You mentioned that you went to Atlanta Market at AmericaSmart in mid-January. Can you tell me a little about that?

I always try to find something new and different. I don’t like to walk into a store and see the exact same thing at every store, so I always try to find something a little out of the box and a little different than other people and just sort of separate myself. Our gifts and things that we buy at Market are more kitchen related. Entertaining, kitchen, dining, placemats, silverware…that’s kind of what we shop for. And every once in a while we may put some crazy stuff in here that we just think is fun and we just need to put it in here and see what happens cause we wanted to buy it.

They have gourmet food tents there, they have a gourmet floor. Pre-pandemic it was great because you could try everything, but post-pandemic you can’t sample anything. So it’s been a little bit more difficult for us to find new products…we did get to try some. They kind of bent the rules a little and let us try. They’re all small batch businesses, growing their businesses in the process of getting them to grow larger. So this is like their first, second step before going into a specialty wholesaler like a Gourmet Foods International or Performance Food Group. This is their stepping stone, and some people we’ve met along the way went to the big box brands and pulled out, had to reinvent themselves under a new name because they realized that going national was not cost-effective.

How often do you travel to find products for your shop? Where’s the farthest you’ve gone?

I don’t really travel a whole lot…a couple times a year. If we end up going to Charleston on vacation we’ll find new things along the way. I do a lot of research on the internet and use word of mouth. People may say ‘oh, you know, I’ve gotten to know a few people who have small batch foods that supply to us, like in Highlands and different places in the Carolinas.’ A lot of it is about word of mouth right now. Pre-pandemic, we would be able to go try lots and lots of stuff and make good decisions but it’s getting a little harder. I’m wanting to go to a fancy food show. There’s one next month in Las Vegas and one in the summer in New York. I may try to go there.

Whenever I go out of town I always make it a point to find a specialty food store or a specialty market and buy some things to see if it’s something my customers would like.

How did you handle the restrictions of the pandemic as far as running the business goes?

Well, we were fortunate because we are classified as a specialty grocery store so we were able to stay open, which was wonderful for the caterers because they basically lost all of their business. Clementine was the head chef of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center so she was basically out of work. So it was wonderful….we had a lot of support and I just felt it was just giving back to all these wonderful women that cook. It gave them a paycheck, it was helping keep them afloat so they weren’t just sitting there losing money and not being able to pay their rent or anything like that. They still lost a lot but it did give them a little source of income that they wouldn’t otherwise have had.

I’m guessing deliveries became a lot more popular during this time?

We did a lot of curbside. People could call us and tell us what they wanted, and we would run their credit card over the phone. A lot of people just enjoyed coming in because it was open and they could come in with their masks.

What’s your favorite part of being the owner-operator of Walker’s Market?

The people. I love the people. [Kimberly took a thank-you card off of the wall]. This is funny: This is from Adive and he was our UPS driver Nick’s helper over Christmas. Nick toted this thank-you note around for a month and gave it to me this week. I mean, I literally started crying. That’s why I do what I do. I have that up there so when I have a bad day I can come back and read it.

What do you think are the keys to your success?

Hard work, customer service, long hours, no paycheck…you’ve gotta be willing to throw yourself into your business 100% and it’s going to have to be your child. And just like a child, it has to grow. And as it grows, you get to relax a little, you can come off a little bit, but you don’t ever want to not be involved in every step of the way. These girls will go to Market and they may say ‘oh, we found something, you need to come,’ but I won’t let them buy anything until I see it.

That’s the mother hen, I guess. It’s all about your customers and word of mouth. I’ll do anything for anybody if they ask me to, to a degree.

Do you have any words of wisdom for other people who are dreaming of starting their own small business?

Don’t be afraid. Just do it. As long as you have a business sense and you understand how a business runs, and taxes, and payrolls, as long as you can kind of grasp all that. Look for someone who doesn’t have a big long lease and that way you’re not stuck with it if it doesn’t take off.