A fresh start: New Super Fresh owners have vision of old favorites, new offerings
Published 7:00 pm Friday, January 26, 2024
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When siblings Heather and Adam Boes were young, one of their fondest memories was riding their bikes from the business owned by their parents to Super Fresh Garden, Market and Bakery for candy.
Now, the pair are the new owners of Super Fresh, which will open its doors bright and early on Saturday morning at 7 a.m.
“It always seemed special because it had more unique things and they were sourced locally,” Adam said. “It was a lot more of a community space so we both really enjoyed it.”
The siblings announced the soft opening of the store earlier in the week, as well as announcing that a grand opening will be held sometime this spring when the garden center and green houses are ready to open.
While the purchase of Super Fresh from previous owners Jim and Merlene Stiles had been in the works since last summer, the idea of possibly purchasing the business had been playfully floated between the two going back to March of 2022 when the two were back in town for a visit.
“Adam and I were home and my mom loves donuts in the morning, so we decided to come out here,” Heather said. “We were just excited to be out here and talk about all of our memories and get that bakery stuff. We said, ‘wouldn’t it be cool to have a store like this?’”
The joke carried forward until Heather was contacted in June by Adam, who had an idea.
“He sent me a text one day in the afternoon and said, ‘you know what? I think we should try and buy Super Fresh,” Heather said,
That’s when the process began, and soon they were reaching out to the Stiles, who have owned Super Fresh for 43 years. The Stiles were on board, guiding the pair through the process in a supportive way that set the Boes up for success.
“Making sure they were selling it the right people who didn’t want to come in and change what the community is used to here,” Heather said. “While we want to maybe add different things and try different things, the core pieces of the bakery, marketplace for local artisans, local farmers, the greenhouse, that’s really what we want to keep it and that makes Jim and Merlene feel really good.”
The goal of the Boes is simple: keep Super Fresh the same place the community has come to know and love, but at the same time introduce some items and concepts that could help draw people in.
Those principles are based on the idea that Heather and Adam feel that Super Fresh is and can be an increased community spot where people can not only come and get a donut, but also spend time.
“We want this to be people’s tradition too,” Adam said. “How great if we could provide Christmas trees for the family year after year. We even talked about having a backdrop so they could take a picture. Just having the small things because there’s a lot of options and I think with local businesses it’s hard because you can’t beat the big retailers”
“But we can definitely make it a place where we know our customers, talk to them and then we get to support other businesses in the area,” he said, adding that there are opportunities to continue carrying more products of local businesses as well as those same businesses carrying Super Fresh items like baked goods.
The Boes said they want to maintain Super Fresh as that place everybody remembers and comes back to, but at the same time stressed that there is an opportunity to grow the business as well.
To that end, they both agreed that there is a balance that needs to be found that brings together the best of both worlds.
“The biggest thing is asking for feedback,” Adam said. “There are going to be things that change. We want to make sure that the core is still there, but I also think it’s important to grow the business so you have to do new things. Getting feedback from the community, adding pieces that make sense for young families.”
That growth aspect includes being good stewards of Super Fresh itself and the employees that were kept on during the sale of the business.
“Being able to keep the employees in this kind of deal or transfer of business was so important to us and obviously important to the previous owners,” Heather said. “They are family here. The other thing to consider … they are a wealth of knowledge. We’re so lucky with all of our staff and what they bring to the table.”
Leading up to the opening, Heather and Adam said they have been beneficiaries of a welcoming community that supported them while remaining eager for them to open.
It brings them closer to family and friends and the opportunity to run Super Fresh together wasn’t an opportunity they could pass up either.
“Adam and I have always had a sort of silly connection where we can make each other laugh like no other,” Heather said. “We just kind of get each other’s business sense and we do trust each other.”
They were especially happy with the help they received from those same family and friends when getting the business up and ready to roll once again.
“Everyone is on their hands and knees cleaning, washing, painting, running things around,” Heather said. “That’s just a great thing for me moving back to the community after 26 years. We’re just humbled, not only with what the community has offered us and Jim and Merlene, but our family and friends have just been amazing.”
The experience, the agreed, just gets better and better.
“There’s a lot of sacrifice, but every time I walk in the doors, I’m happy to be here,” Adam said. “Like weighing gummy bears (Thursday) morning. It’s probably the highlight of my day. I’ll be on a Zoom call that won’t be as fun as weighing those gummy bears.”
Super Fresh will be open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays.