HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1990-07-25, Page 3a
/4.
•
t
r
ammo—
STORE'S POPULARITY BLOWING UP - Balloon Busters part-owner, Diane Bennett, and her daughter
Tracey, explain differences of balloon accessories. The store has almost every balloon imaginable and
can even put giftware into balloons. Party stationary is the store's other big product line. Oxford photo.
THE HURON EXPOSITOR JULY 25. 1990
3
Everything's busting up balloons
Another new more has opened on
Seaforth' s Main Street and already
the dere dais become popular with
PcoIge of al!sges-
Balloon Busters yells balloons and
the concept is new and unique in
this town. Almost every sayer
imaginable is panted on foil bal-
loons, and the balloons coarse in
vacuous sizes. DUMAS lunch hour on
a weekday there is a lineup of
people at the counter wanting to
buy balloons or ask fox help in
making a selection.
Another line u important as the
balloons is paper party supplies,
decorating and recitals. There is a
selection of giftware and numerous
mins to choose from.
Diane Bennett and her sister
Shirley Wheeler are partners in the
store and Diane's daughter Tracey
is their full time employee for the
summer.
Shirley has made silk flower
arrangements and party decorations
for events and brings this ex-
perience with her to Balloon
Busters. Both partners have taken
courses in crafts and use the
knowledge in decorating with por-
celain flowers they make or fabric
Stories,
photos by
Susan
Oxford
Three local businesses look backwards
Three local businesses have
improved their surroundings and
increased business potential by
enlarging their facilities. All three
businesses had been planning on
improving their facilities for quite
some time before doing the actual
work.
HILDEBRAND FLOWERS AND
GIFTS
Steve Hildebrand improved his
store by making an extra room at
the back. The room became
available when it stopped being
rented to a business that used it for
extra storage.
Steve, who has operated the
florist shop for 10 years, bought the
building in April with his wife
Ruth. They have increased the
volume of their gifts to fill the extra
space.
The new room is divided into
two, one part being extra work
space for Steve and his flower
arranging work. The other part
being more space for giftware
display. Steve has an eye for
display and has made various
displays in the new room that are
eye catching and easy to touch.
-There are porcelain dolls- sitting
on a table surrounded with ribbons
and wreaths of peacock feathers.
The store now sells giftware for
babies, music boxes, brass, ceramic
decoys, mugs and an assortment of
sheep. Party supplies such as in-
vitations, paper linens, candles and
paper dinnerware is now available.
New is a line of giftware for men.
A customer can buy a beer stein,
tabletop or wall decoration for a
man.
"In the last two or three years
I've seen an increase in women
buying flowers for men," said Steve
as an explanation for the line of
men's giftware. "Flowers look great
when presented in a beer stein."
Before Steve opened his flower
shop ten years ago he studied retail
floriculture at the University of
Guelph. He ran the flower shop as
a shop specializing in flowers and
arrangements with a small line of
giftware. Now he points out that
"I'm still running a flower shop
first, although the gift line is
increasing."
HILDEBRAND PAINT AND
PAPER
In the same building as Steve is
Hildebrand Paint and Paper, owned
and operated by Hazel and George
Hildebrand. They too had limited
space because of the back room
being rented to a business for
storage. When the room became
available to them they opened the
back area.
At the far back is more room for
Hazel to put displays of paint
colours. Most of the wallpaper is at
the front of the store now and the
line has been increased.
"It was fairly crowded in here
before," said Hazel. "Everything is
more open now and there's room to
move.
"We've added more wallcoverings
to our stock. Today many people
don't like to order and wait for
their paper to come in. They want
to get at it right away."
To help people choose their
wallcovenngs the store has VCR
tapes that show different styles of
decorating and how to achieve the
look. Some of the titles are Vic-
torian Romance, Country Kitchen,
Sante Fe and French Affairs.
Styles change and the Hildebrands
keep abreast of them by having a
large assortment of wallpaper and
fabric books. There are books on
gem colours, textures, masculine
choices, flowers and more flowers.
"Just after everyone got rid of
their browns, said Hazel "browns
have come back into style. We've
got some new browns in the books,
too.
Also new for the Hildebrands is
the use of the garage at the back of
the building. Now all deliveries will
be made to the back, which is more
convenient for everyone.
GINETTE'S RESTAURANT
In keeping with the trend to
improve back 1 rooms, Gineue's
restaurant back room has gone
through some renovations.
By opening the back room, owner
Dave deVries has made room and
privacy for private parties or
meetings. He has put 15 chairs in
the room, with a potential for more
depending on the party size. A
sliding double French pine door
will give the party privacy from the
distractions of the middle room. A
separate entrance was built so ser-
ving staff could serve the room
directly.
The middle room is undergoing
decorating and Dave has plans to
put another French door between it
and the front room in September. A
separate entrance for serving staff is
also in the middle room. Dave has
set up 25 chairs in the room.
The middle room French doors
will be custom made as there isn't
enough room to slide the doors
straight; they may have to be rolled
or folded.
"Two sets of doors is a great idea
because you can serve a larger
party," said Dave. "Just open the
back French doors and close the
middle ones and you've got a really
big private party room."
The back and middle rooms have
pine wainscotting around them and
the floor in the back room is new.
After removing 10 layers of
wallpaper Dave found the plaster to
be in good shape and he was able
to paint it.
Eventually Dave would like
redecorate the front room. He wants
to put in a new floor, carpeting, and
paper or paint. He would like to
replace some of the furniture.
"But's that's all time and money,"
sighed Dave. "Someday I'll have it
all done."
IOW
PARTY TIME AT GINETTE'S - New sliding French doors in the back
room of Ginette's restaurant allows for private parties Dave deVries.
owner, chats up Patty Johnston, head cook Oxford photo.
1
ALL THE RAINBOW - There's more to choose from in the addition
at Hildebrand Paint and Paper store The walloovering selections
have been increased Oxford photo
1
and lace decorated boxes. The last
count they look was working with
deed flowers.
They happened on the balloon
idea by accident. A niece of theins
had a balloon business in Bolton for
four years that was successful, but
she is getting mimed and wanted
to close the business. Dian and
Shirley decided they wanted a bal-
loon business in Seatonh and
bought her inventory.
More balloons and party supplies
had to be purchased from outlets in
Toronto and soon they had enough
stock to open the store. The store
location became available to them
in June and they spent the month
setting up the store. The store was
in good shape when they rented it
and the only major work they did
was to create a display case of tiers
in the front window.
Diane has been especially busy as
she works full time at the Canadian
Imperial Bank of Commerce in
Seaforth as a discount clerk
working with loans. She plans to
continue to work at the bank.
Shirley and Diane have big plans
for themselves and it looks like
they're going to be very busy. They
sell balloon bouquets for any oc-
casion. All the helium we tilled
with helium to give them be ter
buoyancy. Most of the balloons are
made in the USA and some in
Canada. The balloon store conc.:pt
has been popular in the USA for
some time and recxntly it has
become popular in Canada. Not
only are there foil balloons but
there are ones made of latex in
almost every size, shape and colour.
A wedding cake, bridal mail box,
wishing well and name plague
banners can be rented. Ducie and
Shirley can be hired to do the
decorating for a wedding, anniver-
sary or any other kind of party . For
weddings they also have supplies to
make bon-bonaires and flower
baskets.
The store opened July 16 and
already they are booked for some
parties. Balloon Busters has paper
party supplies of dinnerware and
linens. There is giftware such as
wedding cake knives, anniversary
plates and glasses to celebrate these
special occasions.
Balloon Busters will be open five
days a week and closed on Wednes-
days.
DOLLS AND EVERYTHING NICE - The new addition at Hildebrand
Flowers and Gifts store has displays of beautiful gifts for all oc-
casions. A selection of gifts for men was added. Oxford photo.
COMMUNITY CALENDAR 1
If you're organising a non-profit event o1 interest to other Seaforth area
residents, phone the recreation of/be 527-0892 or the Expositor at 527-0240,
or mall the inforntatlon to Community Calendar, The Huron Expositor, Box
49, Ssaforth, Ontario, NOK 1 WO well in advance of the scheduled date. Free
listing Includes date, time, name o1 event and location only. Space for the
Community Calendar is donated by The Huron Expositor.
Wed., July 25
1 30-4:00 p.m. — Senior Shuffleboard
at the Arena
1:00-4:00 p.m. — Skateboarding at the
Arena
6:30-7:30 p.m. — Minor Soccer at the
Optimist Park
7:00 p.m. — St. Columban Soccer
Mosquito vs. Grand Bend at St.
Columban Field
Thurs. , July 26
7 00 p.m. — St. Columban Squirt 2
Soccer vs. Exeter 3 et Dublin Field
8:00-10:00 p.m. — Men's Ball Hockey
at SOCC
8:00 p.m. -- Topnotch vs. Boilersmith
9:00 p.m. — Beachwood vs. Hogs
Fri., July 27
1 00 p.m. — story Hour at Seaforth
Library
4-00 p.m. -12 Midnight — BSA Moonlight
Madness and Street Dance
Sun., July 29
8:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m. -- Van Egmond
Country Breakfast
7 00 p m — Huron County Men's
Football! Allstar Gane at Lions Park
Mon., July 30
7:00 p.m. — St. Columby Atom
Soccer vs. Coldstream at Dublin
Field
7:00 p.m. — St. Columban 17 and
Under Soccer vs. Lucan at St
Columban Field
Tues., July 31
7:00 p.m Soccer - St. Columban
Pee Wee 1 vs. Lucan at St. Columban
Wed., Aug. 1
1:00-4:00 p.m. — Skateboarding at the
Arena
1:30-4:00 p.m. — Shuffleboard at SDCC
6:30-7:30 p.m. — Minor Soccer at the
Optimist Perk
7:30 p m — Huron Branch of O.E.S
meet in Board Room. Goderich
Assessment Bldg Guest Speaker
Mrs- Phyllis Thompson
7 30 p.m. — Huron County Genea-
logical Society meets at the
Assessment Board Room, Goderlch
(behind the Jail). Phyllis Thompson
will talc on "researching her famil.es
in Scotland' Visitors most
welcome