4 Mountain Brook businesses in running for Alabama Retailer of Year

Four businesses with locations in Mountain Brook are in the running for an Alabama Retailer of the Year award from the Alabama Retail Association.

Those businesses are Smith’s Variety, Taco Mama, The Lingerie Shoppe and Tulipano.

Six other businesses with locations in Mountain Brook were nominated but did not complete an application for the award. Those were Blueroot, Etc., Frios Gourmet Pops, Milla, Oak Street Garden Shop and Local Market and Village Sportswear.

The Alabama Retail Association is reviewing information submitted by the nominees who completed applications and plans to announce this year’s winners in late August or September, said Nancy King Dennis, director of public relations for the group.

Here’s more about those businesses in Mountain Brook still in the running:

SMITH’S VARIETY

This old-fashioned variety store, founded in 1950, has been around for almost 72 years and offers everything from toys and candy to party supplies and kitchen supplies. For decades, it was at the Mountain Brook Shopping Center on Culver Road.

Litton Glazner purchased the store in 1976 and ran it with his wife, Mary Anne, until 1999, when Glazner fell ill. His son, Jim Glazner, took ownership and ran it with the help of his mother and his wife, Tammy.

Glazner opened a second location in downtown Homewood in 2005 but closed it in 2010. In 2015, he moved the store to its current location at 45 Church Street in Crestline Village. He put the store up for sale in 2017 shortly after his mother’s death, but after an unusual surge of business in which people lined up around the block to buy solar eclipse glasses, he decided to maintain ownership.

In late 2019, Glazner once again decided to sell and found buyers in a young couple named Brad and Amy Simpson.

Brad Simpson grew up in Kentucky and met his wife, Amy, at Samford University. Amy was born in Cullman County but had moved to Charleston, South Carolina, before coming to Samford.

She was a frequent customer at Smith’s Variety while at Samford. After graduation, the couple moved to Florida, where Brad did accounting work for his father-in-law in the golf course construction and turf grass industry. He and Amy also had a custom apparel and gift retail store in Florida.

They moved back to the Birmingham area in 2017 and inquired about purchasing Smith’s Variety when it was first put up for sale, before Glazner changed his mind about selling it. Brad took a job as chief financial officer for Alabama Outdoors, and Amy was director of student leadership and involvement at Samford.

Then in late 2019, Glazner reached out to Brad to see if he was still interested in buying Smith’s. “It came out of the blue. It was a shock,” Brad said. “I loved working at Alabama Outdoors, but it was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up.”

The Simpsons took possession of Smith’s Variety about three weeks before the COVID-19 shutdown hit in the spring of 2020. “It was a little scary, but we never doubted this was exactly what we were supposed to do,” Brad said.

They shifted into curbside business for six to seven weeks, which also enabled them to do some interior renovations. “It ended up being a blessing in disguise for us,” Brad said.

The customers at Smith’s Variety kept them going in those tough times, he said. They had to lay off a few employees but were able to rehire some and kept their core team of employees, some of whom have been with the store 18 to 32 years, he said.

Brad works in the store every day, and Amy started working there full-time with him in May. Their 17-year-old daughter works in the store regularly, and their 15-year-old son helps out as well, he said.

Brad said he and Amy have tried to put their own mark on the store, updating some of the merchandise, but “we’re not reinventing the wheel because the store has been for 70 years.” This summer, they’ve been launching a new website and enhancing their digital marketing and e-commerce platform for online sales, with a special focus on gift baskets and care packages for college students, Brad said.

The store had a very successful year last year, and Brad said they’re looking forward to growing the rest of this year.

Being nominated for Alabama Retailer of the Year, especially so early in their tenure as owners, is a huge and unexpected blessing and speaks well of the great job their employees have done, he said.

TACO MAMA

This restaurant was opened in Crestline Village in 2011 by Will Haver, who also owns Otey’s Tavern nearby.

Haver got his start in the restaurant business in 1996 as a server at Ezell’s Catfish Cabin in Tuscaloosa. He also washed dishes, cooked and did whatever else Joe and Pam Ezell wanted him to do, according to his bio on the Taco Mama website.

He then became a food sales representative for the Alabama Food Group, learning the ropes of food distribution and getting a chance to see a lot of different restaurants. But Haver missed the action of being in the restaurant business and partnered with some business people who wanted him to design a restaurant in Gadsden, which he did at age 27.

Then in 2007, he and his wife, Leigh, mort-gaged their house and, with the help of some investors, bought Otey’s in Mountain Brook. As it became successful, he decided he wanted to open a restaurant nearby and liked the “hole-in-the-wall taco and burrito shops” he saw in California, Texas and Florida.

Thus was born Taco Mama, which offers freshly prepared tacos, burritos, quesadillas and burrito bowls featuring slow-roasted meats and fresh produce, as well as a selection of Mexican and local beer offerings and hand-shaken margaritas made with fresh juices.

The fast-casual restaurant features a laid-back atmosphere with garage doors that open up onto a patio.

Haver took the Taco Mama brand and decided to share it with more people, so now there are at least 20 Taco Mama restaurants, including eight in the Birmingham-Hoover metro area, eight others in other parts of Alabama, one in Nashville and three in North Carolina.

Haver said he picked up his love for fresh food from the cooking of his mother, who had a vegetable garden at home and made all of his baby food from fresh vegetables and produce. While growing up, he also spent a couple of weeks every summer picking fresh fruits and vegetables at his grandparents’ house in the country, he said.

He developed a hard work ethic from his parents and both sets of grandparents, he said. He also learned a lot about management from his father, who was headmaster at The Altamont School, and learned about entertaining friends and family from his mother.

“We are all about turning guests into friends and making them happy,” Haver said on the Taco Mama website.

He was out of town and unavailable for an interview when this story was written.

THE LINGERIE SHOPPE

The Lingerie Shoppe has been in Mountain Brook for 76 years, and Brenda Meadows has been the owner for the past 34 of those.

Meadows started out as a substitute teacher after graduating college and then got married and moved to Huntsville. She worked at a university library in Huntsville before coming back to the Birmingham area and working at the Women’s Missionary Union for about three years.

In 1988, she and a friend, Betty McMahon, decided to buy The Lingerie Shoppe, which had had several sets of owners previously. Meadows and McMahon had done a lot of volunteer work together for the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Charity League and Epic School in Birmingham before going into business together. 

McMahon stayed with her in the business for 10 years, but Meadows has been running it by herself the past 24 years, she said.

The Lingerie Shoppe offers a variety of sleepwear, loungewear, gowns, robes, pajamas, undergarments, shapewear and lingerie acces-sories. It also does a lot of bridal business and bachelorette parties, Meadows said.

The best part about owning the business is the relationships she has been able to build with her customers and vendors, she said. “I enjoy that.”

One thing she really likes about the businesses in Mountain Brook Village, Crestline Village and English Village is that a lot of them have the shop owners in the shop every day, she said. She believes that’s a significant factor in their success, she said.

“That means we see people come and go, and we know what people need,” she said. “Customer service is what we’re known for as much as anything.”

She’s very pleased to be nominated for the Alabama Retailer of the Year award. It feels good to be acknowledged and appreciated for the service you offer to the community, she said.

Business lately has been amazing, considering everybody is still coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Meadows said.

“It took a whole lot of creativity and doing to keep our doors open and to keep the shop stocked,” she said.

People seem eager to get back out and shop, but a huge issue now is the ability to get merchandise into the store, she said. Supply shortages are affecting her business, too, she said.

“Vendors are up against a wall, too,” she said. “I do feel like the manufacturers and vendors are doing their best to keep things going.” Knowing how to order and where to order allows her to help her customers find things they want, but “it’s been a real conundrum for everybody,” Meadows said.

Her customers have been very supportive through the whole ordeal, she said. Her sales numbers for 2022 have been stronger than ever, and she feels very upbeat about the future, but she worries about the cost of gas and shipping, she said.

Meadows runs the shop with six other employees, including her daughter, Julie Meadows, who does social media and inventory control.

TULIPANO

Mary Swanson opened this ladies’ boutique in Lane Parke in Mountain Brook Village in 2018. It’s the second location of Tulipano, with the first being in the Buckhead neighborhood in Atlanta.

Before moving to Atlanta in the early 2000s, Swanson worked in Mountain Brook Village at a store called Nicole Miller. When she moved to Buckhead, she worked at another boutique, which closed. But she and two female coworkers took the empty storefront and created Tuli-pano. Swanson has been the sole owner of Tulipano since 2010.

She wasn’t available for an interview when this story was written but previously has described the store as a high-end boutique for women who appreciate and love fashion but aren’t afraid to try something new. They try to stick with the classics, yet evolve and stay in touch with current trends, she said.

The store carries everything from everyday clothing to evening options and even a few black-tie pieces. It also offers handbags, belts, jewelry and shoes.

When she opened the store in Mountain Brook, Swanson said she always thought the Birmingham market would be a good market for her store and thought Mountain Brook Village was the natural place for it.

“I just think there’s a good energy there, and I’ve always felt that way,” she said.