Business

Posted on Thu, Nov. 12, 2009

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Bridal store moves, but remains on Douglas

Accent Bridal & Tux is moving, but it will remain on Douglas. In fact, each of the store's three moves have always been to space on Douglas.

"Douglas is our address, I guess," says Tricia Bell , who owns the business with her brother-in-law, Scott , and mother-in-law, Vivian .

Bell's daughter-in-law, Audra , also works there.

When Accent Bridal opened more than 23 years ago, it was at 3540 W. Douglas. It's been just down the street from there at 3940 W. Douglas, which is at Douglas and West Street, for the past 16 years.

Now, it's moving to 817 W. Douglas in Delano, where Rewound Sounds used to be. That store is now across the street at 810 W. Douglas.

"We just think the Delano district is an up-and-coming place, and we think it's going to be a great place to have a bridal shop," Tricia Bell says.

Accent Bridal sells wedding attire and accessories and prom dresses as well.

"I think girls are going to love it," Bell says of the upstairs prom space, which she says has a lot of character.

"It's a neat old building," she says. "It's just going to be awesome."

During some renovation, the Bells discovered a built-in arch between what will be the bridal and tux areas.

"There's something about an arch in a wedding shop," Bell says. "It's just really cool."

The new location, which will open in early December, is about 8,000 square feet. That's 2,000 more square feet than the store currently has.

"We hope to expand," Bell says, "but for now, we're just getting moved."

Passing on dessert

Sunflower Restaurant Supply is closing its retail shop at 432 N. Washington, but it's not going out of business.

The Salina-based company is looking for new office space that won't include a showroom.

Facility manager Rod Baumberger says issues related to rent and maintenance are forcing a move, and it made sense to no longer have a showroom.

The company has been in Wichita 16 years. These days, Baumberger says, most people fax, e-mail or call with orders.

"The focus of our business has changed," he says. "The walk-in traffic was just a nice bit of gravy or dessert on the side."

Baumberger is happy to get the news out about why Sunflower is moving.

"People think business is bad," he says. "We're not losing money. We're actually still profitable down here."

Also, he says, some customers are panicking that the business is closing.

"I've had schools that we've done business with freaking out, 'We're losing our supplier!' "

The company will be open in its current space until the end of the year. All items are on sale now.

Rock on

There's another new musical act for Intrust Bank Arena , and it's not a country artist.

Pollstar reports that the Newsboys will play March 21. It's a Christian rock band.

The only other rock act announced so far is Bon Jovi .

The Newsboys will appear as part of the Winter Jam 2010 Tour Spectacular , which is billed as the largest annual Christian tour.

The tour also includes NewSong , Third Day , Tenth Avenue North , Fireflight and guest speaker Tony Nolan .

Fall into the ...

The newly remodeled Gap opens today at Bradley Fair .

The company consolidated all its Bradley Fair stores —GapBody , GapKids and BabyGap —into one 12,000-square-foot location.

That's where the Gap and GapBody previously were.

The new store has the latest Gap interior design and features individual areas for each brand.

During remodeling, the stores have been in the 7,800-square-foot GapKids and BabyGap space.

Look for possible news on a new tenant there early in 2010.

A December freeze

In another update, Froz (it rhymes with "snows") now has an opening date.

Dustin Morby is opening the yogurt shop on Dec. 1 at 3242 N. Rock Road, next to Occidental Management's headquarters.

Occidental's Brady Miller handled the deal.

This is the first of four frozen yogurt shops Morby plans for the Wichita area.

"We're stepping up the game," he says of competing with other yogurt shops.

"We're emphasizing the gourmet part," Morby says of flavors like blackberry balsamic.

He says his flavors are "just going to blow some of the other frozen yogurt places away."

A long good-bye

The Dwyer's Hallmark store at 420 S. Andover Road is closing at the end of February, but the Dwyer's Hallmark stores in Wichita (at Brittany Center at 21st and Woodlawn), Derby and Emporia will remain open.

The Andover store is closing because the Dillons that used to be near it moved farther away.

"That's really killed our business there," says Scott Dwyer , who manages the businesses for his parents, Sue and Harold .

The store has been there for 10 years. Dwyer says his family isn't moving to be closer to the new Dillons, because rent would be higher.

The family already has closed its Nifty Fifty store at 321 S. Andover Road. That store used to sell the Hallmark shop's close-out items along with other close-out merchandise.

"It just didn't work out, either," Scott Dwyer says of the store, which opened in 2006. "We started out OK, and the sales just really fell off."

Business at the other stores is all right.

"I'm not going to say it's great right now," Dwyer says. "It's been a pretty tough year. We're just hoping for a good Christmas."

Grilling out

If you're a fan of "American Chopper "or the Coleman Co. , you may want to check out tonight's episode on TLC .

A Coleman representative says this is the first episode of the new season to feature star Paul Teutul Jr.' s customized Coleman RoadTrip Grill .

Teutul visited Coleman in July and showed off the grill.

He incorporated some motorcycle elements, such as what he called a "nifty speedometer thermometer" as well as the logo for his new Paul Jr. Designs company.

And there are some Coleman features, too, like the company's famous lantern.

The show airs at 8 p.m.

You don't say

"It's a very, very big word. I even had to look it up on spell check on my computer."

—Wink Hartman Sr.' s comment on the word "entrepreneur" during Tuesday's Mid-America Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame induction ceremony, where he was named business entrepreneur of the year

Got a hot tip or quirky story? Call Carrie Rengers at 316-268-6340 or e-mail crengers@wichitaeagle.com.