26 May Local Sweet Shop Finds Success After the Effects of COVID-19
River City Sweet Shop began in 2010 as Sweetly Scrumptious, a full-service bakery. They now specialize in Sugar Cookies, Cake Balls, Cakes, Cupcakes, Mini-Donuts, and much more. “We are always coming up with new and exciting things to add to our menu,” says Marilyn. They also offer services including Dessert Bars (catering), birthday parties, and coming soon – decorating classes.
Marilyn Ramsey, the business’ owner, explains their big shift in August of 2018. “We moved from Normandie over to the Prairie Village Center with the goal of expanding the space and catering side of the business. Very quickly, we realized that the foot traffic and exposure was not what we needed to be successful, and the catering actually fell off. We knew we needed to have better exposure, so we reached out to the Normandie landlords again as foot traffic was much better there. We went through a partnership change so that we had only one set of owners at the time, and we changed the name to River City Sweet Shop to better reflect our community and what we do.”
The arrival of COVID-19 couldn’t have been worse timing as the business was just adapting to their new space and name change. “We were just starting to get momentum and then Covid-19 hit us square in the face right in the middle of what is normally our busiest time of year. Every event that we were scheduled to handle was cancelled along with a large number of our orders. I was very worried that were going to have to close the doors and lay off the staff.”
Despite the unforeseen circumstances, they found ways to keep their business alive. They started with their local customers. “We adapted, and did curbside pickup and started offering delivery services, along with DoorDash options.”
Then, with some increased success, they thought bigger. “We started offering nationwide delivery services. We tested our shipping methods, perfected them based on feedback, and started shipping our products all across the United States. It has been a huge success and a great way to get “River City Sweet Shop” product into other places, and in perfect condition.”
River City Sweet Shop is located at 6470 E. Central, Wichita, Kansas 67206 in Normandie Center. The Normandie Center is professionally managed by Landmark Property Management Company. For leasing information, please call Don Piros or Scott Harper with Landmark Commercial Real Estate at (316) 262-2442.
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