MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2004
OFF THE HILL
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 11D
Import stores cater to international tastes
By Jon Ralston jralston@kansan.com Special to the Kansan
Lawrence residents have more opportunities than ever to indulge their taste buds with products from around the world.
With more than 10 import stores in Lawrence, the market has yet to be cornered.
The Cost Plus World Market 3106 South Iowa St., is the newest import store to open in Lawrence. It is one of eight stores opened by the San Francisco chain in the past year. The company's net income was $3.3 million in this year's first quarter, almost a 30 percent increase from one year ago, according to the company's Web site.
Local import stores aren't worried that a larger chain store will drive them out of business.
"Downtown is a whole different
world than 31st and Iowa," Melissa Padgett, store manager of Third Planet, 846 Massachusetts St., said. "It's like it's two different cities."
She said she thought the acceptance of a diverse number of religions was another reason for good business, and pointed out the popularity of Buddhism.
"i think that this town is such a cultural crossroads. More people are decorating in a more diverse way," Padgett said. "Nothing says Christmas like a little, red Buddha."
The World Market and the local stores represent two types of import stores: the larger store that carries a variety of goods from around the world and the smaller store that carries specific imports.
Wiley, program coordinator in the University of Kansas's Office of Study Abroad.
"I think those two models can coexist. People can benefit from the bulk model and also the specialization model," said David
Wiley said import stores may have become more popular because the city had reached a critical mass of people.
Another example Wiley offered, was media. The Food Network and cookbooks provide culturally-specific recipes. Stores such as the Mediterranean Market and Cafe, 3300 W. 15th St., offer regional food supplies and ingredients that are hard to come by anywhere else.
"People have these recipes and need a particular ingredient that they can only get at these stores," Willey said.
Students participating in study abroad programs also contribute.
Wiley said foreign students shopped at import stores to find products they couldn't get anywhere else.
Brits, 732 Massachusetts St..
"In the first two or three days the exchange students from Scotland are here, they are in Brits lining up to buy Imi-Bru." Wiley said.
carries a drink popular in Scotland called Im-Bru, described as having a mild, citrus-vanilla flavor, that is not popular in the United States.
Internet sales have been increasing along with in-store sales for stores such as Au Marche, 931 Massachusetts St., that have a Web site where customers from all over the country can order its products.
Lora Wiley, managing owner of Au Marche and wife of David, said that business in her store had increased each year in the six years it had been open.
She and Trish Jess, director of operations for Third Planet, have visited the World Market and are not worried about the new store hurting their businesses.
CourtneyKuhlen/KANSAN
A gift box containing an assortment of European chocolates from Au Marche. Customers can also choose their own items to create a unique gift box.
Aging house waiting for renewal, residents
Edited by Joe Burke
By Erik Johnson ejohnson@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
For now, the house at 1033 Kentucky St. resists on four sets of railroad ties stacked three-wide and 16 high.
Entering the front door requires a gymnast-like walk, across a steel beam about 10 feet above the exposed concrete basement floor.
Inside, the first floor is visibly uneven from room to room. Walls and ceilings are cracked and crumbling. One window is partially broken and others completely knocked out have been covered with plastic.
"Welcome to my home," said Rachel Merz, Lawrence sophomore and future resident of Lawrence's newest co-op house.
Until April, this house — named "Ad Astra" by Merz and other future residents — sat for almost a century at 1309 Ohio St.
Once the former home of A.M. Wilcox, for which the Wilcox Classical Museum is named, it was donated by the Kansas Alumni Association after the lot where it stood was designated the future site of the Dennis E. Rieger Scholarship Hall.
The University of Kansas Student Housing Association, which owns the Sunflower House, 1406 Tennessee St, and another co-op house on 1614 Kentucky St., hired Chris Baker, Weatherby Lake, Mo., senior, to oversee moving and ensure progress on the reconstruction was being made.
Baker and a few other volunteers worked hard through the spring semester to make the house livable once again.
But when summer finally came, Baker found himself alone most of the time, staring at a badly beaten up house in need of some serious work.
Courtnev Kuhlen/KANSAN
"Things have been incredibly slow lately." Baker said as he searched for an evasive cordless drill. "It's hard because everybody goes home or has to get a full-time job during the summer so they can't get down here to help as often."
The upside, he said, is the opportunity to save a big house with some history.
Lawrence senior, said those who had been able to help rebuild understand that they're not being paid like they would at a 40-hour-a-week job.
Volunteer Aaron Paden.
Bakers biggest construction challenge may not be leveling uneven floors or repairing torn walls.
Christopher Baker, Weatherby Lake, Mo., fifth-year architecture and engineering student, sits atop one of the crossbeams supporting the weight of the Ad Astra house, 1033 Kentucky St. Sitting where front steps will eventually be, Baker was perched above the basement that he and volunteers have focused most of their attention on.
He said construction always cost more than originally estimated, and banks wouldn't give loans on the house because it had no value until it was occupiable, forcing Baker to turn elsewhere for much needed funds.
The house has received private loans from a number of sources: $100,000 from the Sunflower co-op, $20,000 from the Lawrence Preservation Alliance and $50,000 from private sources. The house itself was free, and the owner of the lot agreed to suspend payment requests for one year so residents could move in and acquire rent to pay.
Ad Astra was originally intended to be an Appropriate Technology house, which means it would use environmentally friendly construction materials and renewable methods of using water and energy.
But construction delays, a lack of consistent volunteers and rising costs have put this venture low on the priority list for now.
"There's been some talk about installing a solar water heater," Baker said. "But for now we're just trying to make this place livable, so we'll worry about that later."
Valley Moving of Wamego is scheduled to remove the aging railroad ties sometime this week, Baker said, which will allow the house to drop five-to-seven-inches onto permanent supports.
Baker and volunteers then have to create an entire basement from the bare wooden frame and enough space for four of the house's 10 rooms.
Ad Astra will likely not see completion — or at least occupiable conditions — until the middle or end of October, later than the expected September move in date.
This additional delay means 10 KU students may be without a place to sleep for half a semester, a problem that doesn't seem to bother Baker.
"i had a friend couch-surf at my place for a month and a last half-lum
mer," he said. "So I figure she owes me."
—Edited by Miranda Lenning
Wheat State Pizza opens
Rich Morrell, associate vice provost of student success at the University of Kansas, ate with a group of four other Lawrence residents at Wheat State on Friday. Morrell said he liked the crust and that the group would return.
Murphysaid Wheat State Pizza's biggest advantage may be the whole wheat crust he designed himself, using more sugar to make the crust taste sweeter.
The lack of a national advertising budget will force him to keep prices lower than the competition — a large, one-topping pizza is $1 less than Papa John's and offer menu options other stores won't have, such as Silas and Mady's ice cream, Murphy said. He hopes local support will help the business.
Kansas City-based Devlin Partners, L.L.C., franchises 35 Papa John's stores throughout Kansas and western Missouri. Scott MacHardy, general manager of Papa John's Lawrence store, said sales vary from year to year, but the Lawrence location is consistently one of Devlin Partners and Lawrence's top pizza shops.
By Erik Johnson ejohnson@kansan.com Kansan staff writer
Economic ailments and carbounting diet obsessions aside, Murphy said his shop could succeed in a highly competitive environment because local residents found Lawrence-based businesses more appealing.
A slumping economy and an Atkins-crazed America has been tough on the pizza industry, but national chains don't feel the pinch quite like local stores because an established national base allows chains to absorb minor losses easier, said MacHardy.
With six years of Lawrence pizza experience — three at Papa John's Pizza, 2233 Louisiana St., and three at Domino's Pizza, 832 Iowa St. — Murphy said he wanted to develop his own pizza using ingredients he knew women would prefer.
After sampling 24 different cheeses, he settled on a Wisconsin cheese that was not flash-frozen during production like cheese found at most national chains.
Ryan Murphy wanted to silence the stomachs of students and local residents with higher-quality ingredients and a far-from-corporate, local feel when he opened the doors to Lawrence's seventeenth pizza shop.
Murphy, Eudora resident, opened Wheat State Pizza Thursday in The Malls shopping center, 711 W.23rd St., in the former space of Godfather's Pizza.
"They know we'll put more time into their food," Murphy said. "We're not going to serve anything that's less than perfect."
- Edited by Miranda Lenning