Keeping it in the family

Looking around Mountain Brook’s villages, there’s a pattern of family. Whether it’s a business that has been owned by three generations, a father and daughter team or just relatives that work in neighboring stores, family is one of the things that factor into Mountain Brook’s tight-knit business community.

In one corner of one of Mountain Brook’s villages, shoppers can find three generations of one family. Carole Ivy, her daughter Lucy Marks and her granddaughter Lulu Marks all live and work within a few miles of Crestline Village.

They work at Once Upon a Time, Snoozy’s Kids and Lilla, respectively, and sitting down with them gives a microcosm of the interconnected nature of Mountain Brook.

Lucy Marks and her mother started their jobs about five years ago, and both of them had a background in retail. Ivy owned a retail boutique in Montgomery but left that behind when she moved to Mountain Brook in 2008.

“I decided I wanted part-time work when I moved here,” Ivy said, “so then I started looking for places. I saw that Once Upon a Time was looking for a sales associate, and because of my background, [owner] Linda [Mayer Flaherty] thought it would be a good fit.”

Lucy Marks grew up helping out at her mother’s boutique and likewise sought to return to retail when the time was right.

“When my children were older, I wanted to find something close by in retail … and Snoozy’s Kids just kind of fell into my lap,” she said.

Her daughter, Lulu Marks, worked at nearby Snap Kids in high school, and found a job at Lilla after graduating. Faith Gardner, owner of Lilla, has a son the same age as Lulu Marks, and after a quick interview, she had the job.

“I love working with clothes and putting together outfits; it’s so fun to me,” said Lulu Marks, who lives in Mountain Brook and takes classes through the University of Alabama. “So Faith, we did a quick interview, and she was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is going to be so much fun,’ and it’s been a blast.’” 

And while they all live nearby, working close to each other — quite literally next door to each other, for Lucy and Lulu Marks — gives them a chance to see each other regularly.

“She’ll bring me a Coke from Urban Cookhouse every day,” said Lulu Marks, regarding her mother. Turning to her grandmother, she adds, “And I run into you in the employee parking.”

“And I bring you lunch every now and again,” Ivy said.

Mountain Brook has always been tight-knit, Lulu Marks said, and she is constantly making connections to her dad’s former MBHS classmates or someone whose child she went to school with.

When Lucy Marks goes to work, she sees another example of that connectivity, as she works along side Snoozy’s Kids owner George Jones and his daughter, Lillian Jones. 

George Jones will have owned Snoozy’s Kids for 30 years in August 2018, and Lillian Jones grew up working in the store. She started helping out when she was 12 years old, and continued to work on and off through high school and college, when she was at Birmingham Southern College. 

“And as she’s grown up in the business, she’s seen there’s things going on that week that afternoon that day, [but also] she sees the overall picture and history of things we’ve done that have worked,” George Jones said.

Lillian Jones admits she was pretty shy when she was younger, but after moving to New York and working in retail for several years, returning to Mountain Brook is a nice shift.

“It was much more, obviously, cut throat,” she said. “You’re working on commission, so you’re really fighting against each other. Then you come back here, and it’s like, ‘Oh this is so relaxing.’”

And just as people have seen Lillian Jones grow up at the store, from 12 years old to seeing her return in her late 20s, Snoozy’s Kids has seen some of its customers grow up.

“Being here as long as I have, now some of my friends are becoming grandparents,” said George Jones.

“And my friends are becoming parents,” Lillian Jones added.

“So we’re seeing, ‘Oh, I remember when I used to bring little Jake in here and he’d play on the train table. Now Jake, they’re expecting their first baby,’” George Jones said. “That kind of history, and them wanting to bring their grandchild back to where their daddy played, there’s something good about that.”

The store, he said, has grown up as well. While at its heart, Snoozy’s Kids remains a toy store, there is also a front corner of the store dedicated to customers who have moved past toys. That section is called “George,” and it carries everything from jewelry to picture frames to purses.

“I think, if you’re going to stay alive with retail, you’ve got to constantly change yourself, constantly be willing to change,” George Jones said. “This section up here, you can see it’s a little more sophisticated … We knew our customers were growing up with us, and I’ve had many [mothers of teenagers], about 15-20 years old, saying, ‘If I could get all my shopping done here, I would if I could.’”

And while they will change a bit to grow up with customers, George Jones said they still work to maintain high levels of customer service. As soon as a customer walks in, they are greeted and assisted. Once a customer selects an item, they can take it to the register for custom wrapping.

“You ask what makes people keep coming back? It’s service,” George Jones said. The hands-on help is something that cannot be offered through a website.

In a time where online shopping is gaining speed, Lucy Marks said it is refreshing to have the community’s patronage.

“It’s wonderful how the community supports all of these local businesses, especially with Amazon trying to take over,” she said. “So shopping local means a lot to us, and it means a lot to our customers.”

“And people know George [Jones, owner of Snoozy’s Kids] and Linda and Faith, and people want to support their businesses so that they will do well,” said Lulu Marks.

That feeling echoes throughout the villages and their businesses. 

“There’s a concerted effort to keep Mountain Brook this way, with our smaller shops, the great restaurants, one of a kind restaurants,” said George Jones. “I know if someone is coming to our village, they’re coming to our village for the convenience, to find something they want. [If we don’t have it,] I will try some of my neighbors.”

Lucy, Lulu and Carol Ivy work to encourage the same local feel. Their ties back to family come in handy when their store does not have the right fit for a customer, all three women said. 

“If someone comes into Lilla for a purse and we don’t have it, I say, ‘Maybe Snoozy’s has it,” said Lucy Marks.

“And if I can’t fit the bill, and I think Snoozy’s can, I say, ‘Check with my daughter,’” Ivy said.

While this might seem strange in other areas, Lucy Marks said, it is something that happens all the time in Mountain Brook, even if employees are not relatives.

“We all want to support shopping local, whether it’s in Crestline Village, Mountain Brook Village or English Village,” she said.

In an age where so many people turn to online shopping, it’s important to encourage those ties, Lillian Jones said. And thankfully, she added, the people of Mountain Brook recognize their villages as a resource.

“With our community, we know how fortunate we are to have these villages,” she said, “and so I think people realize, ‘I need to shop local because if I don’t, it’s going to go away.’”