Seasonal Vendors Set Up Shop

Imagine making 97 percent of your annual income in about a month and a half. Or traveling all over the United States to sell your wares. Or just changing your product line for a short season in a gamble to attract the most business.

You’ve set up shop in a mall kiosk, and as customers stream by on both sides, candles, picture frames, soup mix and spatulas sell out faster than you can restock the shelves.

“We have a franchise of 18 units we operate,” says Steve Kirkpatrick, owner of Hickory Farms mall units running in New Mexico and west Texas. “We get some business here in our Albuquerque office, but 97-98 percent of our business comes in November/December,” Kirkpatrick says. 

The rest of the year, the family has off. Well, mostly. “We plan a lot for Christmas,” Kirkpatrick says. “During the year we do a lot of different family things. I coach baseball,” he continues. But during the fall months, the kiosk prep takes the forefront. “It takes about four weeks to get all the units set up, and we have to plan for it, starting in September.”

The Hickory Farms stand is pretty much a holiday staple in west Texas shopping malls, and Kirkpatrick has been growing his franchise since 1992. And while his may be the best known, Sunset Mall is offering a variety of additional shopping sources this year for the holiday season.

“We try to offer a diverse mix of retailers,” says Sabrina Tatsch, Specialty Leasing and Marketing Manager for Sunset Mall. “We’re not going to put four Hickory Farms-type vendors back-to-back.”

This year, San Angelo has 11 new kiosk vendors set up in the mall corridors and has been 100 percent occupied for months. Among those temporarily housed in the mall’s walkways are Sue Renfro and Melvina Floyd, who have paired up in a little stand by the Sunset Drive entrance to sell candles, clothes and candies.

“My friend (Melvina Floyd) makes the candy,” Renfro said from behind the candy counter. She’s been given counter duty while Floyd is in Las Vegas. “She comes from a very large family and everyone had their responsibilities at dinnertime. She has…an identical twin sister and they were responsible for making the deserts,” Renfro explains.

Sue Renfro herself sells baby clothes, candles, warmers and wax. “Sales are good out here and we both have a following,” Renfro says, then explains how she got into the candle business. “I bought out a gift shop and they sold candles there. I’ve got leather, leather and lace, rodeo chick, which is leather and strawberry,” she says. Leather is a favored scent in San Angelo and not everyone has it, Renfro says.

She also buys children’s clothes and adds embellishments, making unique styles for babies and toddlers. “I try to make stuff for boys too,” she says, noting the lack of variety in boys clothing. The clothes, she says, are very popular.

But everywhere you turn, it keeps trending back to food.

“These are the hot item everybody wants to have,” says Murat Cimen, owner of Spatulas, a seasonal kiosk. Cimen is in the mall year round but has changed his product line from sunglasses to spatulas to meet the demands of holiday shoppers.

“They like sports and spatulas,” he says, showing off a metal grill spatula and tong set with an NFL team’s logo laser cut into it’s broad, flat surface. “San Angelo loves spatulas.”

San Angelo also loves soup and dip mixes is the word over at the All of Us Soup stand. “This is a family-run business with family recipes that’s been in business for almost 20 years,” says Jen Pawlish, an employee of All of Us Soup. “They were farmers, but they lost everything back in the ‘80s. Momma said ‘I’m not going down with this ship’ and packed up her two to three soups and went down to Canton, Texas and started doing trade days.”

Pawlish has been working with the company for several years and travels all over the country doing rodeos, fairs mall events and trade shows.

“We try to keep it special,” Pawlish says. “They’ve been approached by Walmart and several other larger chains, but they want to keep it special.”

According to Pawlish,  “San Angelo is loving the spicy stuff.” Gumbos, chili mixes, cheesy chicken enchiladas and fruit dips have remained local favorites, although Pawlish says her personal favorites are the chocolate cobbler and the heart good luck soup 

A full time employee with the company, Pawlish travels year round, taking short breaks every now and then and living out of hotels. The soup and dip mix company first visited San Angelo for the rodeo last year, and Tatsch invited them back this year to sell their wares at the mall. So far, the response has been good.

“San Angelo is neat,” Pawlish says. “This community really embraces us.”