with
my grandmother and my
sister, on Saturday mornings.
We’d go to the produce market,
chat with the vendors as we picked
up fruits and veggies. Then it was
off to a meat market, or to the fish
guy. Along the way we usually
stopped at the newsstand, where
my grandmother picked up the
daily paper and maybe a maga-
zine or two, and, if my sister and I
had had a good week, we ’d be re-
warded with some comic books.
Eventually we’d end up at my
parents’ shop: Importadora Jen-
ny, a fabric store named after my
mom. I was about 8 or 9 then,
and I remember sitting behind the
counter, helping wrap up purchas-
es, talking with the customers.
We moved to New Jersey when I
was 12, and that all changed.
For the next 15 years or so, shop-
ping meant going to the mall or
to the big-box stores. I remem-
ber, when I lived in Jacksonville
in the mid-1990s every Tuesday
was my shopping day. Winn-Di-
xie and Target and Stein Mart
were the regular stops. And then
there was the mall. There were
two pretty close to where I lived,
and I’d go to one one week, the
other the next. I don’t know why
I even bothered to alternate, be-
cause they both had pretty much
the same stores. Every week, I’d
come home with bags full of
things I didn’t need, things
I couldn’t afford. What was
in those bags I can’t remem-
ber. All I know is that shop-
ping had stopped being fun.
There are many reasons
to shop at locally owned,
independent places. Stud-
ies show that money spent
locally, at an indie, is more
likely to stay local. On a
typical November shopping
day, the Tampa Indepen-
dence Business Alliance re-
ports, if all taxable purchas-
es in Hillsborough County Publix or Target some-
were made at locally owned times.
independent businesses in- We just want to make it
stead of national chains, it easier for people to find
wo uld make a $28 million their options, so they
dollar difference to the local don’t automatically
economy. default to the big-box
Economics aside, supporting stores or the malls.
the independents also helps pre- Our goal is to build a network
serve the businesses that link us to of indie business owners and in-
the past, the businesses that ensure die-minded shoppers, and we’re
our communities will retain charm doing that through our Web site,
and character to the future. of course, but also by co-hosting
And shopping at independents is neighborhood parties/fundraisers
just a lot more fun. and marketing/business semi-
We launched LocalShops1.com nars. Former radio jock-turned
in August 2008. We are a small, comedian Pat Largo has been an
grassroots group, dedicate to help- integral part in all this, as our of-
ing promote independent business- ficial spokesman and party host.
es. It’s always free to browse, free We believe in working together
to join and free to get listed. with the media, as well as oth-
We’re not saying, never shop at er business and neighborhood
the chains or franchises. We’re groups, to help our local busi-
simply saying, think before you nesses thrive. We’re all in this
shop. There are times when shop- together.
ping at those places makes sense,
and yes, you might run into us at
 LocalShops1.com is a division of Local Shopper, LLC. We are a grassroots group committed
to promoting locally owned, independent shops. We’re starting out in west-central Florida,
and our goal is to be the nation’s premier directory of independents. We launched in Au-
gust 2008 and, with more than 700 businesses, already are the most comprehensive net-
work of its kind in the area. We’ve been featured all over the news, including the St. Peters-
burg Times, BayNews9, Bradenton Herald, Beach Life, Gabber, 10Connects, WMNF, Times’
Deal Divas, Creative Loafing blog.

...a business owner
Get listed: We offer free list-
ings, including link back to
your Web site. Upgraded
memberships include photos
and lots of other perks.
Join our forums. List special
sales and discounts, or share
your expertise.
Network online. Our more
than 700 shoppers want to
get to know you. Find them
in our social network. Chat,
post photos, join groups. Soon
we’ll add videos, blogs, instant
messaging.
Network in person. Come
to our parties and seminars
to share ideas and learn new
things.
Host a party or fundraiser
with us. We work with busi-
nesses to plan parties and char-
ity fundraisers. You provide
the space, we do the market-
ing. We get businesses to work
together and keep everyone’s
costs low.
Restaurants donate
food, retail shops pro-
vide discounts and raffle
prizes. We can do small-scale
events, like wine and cheese
parties for 10-15 people, and
large-scale events, like city-
wide clothing swaps that draw
hundreds of people.
Read our e-newsletter. We’re
always networking and finding
cool ways for you to promote
your business.
... a shopper
Win prizes. Check out our
monthly contests for chance
to win great prizes from in-
dependent businesses. We’ve
given out gift certificates for
swimsuits, yard decor, cigars
and lots more.
Add your favorite stores.
Our directory lists more than
700 independent businesses in
the Tampa Bay area. But we
know there are tons more. If
you have a favorite, you can
add it. It’s free.
Rank stores, write reviews.
Let the world know what you
like about the shops in your
neighborhood. We have a five-
star ranking system, and a
place for you to add your own
review, by each store.
Make friends online. Meet
business owners and other in-
die-minded shoppers around
Tampa Bay. Chat with them
through our social network,
post photos. Soon we’ll be
adding videos, blogs and in-
stant messaging.
Be a card-carrying mem-
ber. We’ll soon launch Lo-
calShops1.com card, valid for
discounts and perks at dozens
of businesses. We’ll let you
know how you can get the
card, for free.
... a business or neigh-
borhood association
Get free ads: We’re always
up for ad swaps. You list us in
your newsletter, we’ll list you
in ours. It’s all about working
together and promoting each
other.
Co-sponsor our discount
card. The card will offer dis-
counts and perks throughout
Tampa Bay. We’ll take care
of printing and distribution,
you help us get your mem-
bers listed.
Co-host events. We work
with business and network-
ing groups all over town.
Let’s get our members to-
gether, for social and busi-
ness networking, and for
seminars that can help ev-
eryone.
... a non-profit
Call us. We’re always plan-
ning new events and fund-
raisers, and would love to
help you.