Some might argue that young people with too much time on their hands often find mischief, but for Kelly Desmond’s two daughters those fears are unfounded because they’re too busy minding the store.
In the past two years Desmond, 47, transitioned from 10 years of being on the road and working craft shows and markets to opening two shops in Batavia’s Wilson Street Mercantile building at 222 E. Wilson St.
One of the stores is a candy shop named Lily & Pie – a clear nod to Desmond’s two young entrepreneurs and daughters Lily, 14, and Piper, 12.
As Kelly Desmond explains it, once classes are over at Batavia High and Rotolo Middle schools, it’s time for her daughters to go to work.
“The kids run the store,” she says simply. “I oversee things until they get here, but they do the stocking, ordering and displays – the whole thing.”
Beth Walker, who serves as executive director of Batavia MainStreet – the organization that has helped Desmond and others develop local businesses with its incubator program – applauds the two young entrepreneurs, noting “it’s never too early to get them up and running.”
“I think it’s really exciting to see the growing momentum in Batavia and just to see young people getting involved and her (Desmond’s) girls are really great to work with,” Walker said. “I’ve talked to them many times. They’re just so clever. This shows the contagious nature of it when you have very positive experiences and you want other people to get involved.”
The candy store idea was launched last fall after another tenant in the Mercantile building elected to consolidate two stores into one, leaving a vacancy in the space adjoining that where Kelly Desmond operates Desmond Brown – a store featuring homemade goods.
“There was a candy store at the Boardwalk shops where we started before coming here and everybody kind of loved it – it was a place where families gathered, and we thought it would bring in a different kind of customer,” Desmond said. “We didn’t have anything light and fun and we felt like we needed something like that here. We opened Sept. 18 of last year.”
She said naming the store after her girls wasn’t a ploy to get them to work there and that she “had no idea they’d want to be involved as much as they have been.”
“I think a lot of it is age and so when this happened I was pleasantly surprised,” she said.
“Lily is very detail-oriented and does a lot of stuff with the money and budgeting and customer service because she remembers all the details,” she said. “Piper is the helper – she’s had that since she was little –
she’s always wanted to lend a hand.”
The girls are compensated, she said, and average about six hours a week during school days and more hours on the weekend.
Desmond says no one has yet to question their authenticity as employees.
Lily says her height leads people to think she’s an adult whereas Piper just relies on personality.
“No one has ever questioned my working but maybe in their head they’re thinking, ‘Hmm, what are you doing here?'” Piper said.
Regarding her work, Lily said “it’s fun to have a store, and I like it” and used her artistic skills to paint a design on a wall that promotes bubble gum.
Her takeaways so far include what she’s learned about designing as well as the importance of customer service.
“Designing brings people to the tables and you have to make sure you say ‘Hi’ to everyone as they come in,” Lily said. “Both of us are really good in terms of shopping for things to go in the store – we go into websites and find things we want to put in the shop. (Piper) is good at things for the displays and I pick good products. The most popular things by far have been cotton candy and the candy club – little jars of candy.”
Piper said she has improved her customer relations “by talking now more to people” and that being of a smaller stature than her sister works to her advantage.
“I’ll tell people something tastes really good and they’ll often buy it,” she said.
Piper said her product research draws her “to more unique things like if they have cute packaging” and that the store keeps selling out of things like hot chocolate cotton candy.
She adds she never imagined working at a candy store but is not surprised about being on the payroll “since I’ve been working with my mom since I was 7.”
Both girls say their friends think “working at the store is cool” and ask about working or hanging out there themselves. They also realize they are enjoying a unique opportunity.
“I know this is unique and it’s an experience I wouldn’t have if my mom wasn’t the owner,” Lily said.
Looking to the future, Kelly Desmond says she’s not sure whether all the business acumen her daughters are acquiring will transfer to business ventures of their own.
“I have no idea because Lily is an artist- she very artistic – and (Piper) is very coding, and likes math-science so it may or it may not,” she said. “I guess we’ll have to see where things end up.”
Lily & Pie is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays.
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
