Sedona Main
Street Program thrives because of local business leaders who sharpen
the competitiveness of new and existing business owners. The entire
Athenour Family is committed to a vital Uptown commercial district
that responds to today's consumer needs, and their six “Main
Street”
stores demonstrate that.
In 1986 Lee &
Marilyn Athenour vacationed across the southwest and stumbled on
Sedona. Being entrepreneurs and looking for something to do since both
their daughters were away at college, they did what most people want
to do (but don’t)...they purchased a business. They selected “Over the
Rainbow”, a gift shop for locals just across from the Chamber Visitor
Center in the Uptown area that became the Sedona Main Street District.
Lee wanted to
rename the store to reflect fun, and so the first “Cheers” store was
opened. Soon both the Athenour daughters married; Nicole to John Davis
and Corin to John’s friend, Rob Arbogast. The family was growing and
in Athenour fashion, the family that works together stays together.
John and Rob manage the family stores and Nicole and Corin are the
buying and trade show experts. They all also work in all the stores
and confer on their marketing.
As Sedona tourism
grew, the Uptown market changed to primarily tourists. To better
capture market share, the Athenour’s changed their product mix to
casual family & resort wear. In 1992 they opened their second store,
Cheers Again, carrying Original Red Dirt Shirt Company’s red dirt
clothing to represent the Sedona red rocks. Since then, Lee voiced
concern 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 additional stores. In 1993 they opened Poquito’s
featuring souvenir T-shirts and in ’94 they opened Rocky’s with family
everyday wear similar to Cheers. Each “Main
Street”
store carried its own variety of items, specializing to target
different visitor clientele.
In 2002 when Lee
& Marilyn Athenour purchased the land beneath the original Cheers
store, they completely overhauled the store façade and property
frontage to improve curb appeal and enhance the pedestrian experience.
They moved all of their parking, except one handicapped parking spot,
to the rear of the building and added accessible connections to
adjacent properties. A rock wall bench, tables with umbrellas and
chairs, and aromatic plantings all create a cool resting spot and
gathering location. The Athenour clan continues to update the interior
and exterior of their store locations with capital reinvestment on
average of $50,000 per year.
The family has
always watched for “items that take off” and been responsive to
specific customer requests. Nicole recently mentioned “we’re trying to
be open to new lines, we think about what we buy when traveling as a
family. And with the Uptown streetscape project planning and process
(for the new millennium), it seemed a unique opportunity to bring
local customers back to Uptown”. In fact when they 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.
Introduced in the original Cheers store, it did so well they increased
the inventory there; later they retooled Poquito’s (originally their
souvenir T-shirt store) and re-named it “Life is Good”, carrying a
limited line of the products exclusively; ultimately the co-creators
of the line encouraged them to expand to a full store. This spring
they welcomed their newest family member “Jake’s Canyon House”–
formerly their Rocky’s store; they transformed it to exclusively
feature an expanded line of the popular “Life Is Good” smiley-face
products.
In the interim
“Sedona Outdoors” opened as a new store in late 2006, furthering their
effort to appeal to residents as well as tourists with an alternative
product line and good clothing for the local lifestyle. Recently,
since the product line once carried at Poquito’s had moved to the new
Jake’s Canyon House, a door (or should I say a store) was open for
them to trial a new line and exclusively feature a partnership they’d
been developing with the Duck Company, a manufacturer known for
southwest related comic tees – this store is now named The Duck
Company. The latest change has occurred at Cheers Again – they rode
out their exclusive contract with the red dirt clothing manufacturer
and are now transitioning into organic clay-dyed clothing for the
family and feature Crocs footwear for all ages.
For over twenty
years, with an ever-quickening pace in the past decade, the Athenour
Family of Stores continues to grow & change product lines, marketing
and even store hours in response to their customer, the marketplace
and our community. They’re continually on the lookout for new products
and customer trends as they travel. They continually invest here at
home in their Main Street businesses – time, money, thought,
creativity, effort and passion. The results are increased jobs, sales
tax revenues, reinvestment, retail mix and activity in our District.
Each of their businesses is a member of the Program from the moment
they first open their doors. John served two years on our Board of
Directors and two of our Committees and Nicole currently assists with
event flyer distribution for our Program. Regular entertainment or
activity hosts during our events over the years, they’ve now added
street-side weekend entertainment on a regular basis. They donate time
to the greater Sedona community as well as the Main Street District.
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.
