What inspires you to give back to the community?
Jayson: It’s the right thing to do, you know? We try to support companies that support others. For example, the manufacturers of the humorous oven mitts and dish towels donate a percentage of their proceeds to various hunger charities, our socks support Doctors Without Borders and the LipScHITZ lip balm company employs people with disabilities. So a lot of the things we choose to sell in our shop are designed to give back. Locally, we are big supporters for Advocates for Children and the Good Neighbor homeless shelter.
When we are blessed, we try to pass it on. It wasn’t too long ago, when Covid hit in March, that no one was out shopping, and our business was going down. We were doing everything we could think of to stay afloat, but needless to say I found myself with a lot of time on my hands. So we decided to design a T-shirt, offer preorders to the public, and give one hundred percent of the proceeds to local businesses who were struggling.
We created the design Georgia Strong, they sold for twenty dollars, and we had hundreds of orders coming in. In the end, we were able to donate thousands of dollars to help keep eight local businesses going. It gave us something to do other than sit around and worry about going broke. Here we were raising thousands of dollars for other businesses and we had sixteen dollars in our bank account.
How is business shaping up in 2021?
Buddy: We have been very fortunate, and I am amazed to think that less than a year ago we were unsure if we were going to make it. I look around and see how far we’ve come, and I know that we have so many people to thank for it. Customer experience is extremely important to us. Jayson or myself will always greet the customers at the door, we want them to know how much we appreciate them.
Jayson: That goes to our employees as well. In fact, I’ve always had the opinion that of the top three important elements of retail: customers, store presentation, and employees; employees are number one. The reason being when you put your employees first, they will in turn put your customers first. You create a culture of treating people well.
Our staff is non-expendable. Their input is important to us, we want to empower them to contribute and make decisions that benefit the customer. We are always striving to deliver something unique, and we have an exciting addition coming to the store this spring that is guaranteed to be a big hit for all our customers young and old alike. Expect to find the unexpected.
39 S Public Square, Cartersville, GA 30120
M-Thurs 10am-6pm
Fri 10am-9pm | Sat 10am-9pm
Sunday 12pm-6pm
770-334-2572
www.thesoutherncove.com