BBMOON IS NOW A BRICK AND CLICK! My wife and I started bbmoon online in 2001 and now it has grown larger than our house. Here are the pictures of the renovation of the store we bought in 2007.

Store Front 		The renovation of our store is complete, bbmoon.com is now what is called a "brick and click".The new address is:133 E. BRIDGE STREET
PLAINWELL MICHIGAN 49080

We still work full time (on the side) so the store hours are limited. 11 to 2 M-F and 11 to 5 Saturdays.
  Back entrance The last owner was ARTFUL ATTIC, they sold antiques. You got to love the colorful decor.
The ceiling, walls and floors all needed a lot of work. Structurally the building is sound so all of the work was superficial, but that did not make it any eaisier to build that sweat equity. Inside looking to front  
  Inside looking toward back It was a lot of work but the excitement kept us going. We did bring in some contractors but did all that we could.
These slat panels were a major pain to install. Each panel was about 50 pounds.
Here is a tip - if your looking at doing slat walls, don't put anything heavy on them without reinforcing the slats. 		work  
  15 The slats are up and the painting is complete.
It is still 12 to 14 hour days to hit our target opening date. 16  
  yiy We have our signs up in front and back. We have missed several target opening dates.
We carry over 1600 different items - we didn't buy a store we bought our house back. One of the problems of running an online store is that many of the suppliers WILL make you jump through many, many, hoops.
Spanx hit us hard by not allowing small boutiques to continue selling their hose online. Does Oprah know??? 		19  
The first impression is lasting, so we put our Faberge collectables in the front case. 20  
  21 Look a little different? We have been getting positive feedback from our customer, so that is a plus.
As of 11/30/2007 this is the finished product. What do you think? Would you shop here?

Since we have been open we have seen several local businesses closed, or their buildings sold. It can be a difficult road to travel.
It is kinda like a child, it is a source of pride but is also capable of hitting us where it hurts. I would do it again and earlier in my life if possible. 		finished

 

    
 

The Cautious Retailer

In 2001 my wife Marsy and I started bbmoon.com out of our house and carried items we felt typified a "Curiosity Shop".

We felt we couldn't compete with the large online retailers so we sought out a small niche to serve. Now with many years of internet sales under our belt we are taking the next step of opening a store in Plainwell Michigan. Ensuring that our online business is successful before assuming the risk of opening a retail store has taken most of the worry and risk out of our expansion. In beautiful downtown Plainwell, bbmoon.com will cautiously step out of the internet and move on Main street and we will now be called a click and brick. We are not the only new business in Plainwell to start online before moving into a retail store. There is also a hobby store in Plainwell that took the same path.

The ability that bbmoon.com shows as it scales up its operations we feel is a new and exciting way of growing a business. Even though our offerings have changed our commitment to customer service is what we think keeps us successful. We participate in the Yahoo's Shopper Rating Service and we have never dropped below their Excellent rating.

Eight years is a long time to increase our business knowledge and find successful items that will sell on the internet. It may seem like we are too cautious but not everything we have tried has worked, its been a learn by experience situation. At first we only had one line of items that really did well for sales and if we did not have that we probably would not be expanding right now. Its been hit and miss and even some of the early items that did well are no longer profitable. The pewter angels that did so well early on are now discontinued. Many items which sold well at first have declined to the point that we can not even get the wholesale price. Amazon and Ebay now dominate more and more categories. Luckily, they also provide us with additional outlets for us to sell our goods.

We are excited to bring our wares to Plainwell and our surrounding communities. We know that we still have much to learn about what it will take to make our retail store successful. Treating our customers the same way we want to be treated when we're out shopping is how we want to succeed.

Tom and Marsy Stewart