Ann Arbor, mid-one afternoon during the week in downtown Ann Arbor, Chera Traastin looked at Kilwins and saw only two customers sitting outside a nearby lunch.
“They should rush,” she said. “Companies cannot live like that.”
After 42 years of operation, Kilwins at 107 E. Liberty St. will close permanently on December 31. Tramontin, who took over from his mother, Karen Piehutkowski, said that the decision was made three years ago, in late 2022 in the middle of the drop in pedestrian traffic, rising costs and changes in the Kilwins franchise.
“It’s a ghost city here,” she said. “From Monday to Wednesday, you could come morning, noon or night and find a parking space.”
Tramontin cited the Pandemic Covid-19 as a turning point. Remote work has emptied the nearby office buildings and changed consumer habits, she said.
“Covid has made a lot of people learn to work at home,” she said. “All these office buildings that had people who go out for lunch or walk around town – let’s go.”
Economic pressures have worsened. The costs of the ingredients have skyrocketed, including cocoa, which constitutes a large part of the range of chocolate products, ice cream, fudge and other candies. When the store opened, a chocolate book sold $ 9.99. Now it sells $ 42.99, said Traastin.
“I do not pretend to be the cheapest in the city,” she said. “I have a good product. It is expensive because the cost to do it is really expensive. ”
Raw sales fell to a quarter of what they were in the past, while rent and wages continued to increase and prices have doubled, said Tramontin.
Traastin goes to the counter to help a customer make a purchase. She could count the number of customers so far that day on her hand.
Related: More lunch thrust? Ann Arbor’s restaurant owners “happy if we even break”
“It’s not sustainable,” said Tramontin. “And the trend at this stage does not go up, it goes. This is what I see in terms of culture of Ann Arbor.”
Kilwins is not the only company in downtown Ann Arbor recently.
Downtown Home and Garden, 210 Ashley St., will close on December 24 after almost 120 years. The non -profit 826Michigan moved from 115 E. Liberty Street in Ypsilant. Redhawk Grill, 316 S. State St., closed in May after 33 years. The company was then expelled for not having paid its rent of nearly $ 10,000 per month. Other long -standing companies 16 hands at 407 N. 5th Ave. And Ten Thousand Villages have closed their Ann Arbor stores this year.
Although the rent was not the only reason for the closure of Kilwins, Traastin acknowledged that it was part of a wider set of challenges and is grateful for the owners, A2 Curtis LLC, to be “just” throughout the time of Kilwins in the building.
“I really like my owners,” she said. “They gave us a chance 40 years ago when no one else would. My mother was a divorced woman in the 80s trying to start a business. I appreciate them. “
In a press release, Benjamin Curtis, said that A2 Curtis is sorry that Traastin did not extend the kilwins lease. Because Kilwins was such a long tenant, the rent “has always been artificially low”, almost 50% less than the market, he said.
“A2 Curtis LLC has never lost a tenant because of the rent. Most of our retailers have been with us for decades because we have been soft on rents and increases,” wrote Curtis in an email. “Covid forced closures were a particularly difficult period for downtown affairs. However, we have done everything in our power to help our tenants and we have not lost a single retailer while so many others have closed their doors permanently. ”
He noted that Ann Arbor’s “ever -increasing taxes” stimulate rents and high prices. In addition, the cost of maintaining old historical buildings sometimes exceeds what rents generate. A2 Curtis has never billed Kilwins for the maintenance of common areas, building insurance or water. “It is our philosophy that if our tenants succeed, we succeed.”
Kilwins Ann Arbor was the first official franchise store in the history of the company, opening in 1983 after the launch of the company in Petoskey in 1947. Traastin stressed that the emerging brand felt like a family that learns all together.
But in recent years, she said, the company, which has nearly 200 branches on a national scale, has undergone a change of brand that was feeling more and more companies. They wanted employees to wear uniforms, while the store was forced to use an “extremely sterile” brand, said Tramontin. She did not want to “become a chipotle” or another chain restaurant where each location is identical.
“It doesn’t matter whether you come to my store or to the Plymouth store or anywhere in Florida-we are all the same,” she said.
She wondered if the current Kilwins iteration was where she wanted to work anymore. It no longer felt fun or like his store. It was as if she was director of someone else’s store, she said.
The third party owners of Kilwins sold it in 2023 to the investment company Levine Leichtman Capital Partners, based in California.
The efforts last week to reach Leichtman and the Kilwins headquarters to comment did not succeed.
When Tramontin decided to close three years ago, Traastin thought of selling the store, but Kilwins Corporate refused to approve the sale, without loving the configuration and culture of the store that had been built over 40 years, she said.
“They said we were not well enough. We were too cool, too funky,” she said.
Traastin was forced to “remove his individual thrust that made the special and unique store,” said Curtis. The brand “Cookie Cutter” was no longer in accordance with the original kilwins, he said.
She chose to let the contract exhaust and separate. Having already decided to close at the end of 2022, the sale of 2023 confirmed its instinct.
“It is also a really exciting period for us too,” said Traastin. “In some ways, it’s like a divorce. I divorce the company and I move on to something else and I will find someone else. ”
Despite the challenges, Tramontin expressed a deep gratitude for the community which supported Kilwins over the decades.
“I did my best friends here. I had incredible staff in the years I am in contact with it, ”she said. “I went to weddings, funerals, baby showers from my clients and my employees. I could not have done it without them. ”
She said that she hoped to leave the memory of a joyful space.
“I want to leave the memory of a happy place,” she said. “I saw children growing up. I saw parents, grandparents come and go. I just hope they will remember good times here. ”
Traastin does not completely leave the city center. She and her mother have the building that once housed the Del Rio bar, operated by her stepfather. She opened a yoga studio called Blue Monk Studio in the same building, above the Grizzly Peak on the third floor at the 120 W. Washington St.
“This is something I always wanted to try,” she said.
As for the future of Kilwins to Ann Arbor, Traastin said that she could possibly see another place of franchise open.
“Ann Arbor still loves something new at first,” she said. “But that brings people back to the door and brought people to the city center – that’s the challenge.”
She has offered advice to anyone planning to open a business in the region: sit at the front where you plan to open a business and have how many people will pass.
By reflecting on the closure of Kilwins, Traastin said that she was at peace.
“Everything is coming to an end,” she said. “We had an incredible 42 -year -old series. Business is simply different now. ”
Do you want more news from the Ann Arbor region? Sign the Local page Ann Arbor News.
If you buy a product or register for an account via a link on our site, we can receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our user agreement and accept that your clicks, interactions and personal information can be collected, recorded and / or stored by us and social media and other third -party partners in accordance with our privacy policy.
