Business Journalism Final: Personal Pride over Profit: The Shops of the Oak Street Mill Village

This is my final paper for my Business Journalism Class. Originally written on May 3, 2010, its one of the most enjoyable articles I ever written. Read it and enjoy.

Personal Pride over Profit:

The Shops of the Oak Street Mill Village

When Nan Fabio drives off to work every morning, she passes the same chain stores each day. She passes by two Mc Donald’s, three Starbucks, a Staples, a Best Buy, a Wal-mart, as well as hundreds other nationally known stores that are notorious placed around many of Lake Norman’s strip malls. While there is no wrong in large corporations providing their services to the Lake Norman community, many residences want some local flair in their shopping experience. Nan Fabio, as well as other small business owners that occupy the Oak Street Mall Village, are attempting to develop an alternative shopping experience to typical “Big Box” corporate franchises.

Hidden from the primary roads of Cornelius North Carolina, The Oak Street Mill Village is located behind the Cornelius Police Station off of East Catawba Ave. and the Rite Aid Pharmacy of Old Statesville Rd. The complex happens to be Cornelius oldest mill, which was build around the year 1910. Originally used for the production Jim Yarns Cotton, the 100 year old building gives the shopping complex a vintage atmosphere that is difficult to find in the Lake Norman area. The majority of the stores there are small business. The stores there include a few small jewelry/novelty stores, art galleries and studios, and even an antique store. While it is difficult for a business to succeed in this economy, the motive behind the success these small businesses is a byproduct of the old fashion way of investing in the individual’s customer. Although these businesses are creating a profit, they are doing so by investing their time back into their community.

The flag ship store of the complex is the Oak Street Mill. Being the first business in the Oak Street Mill complex, they were the drawing card for other business to invest here. Owned and operated by Nan Fabio, The Oak Street Mill has been dealing antiques and collectables for over 10 years now. The majority of her customers hear of her business by word of mouth. The majority of the venders live within a 30 minute radius of the store thus cause the profits made by them to be reinvested back into the community. Nan Fabio doesn’t have her business to produce a profit. She is retired, and operates her business because dealing antiques is her passion in life. Nan Fabio prides herself by saying that the Oak Street Mill gives her customers the experience of shopping therapy that you can get from shopping at the mall.

The Cornelius Art Gallery is also one of the main retailers of the complex. The Cornelius Art Gallery provides programs for anyone older than 18 months by providing an atmosphere to learn about arts and culture for all abilities and skill levels. They are working with the Town of Cornelius to develop the community arts project, a nonprofit organization which tries to increase awareness of the arts for the Lake Norman Community. It gives people a social network for individuals to see each other every day. The center provides a retail boutique that sells the work of local artist. By having a community art center in the Oak Street Mill, they are giving a service that benefits the community as a whole, rather than the back accounts of the owners in charge.

The newest project of the Oak Street Mill is the Carolina Art Garden. Owned and operated by David Austin, the Carolina Art Garden is attempting to become a haven for local artist to showcase here talent in the Lake Norman Area. Most of the artists they display are located in North and South Carolina. While still in the process of construction, Carolina Art Garden is planning on having a wine shop, coffee bar, as well as having live music and poetry reading on a regular basic once in operation. This project is attempting to bring the atmosphere found in NoDa (Acronym for North of Davidson Street, which is the unofficial arts district of Charlotte North Carolina) to the northern side of Mecklenburg Country. Austin feels that it is important to have a local arts scene in the Lake Norman Community. “When you take home an item, you have more than just the item. You have the emotions, the feelings; the history of who the work that was created,” said Austin. He also feels that local small business give our community a deeper since of pride. “If all we have is big box stores, we lose our identity. And really is an experience of who we are, and our community,” said Austin.

While these stores are small business that are trying to operate in a struggling economy, there model of achieving success is something that isn’t seen that often anymore. A since community is being lost because of corporate franchises replacing the mom and pop stores that would give a town its identity. These small businesses though give Cornelius a little more character then your every day box store. They are bringing pride back into the local community. These stores are giving local individuals a place for them to showcase their talent. They owners operate their business not for the profit that will be generated, but that they genially love the product they care about. The motive to improve the local community though is a noble and respectable business philosophy. And the lack of a humanistic mindset in business could be hurting American businesses more than the profits lost in this recession. The funny thing though, these individuals are doing jobs they love which they would do for free, but just happen to get paid a salary to the work.