(To print submitted nomination-
download here)
ORGANIZATION
Business
Excellence Award
Sedona Main Street Program proudly
nominates the “Athenour Family” for the Business Excellence Award. The
“Athenour Family” confidence in our Main Street District and
determination to meet the changing trends of consumers since they first
stumbled on Sedona in 1986, has proven to be an example for other
district businesses keeping our District vital.
Their story began when Lee & Marilyn
Athenour purchased a store and relocated to Sedona. They renamed the
store to “Cheers” to reflect fun and began to make their mark on town.
The Athenour daughters married (Nicole to John and Corin to Rob) and
they all joined the Athenour family business.
As Sedona gained popularity (late 1980’s
to mid 1990’s) the retail market in the Main Street District changed to
a tourist driven market and most of the District stores, including
Cheers, carried products geared toward tourists. In their first decade,
additional Cheers stores opened on Main Street to capture visitor sales
along the district corridor. All these stores carried some Sedona
“souvenir” merchandise in common, and a variety of items exclusive to
each.
Lee had voiced concerns that a consumer
going into one store named Cheers might not enter another with that name
even when the variety of merchandise was different. Rob and John never
forgot Lee’s wisdom and it guided them as they worked toward purchasing
additional stores and reevaluating the stores they already owned. The
Uptown streetscape project planning and process in the early 2000’s,
seemed a unique opportunity to bring local customers back to Uptown”.
The Athenour’s came across the “Life is
good” product line; they loved its’ message of optimism and sensed it
had the potential to draw locals back to the family store. When the
“Life is good” product line did very, the family decided was made to
transform an existing Cheers into a “Life is good” store.
After seeing the benefits of changing
their product line and store name to encourage both local and tourism
shopping, they (the Athenour’s) decided to do the same to another one of
their stores, and “Jake’s Canyon House”, a Genuine Neighborhood Shoppe
was opened. Jake’s carries a product line that has appeal to both young
& old and is a hub for all smiley-face products.
The Athenour’s found a new niche for each
of their stores, and even realized that they could fill another need if
they purchased another store. So, “Sedona Outdoors” joined the family
stores and has proven to be a success. With the red rock views
surrounding our community, who thought of the clothing and gear to climb
those rocks? Yes, the Athenour’s with their complete Sedona Outdoors
line of equipment and clothing. You don’t have to hike or climb, but you
can dress like you do.
The Athenour Family of Stores
continually reevaluates its product line to fit the needs of the
consumer. Nicole & Corin are on the lookout for new products and
customer trends as they attend trade shows and on their own personal
travels. They continually tweak the
interior and exterior of their store
locations (on average of $50,000 per year), reinvesting in the future of
those stores. The Athenour’s spend their time, money, thoughts, creative
efforts and passion on and in each of their
five Main Street businesses.
The impacts made to our District are:
increased jobs, sales tax revenues, reinvestment into the District, and
a retail mix specifically targeted consumer market in our District. The
Athenour business neighbors are pushed to freshen up and reinvest into
their own stores to be able to compete for customers to enter their
business.
Over the years, Athenour family members
have served on the Main Street Board. They continue to make time to
attend SMSP meetings about District issues and they donate time to
distribute informational flyers to schools and businesses 15+ miles
outside of our District (even outside of Sedona City limits).
The Athenour Family of Stores
consistently demonstrates leadership and is an exemplary model for
business success in our District.
For all these reasons, they are most deserving of Arizona Main Street’s
Business Excellence Award.
View Photos - download pdf file below
2009/azms2009awards/BusinessExcellence.pdf
