The Observation Deck

Malley's: Chocolates and Class

The New York Times feature on class and consumption, “When the Joneses Wear Jeans"

Ken-- I've been folowing this NYTimes series. It started out with good research and good scholorship. This most recent aricle I think dropped to the level of Plain Dealer articles.
It was a cheap shot to compare chocolates from one confectioner that manufactures from who knows where to another that is right up the street from all of us.
In fact, I think the whole series was a step backward as a way of positioning oneself in society.
I got over that crap in the 1960's and I think others did , too.

Stan

Sweet Inspirations is a growing chocolatier with all the right elements. It is hand made, it is delicious, it is upscale, it is exclusive. It is also Lakewood born.

It is a business that is expanding from its Madison & Woodward site to Detroit and Cranford (I think - the former maternity shop...).

The business is owned by a woman who has bought the building on Detroit and who will be doing renovation.

I don't think you can compare Godiva to Malley's, but you might compare Godiva to Sweet Inspirations. Godiva has penetrated too far into the horizontal market and has lost its cachet. It's everywhere. It is no longer exclusive and since it is not the creme de la creme, what value does the brand now hold? All it had was its packaging, its price point and its exclusivity.

Where Godiva ice cream bars used to be thought of as a decadent treat, they never favorably compared to Honey Hut's ice cream bars. Godiva's ice cream is not better than Graeter's (which has not yet penetrated this market). Honey Hut & Sweet Inspirations do not have the market share clout of a Godiva, but they are better products.

If we send Sweet Inspiration chocolates to Oprah, could they become the next Godiva? Is this the thing for which we wish?

Perhaps tomorrow I will discuss the origin and lost worth of Edy's ice cream.

dl:

I am glad you took the lay up for your slam dunk.

That's team work.

Nice shot.

Suggesting also the way of the local artisan for Lakewood.

Sweet Inspirations.

Kenneth Warren

Mitchell's Chocolates has been making chocolate in the old world style for sixty+ years. It used to be located next to the Heights Art Theatre. When I was a kid in the early sixties, after moving to the Coventry school district (1962), needless to say I and my mates found our way there. If I recall correctly "Mr. Mitchell" was actually a Hungarian refugee from the concentration camps and had married a much younger woman. She was quite pretty and worked the counter. In fact, I recall seeing the Mr. only once when he emerged from the kitchen in the back of the store.

By 1968, there was the curious conjunction of the old world chocolateria cozied up next to the various outrages unfolding next door at the Heights Art Theatre, (only Cleveland showing of I AM CURIOUS, YELLOW; DEEP THROAT,) and then, during the late sixties the transformation of Coventry into its hippie incarnation, head shops, Record Revolution, Tommys, and all the accoutrements of counter-culture style.

When I returned to Cleveland in 92, Mitchell's had long sinced moved to Lee Road, the Mr. was long dead, and 'Mrs. Mitchell,' now in her eighties, continued to provide what some believe are the best chocolates anywhere.

...there's a lesson in character and sustainability here.

I took one tangent on the chocolate story, but it has many facets.

What is the value of chocolates?

Anybody can afford an expensive chocolate treat every now and again; it is an attainable bit of the high life, unlike designer clothes or cars.

What makes one perfect truffle more desirable than three Hershey bars? Obviously, it depends on the consumer.

Conspicuous consumption is a double edged sword.

Stephen Calhoun also brings another value to the chocolate shop. I am told that Sweet Inspirations is owned by a woman who immigrated to the US (I do not know this for a fact) and that the chocolate in her shop is also made in the "old world style".

Like Mr. Mitchell, the shop owner has carved a niche in the American Dream and the value of the shop to the community is measured in a variety of ways; employment opportunities, increased contributions to the tax base through sales and income taxes, stability of a storefront, world outreach through mail-order, increased capability for community involvement, etc. And let's not forget all the good feeling generated by the chocolate itself.

People have mixed feeling about franchises, but Malley's is a local franchise that has provided a great benefit to the community. Another wonderful thing about an operation like Malley's has been its stability - serving multiple generations. It has truly added to the local flavor.

DL-

Unless they have changed the name with the new store, I believe the business is called "Sweet Designs". And you are correct, it is Lakewood's premier chocolatier. It is hand made, whereas Malley's has a manufacturing facility on Brookpark Road.

Bill

Among the most brilliant persons in any community are small business owners who have sustained their enterprise for, (arbitrary marker here,) ten or more years.

There is for each such businessperson an incredible story to be told, and, crucially, there is also a brilliant understanding of what must be known and managed to survive year in and year out.

The case study orientation of management education is not very drawn to small business success over very long terms. Freed from that silly negative bias, the investigation of those case in Lakewood would, no doubt, uncover astonishing narratives about the nature of being

"enter-prising".

How much practical knowledge, experience, lessons learned, character, is essential to the

the value of the shop to the community

???

***

Should we walk into a shop and learn that it has persisted for 'lo these many years,' we might immediately understand that we stand amidst some kind of real wisdom.

To walk around and in and out and do so with the capability through which one can deeply appreciate and come to learn for themselves all that went into this kind of mainstreet success is key.

Obviously my hypothesis about the value of knowing the community being itself follows from its central posit, this is the only way to know of the community being wise.

They have not changed the name of the store. I had it wrong.

Thanks to the Davises:

http://www.sweetdesigns.com/index.htm