by Gary Schenkel | Mar 9, 2014 | Business
Welcome to the second in a three-part series of posts about products manufactured and available for purchase in Champaign County, Ohio.
For this post, I take you to Williams Hardware in Urbana, a locally-owned store that’s part of the Do It Best cooperative of independent hardware and home improvement stores.
This post features products made by two long-time Urbana manufacturers. The first product (I hope) will soon be back in season, replacing snow shovels and deicer.
A W.B. Marvin adjustable window screen
Until then, adjustable window screens made by W.B. Marvin Manufacturing Co. of Urbana sit back in the stockroom.
Pete White, W.B. Marvin’s general manager, said that in the past year the Urbana plant has produced more than a million of the screens in various sizes for national and international markets and retailers that include Home Depot, Lowe’s, True Value, Kmart, Ace and Big Lots. They’re also available at the Urbana Walmart store.
“We sell more than we ever have,” White said.
And just seven years ago, W.B. Marvin, founded in 1915 by William Marvin Johnson, closed its doors. The company started out making lightweight window fans before introducing metal rail adjustable screens in 1936, screen window fans in 1945 and later space heaters. Due to supply problems for the heaters, the facility shut down.
Then along came Thermwell Products Co., Inc. of New Jersey, maker of Frost King weatherstripping and insulation products. Thermwell acquired W.B. Marvin in January 2008, reopened the Urbana facility and put the plant’s laid off employees back to work. And Thermwell has since purchased additional property for future expansion.
Richard Van Buskirk of Williams Hardware with a Desmond Stephan grinding wheel dresser.
W.B. Marvin’s summer line of window screens formed the perfect complement to Frost King’s winterizing products, Mel Gerstein, Thermwell president, said. “It would be a tragedy to allow the Marvin name and quality reputation to disappear.”
You’ll find the other locally made product in Williams’ tool section – a grinding wheel dresser made by the Desmond Stephan Manufacturing Company, which has been in continuous operation in Urbana since 1898.
Desmond Stephan, touting the only complete line of wheel dressers, markets across the U.S. and in 17 other countries, mostly through industrial distributors that sell to foundries and small machine shops.
Three Cheers for Local Hardware Stores
Besides Williams Hardware, Champaign County has two other Do It Best stores – Downing’s Hardware in Mechanicsburg and Skelley Lumber Co. in Urbana.
I’m a fan of local hardware stores. Home repair-impaired and the owner of an old house, I value the personal attention I get when I cross the threshold of Williams or Skelley’s. (I’m sure the same could be said of Downing’s, though living in Urbana, I haven’t shopped there yet.)
They save me time and sanity. I carry in odd, antiquated, worn out pieces of plumbing, or what not, and I soon leave with advice and replacement parts. I’ve found that at big box stores, I wander in search of a sales associate and a solution to my home repair dilemma.
What local stores do you depend on?
I’ll be back with one more post for this series — and then a post about the changing of the guard and continuing of tradition in a Champaign County business that’s been a landmark since 1893.
by Gary Schenkel | Mar 1, 2014 | Business
Walmart draws a fair share of accusations across small-town America. Among them: Walmart sells low-priced merchandise from China and forces local retailers out of business.
As a well-known spokesperson for thankless, dirty jobs, Mike Rowe recently took some of the flak for Walmart when he voiced a commercial announcing the mega-retailer’s pledge to buy $250 billion of U.S.-made products over the next 10 years.
Sonja Ropp of the Urbana Walmart store holds two of the American Baking Classics products made by Bundy Baking Solutions.
Responding to the negative comments left on his Facebook page and explaining why he did the spot, Rowe wrote:
“Dozens of American factories are going to reopen all over the country. Millions of dollars will pour straight into local economies, and hundreds of thousands of new manufacturing positions will need to be filled.
“There’s a lot of merchandise currently in Walmart that’s manufactured right here in the USA.”
Made in USA – in Urbana
Did you know that the Urbana Walmart store sells products that are manufactured right here – in Urbana, Ohio?
If not, don’t feel bad.
When I asked Sonja Ropp, Urbana Walmart zone merchandising supervisor, if I could snap a photo of her holding an American Bakeware Classics brand 12-cup muffin pan and half sheet pan, she was surprised. And not just by my request.
Until I told her, she had no idea that the products, and others on the shelves behind her, were made by Urbana’s own Bundy Baking Solutions.
The world’s leading baking corporations have long recognized Bundy for the quality and durability of its commercial baking pans and associated products. Now home bakers are discovering Bundy’s quality through the American Bakeware Classics consumer line, made since 2013 for Walmart.
Wendi Ebbing, marketing manager for Bundy, says that the company makes other consumer brands, such as USA Pan, for retailers that include Williams-Sonoma, Target and Bed Bath & Beyond.
“We are known as experts in manufacturing baking pans and we’re thrilled to bring the same quality that commercial bakers have come to appreciate into the home,” Ebbing said.
What other Champaign County-manufactured products are available at local retail stores?
Share your answers in the comments section below.
And stay tuned for upcoming posts.
Today’s bonus: A downtown Urbana retailer shares her view of Walmart at the end of a previous Champaign Uncorked! post. It may not be what you’d expect.
by Gary Schenkel | Sep 19, 2013 | Agriculture, Events, History, Music, Tourism
I’m looking forward to a festival-filled fall weekend in Champaign and Union counties.
I invite you to join me at the Ohio Fish and Shrimp Festival at Freshwater Farms of Ohio, just north of Urbana, and the Covered Bridge Bluegrass Festival in Union County – both Friday through Saturday, September 20-22. Click on the links for details.
Both feature a hearty selection of live music and good food — and lots of family fun.
Not Your Average Harvest Festival
An unusual fall harvest celebration for Ohio, the Fish and Shrimp Festival marks Freshwater Farm’s annual freshwater shrimp harvest with lots of mouth-watering locally grown shrimp, as well as trout grown on the farm, too.
Music on the outdoor stage includes folk, blues, country, rock, reggae — and steel drum. Other features include a shrimp peeling and eating contest, games, self-guided tours of the farm, displays of native aquatic creatures, a chance to pet Ohio’s largest native fish, the sturgeon, and the debut of a new habitat for the farm’s resident alligator, Fluffy, who made a surprise appearance at the festival three years ago, delivered by sheriff’s deputies after they caught her in a local pond.
A Festival That Has It All Covered
The Muleskinners Bluegrass Band will perform at the Covered Bridge Bluegrass Festival.
Union County’s historic covered bridges set the theme for the Covered Bridge Bluegrass Festival. One of the bridges, the Pottersburg Bridge at 17141 Inskeep-Cratty Rd., North Lewisburg, will serve as the festival’s centerpiece and the setting for an elegant sunset dinner, a breakfast and a church service. The bridge also will serve as the stage for a variety of bluegrass bands and folk musicians.
Other festival features include guided bridge tours, a pie baking contest and auction, a marketplace of antiques and local artists’ work, painting classes, a vintage fashion show, old-fashioned games for kids, horse drawn wagon rides, appearances by folk artist Billy Jacobs and a concert by Nashville bluegrass band the Banjo Cats.
See you out and about this weekend.
by Gary Schenkel | Sep 16, 2013 | Business, Tourism
This summer my son Alex got to talk with people from New York to the state of Washington. Not to mention people from other parts of the world like Russia, Norway and the United Kingdom.
And he traveled a mere dozen miles from our house in Urbana, Ohio, to his summer job, guiding tours at Ohio Caverns.
I bring this up because we locals often take for granted the treasures in our own backyard.
My son Alex guiding a tour this summer at Ohio Caverns.
Plus we don’t fully grasp the economic value to our community of visitors who take an interest in what we’ve got around us, or under our feet. It’s bigger business than most of us probably imagine.
$40 billion. That’s how much money visitors leave behind in Ohio each year.
$60 million. That was Champaign County’s share in 2011, according to the Ohio Development Services Agency – $45.6 million in visitors’ purchases, $11.5 million in wages for visitor-related jobs and $5.8 million in taxes paid by visitors.
Melinda Huntley, executive director of the Ohio Travel Association, shared those figures in a recent presentation, “Tourism Is Everybody’s Business,” hosted by the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau.
Her message: All businesses – not just those commonly considered tourist-related – benefit from attracting and welcoming visitors to Champaign County.
Opportunity to Grow
And with a more concentrated, cooperative effort, Champaign County’s income from tourism could easily be greater.
Huntley offered an example: Lake Erie lighthouses once promoted their sites individually. Then they banded together to market cooperatively, and their attendance climbed.
A similar situation is already happening in Champaign County. The 20 antique and vintage shops in downtown Urbana promote one another through Antique & Vintage Shops of Urbana.
United, they provide shoppers and visitors more choices, which has ended up convincing more people from the Dayton and Columbus metro areas to make shopping excursions to Urbana.
Another key to increasing tourism is developing more overnight accommodations so visitors can stay longer and experience more of what Champaign County has to offer – to name a few examples, Ohio Caverns, Cedar Bog nature preserve, the Champaign Aviation Museum, agritourism attractions like Freshwater Farms of Ohio, the Simon Kenton Trail bike path (which stretches south to Cincinnati and soon will be headed north), and a wide range of special events, restaurants and shopping.
How to Get Involved
The Champaign County Visitors Bureau is focused on growing our tourism economy. If you’d like to join the effort, contact Sandi Arnold, executive director of the Chamber and Visitors Bureau – 937-653-5764 or info@champaignohio.com. She’s looking for new members to join the Visitor Bureau’s advisory group, chaired by Pat Thackery.
How do you suggest attracting more visitors to Champaign County?
by Gary Schenkel | May 8, 2013 | General, Tourism
In the beginning, with the best of intentions, I created a blog. Today I return to Champaign Uncorked! anew.
As in the original vintage of Champaign Uncorked!, I will celebrate the people, businesses, organizations, attractions and special events that make Champaign County, Ohio, a place I’ve been thankful to call home for the past 30+ years.
Occasionally Champaign Uncorked! will step across the county line. Nestled between the Dayton and Columbus metro areas, Champaign County offers the best of small town living with big city diversity just a quick jaunt down the road. 
I invite you to check out a recently launched marketing alliance of the visitors bureaus of Champaign, Logan and Union counties – Ohio’s Ramblin’ Road Trip – which capitalizes on combined strengths and tourist attractions.
And I invite you to join me as I open this newly re-vinted blog and toast the sights, tastes and experiences of Champaign County, Ohio, and the surrounding area.
What are your favorite features or memories of Champaign County?
by Gary Schenkel | Dec 14, 2012 | Uncategorized
An adventure in shopping, The Boston, at 121 N. Main St., in downtown Urbana, features a wide array of booths maintained by more than 60 independent vendors on three floors.
The store, open seven days a week, is packed with treasures – antiques, vintage clothing, collectibles, art, musical instruments and modern home décor – and is arranged in special sections, such as the Paris Boardwalk, designed as a street scape with storefronts.
It’s all managed by owner Gina Mokry, who infuses The Boston with her energy and optimism. She tells me, “When I opened The Boston (in 2010), I said to our vendors in my first meeting with them, ‘There is no recession. Urbana is booming.’” The Boston has been operating successfully since.
Linda Cheney welcomes customers to The Boston, modeling a dress she fashioned out of curtains. By the way, the antique sleigh isn’t merely for decoration. It’s for sale.
About two years ago Gina came to town from Texas to visit her daughter, Kristie Herlong, and grandson, Sam. At the time, Kristie had a store, The Green Owl, on E. Court St.
“Immediately, I fell in love with Urbana,” Gina says. “And here I am.”
An Incubator for Success
Kristie helped her mom open the business and moved The Green Owl into a room on the second floor. Kristie has since moved again to open a new store up Main Street, Dorcey’s. Another Boston vendor – Isaac Cohn, a Graham High School senior – joined her at Dorcey’s. But that’s for another blog post.
Gina considers The Boston a business incubator – an affordable way for her vendors to enter the market and grow. And it’s a great way to offer customers a broad selection of shopping treasures on three floors, under one roof.
For Christmas Shopping
Linda Cheney of The Boston says the store is all about helping Christmas surprises happen. She enjoys assisting children find presents for their moms and dads – within their budget.
She adds that they’ve also been known to pass Christmas gift suggestions left by women to their husbands (or vice versa). They’ll even put a fictitious name on the hold slip tagged to a present that’s to be picked up later – just to throw off the recipient.
About The Boston
Address: 121 N. Main St., Urbana
Phone: 937-652-0410
Facebook: The Boston
Hours: Open 7 days a week
Mon.-Thur., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Fri., 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
Sat., 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Sun., 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Coffee: It’s on the house!
Today’s bonus: Gina was an interior decorator when she lived in Arkansas. One of her clients was Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is commonly considered the bane of small-town retail. However, Gina says, “Wal-Mart is not our competition.” She’s confident that the locally-owned shops of downtown Urbana offer distinctively valuable merchandise and service that just can’t be compared with what the big box stores offer.
by Gary Schenkel | Dec 12, 2012 | Business
Monument Square, Urbana, Ohio, aglow with the Christmas spirit.
The other day, as I completed a project for one of my freelance writing clients, Vince Guaraldi’s jazz instrumentals from A Charlie Brown Christmas played in the background on Spotify. Old familiar music like that takes me back – say, to the night that Charlie Brown first bemoaned the commercialization of Christmas on national TV, and I was 8 years old.
Another vision from my Christmases past is the enchanting, mechanized window displays of the Wolf & Dessauer department store, a retail institution that dated back to the 1890s in downtown Fort Wayne. Those displays ranked high among local Christmas traditions – until L.S. Ayres bought W&D’s, and Christmas shopping got carted off to the malls.
The good news is that Champaign County, Ohio, offers plenty of opportunities to shop at distinctive, locally-owned stores that offer quality merchandise, personal service and the fun of exploring.
When you shop at these stores, your money stays in Champaign County to promote the local economy. And there’s no having to search for your car when it’s time to go home.
In the next several Champaign Uncorked! blog posts I will feature some of the many locally-owned businesses that offer pleasant shopping experiences at Christmas and throughout the year.
Check Out Chamber Checks
The Champaign County Chamber of Commerce also offers a solution for those of you who don’t like to shop or have someone who’s difficult to shop for: Chamber Checks.
Call the Chamber – 937-653-5764 – to find out more about Chamber Checks, which can be purchased any time of year in denominations of $10, $25 and $50, with no service charge or purchasing fee. They work like a gift certificate and can be used for purchases at more than 100 retail shops, restaurants, salons and other service providers throughout Champaign County (a list of participating businesses is provided with each Chamber Check).
Until next time, what are your favorite local shopping venues?
by Gary Schenkel | Feb 16, 2012 | Business, General
The first crocus breaking through the earth is a beautiful sight. No doubt. But what spring-time “first” truly gets me excited?
That would have to be – and I’m certain I’m not alone – the first ice cream shop to reopen for the season.
Ahhhh ... a waffle cone in full bloom!
This year, in Champaign County, Ohio, that will be Dairy Corner, at 1472 E. U.S. 36, Urbana. The doors open at 11 a.m. this Saturday, February 18! Owners Bob and Robin Turner have added specialty hot dogs to the menu … and though maybe not Saturday, but by Monday, they’ll begin serving up a new variety of ice cream. (In addition, Dairy Corner is adding catering — a make your own sundae bar.)
Next to open will be the Urbana Dairy Queen at 1047 N. Main St. on the following Saturday, February 25, and Climber Cone, at 801 Maimi St., Urbana, will open April 1.
If you know of other openings, please leave a comment.
Next up: Champaign Uncorked! will continue its recent food fixation, but will return to the subject of foods that are locally grown.
by Gary Schenkel | Feb 10, 2012 | Agriculture, Business
You know those directories on supermarket shopping carts that tell you where to find the mayonnaise? Pretty handy for the shopping impaired like me.
Now the Local Food Council of the Community Improvement Corporation of Champaign County (CIC) has gone one better. It’s come up with a directory — a brochure, actually — that’ll guide you all over Champaign County, Ohio, not just down the aisles of a grocery store, showing you where to find the freshest locally grown and made food products.
This brochure includes a county map and corresponding list of growers, vendors and farmers’ markets, with address, contact information, hours of operation and products … fruits and vegetables, eggs, fish, meats (even bison), honey, dried flowers, garlic, herbs, dog treats, maple syrup, artisan breads, preserves, handmade soaps, lavender, bedding plants, vegetable plants…. And that’s not all. Click on the image at left to see for yourself all the local food treasures that are out there to be discovered and savored.
So, from now on when it’s time to write out the shopping list, consult this brochure — not just the grocery flyers and coupons. Take full advantage of what Champaign County farmers have growing. Discover the advantages of buying and eating locally grown food that’s at the peak of freshness … better taste, improved nutrition, a stronger local economy, and more.
It’s been my pleasure to assist with this project through the CIC and Local Food Council. And many thanks to Lisa Williams of Type by Design, who designed the brochure.
Use it in good health.
Updates will be made periodically. Email corrections or additions for future editions to cic@ctcn.net.
by Gary Schenkel | Feb 8, 2012 | Agriculture, Business
Online shopping’s a breeze – like popping a prepackaged dinner in the microwave. The trouble is: Internet sales keep taking a bigger bite from local business’ plates. (Similar to how frozen dinners shortchange our health.)
However, in Champaign County, Ohio, a fresh new, locally grown approach to online shopping will soon dish out more money to our local economy.
The new virtual farmers' market will bring the convenience of online shopping to the realm of locally grown food, but there's still nothing like communing with neighbors, farmers and fresh produce at one of Champaign County's open air markets.
Offering products that may look out of place among the clothing, electronics, media and imported gewgaws typically packed into online shopping carts, the Champaign County Virtual Farmers’ Market will allow shoppers to click and pick tomatoes, other veggies, fruits, meats, and value-added food products like baked goods – all grown or made in and around Champaign County.
The virtual market is an idea germinated and cultivated by the Local Food Council of the Champaign County Community Improvement Corporation (CIC) and Activate Champaign County (ACC). And it’s being started with a Pioneering Healthy Communities grant obtained by the Champaign Family YMCA through the YMCA of the USA. (Sorry for the alphabet soup.)
Heather Tiefenthaler, a member of the CIC, Local Food Council and ACC, is preparing the virtual market for opening the first week of May (check back here for updates). She’s recruiting vendors to join the market. Vendors can register on the market’s website – www.champaignoh.locallygrown.net (click on “create an account” near the bottom of the “Our Vendors” page).
If you have questions, you may contact Heather at mctief@frontier.com. A market manager will be appointed soon.
Does this mean traditional farmers’ markets are being replaced?
Not at all!
Champaign County’s three farmers’ markets, in Urbana, Mechanicsburg and St. Paris, will reopen for the season in May.
The virtual market is simply a convenience for busy shoppers who can’t always get to the markets. It will make it possible for more people to discover and enjoy the just-picked freshness and good taste of locally grown food – food that hasn’t grown weary from hundreds of miles in a truck.
The virtual market promises great advantages, but nothing can replace the neighborly, community-building charm of a farmers’ market, where people renew acquaintances, catch up on news, meet the growers, and thump melons.
How will the virtual market work?
Beginning the week of May 6:
- Participating vendors will post their available inventory on the market website each Sunday.
- Customers who register on the site will be notified by email when the inventory is posted and they can begin shopping. They will have until 8 p.m. that Tuesday to place their orders at www.champaignoh.locallygrown.net.
- The vendors will prepare the orders and bring them on Thursday to the Champaign Family YMCA, where customers will pick them up between 4:30 and 6:30 p.m. Payment is due at time of pickup.
Next up at Champaign Uncorked!: I’ll offer you a look at a new brochure published by the CIC, Local Food Council and their partners – a guide to where you can find locally grown and made food products throughout the county. And as we lead up to the new farm market season, I’ll whet your appetite by featuring some local growers and the fruits of their labor.
And please take a moment, if you will, to share with me what your favorite locally grown or made food product is.
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