If five heart attacks could not undermine Kim Miller”™s road to success, the worst recession in memory hardly stands a chance.Â
In adjusting her business model, Miller has found a formula for reducing waste while prodding customers inside with a gentle nudge: a “green rack” outside the store. In the process, customers are savings some greenbacks on Route 9 while finding what is often termed “that certain something.”
Clothes that stay on the rack too long end up in the “please take” box Miller keeps in the front of her two-story shop.
One year ago, HVBiz visited Miller, who had been having a great summer but started seeing sales coming to a slow halt during the dog days of August. She wasn”™t alone. The National Retailers Association reported sales dropping to unprecedented lows, with 2008 the worst the industry had experienced since post-World War II. Miller”™s small shop was feeling the chilly blast.
“I”™m still here,” said Miller recently. “And people are out shopping again, spending carefully.” Her daughter Victoria helps keep the doors open.
For Miller, a corporate world worker turned entrepreneur, the struggle was not just staying alive on the ledger, but physically staying alive without the benefit of health insurance; she is a heart attack survivor.
Her fifth heart attack landed her in Vassar Brothers”™ ICU in Poughkeepsie in 2006. Vassar saved her life, but her home, car and other marketable possessions were gone, either sold by Miller or repossessed to pay more than $85,000 in doctor and hospital bills that she accumulated.Â
“We are even getting customers from right here in Hyde Park where it seemed the local community didn”™t know we existed,” said Miller. She attributes the rise in consumer confidence to her 99-cent “green” rack, set up each morning outside the store and filled with consignment items people left and never came back for. Add to that Miller”™s welcoming demeanor, and it becomes hard not to enter Surviving Sisters”™ doors and explore a bit more.
“I must admit I worry, but we are keeping up with the bills, and I have made a lot of friends who have helped keep me, either picking up merchandise for me or just that moral support that”™s so important,” said Miller, whose volunteer efforts for the American Heart Association and its Hudson Valley chapter have captured the hearts of many of her customers and business colleagues.
“Right now, I have over 100 artists”™ works in the house,” as Miller calls her shop. “This isn”™t just a store … the people who bring their work here to be sold are my family.”
The store features everything from paintings, to handmade baby clothes, scarves and hats, wreaths and country collectibles, designer clothes at discount prices and vintage women”™s wear.
One item Miller really needs remains out of reach: health care insurance.Â
“I”™d love to be able to have it,” said Miller, “but I own a business. Even though I have this store, the building is leased, but I am a business owner. Everything I had that was worth anything is gone. I refused to declare bankruptcy. I was indebted to Vassar Brothers for saving my life, but I didn”™t want to ruin it by declaring bankruptcy. So what I had that was worth selling was sold; the bank took my car. My daughter and mom are here for me, but my grandmother and I were very close. It was very tough losing her. I”™m sure it didn”™t help me when it came to dealing with my own health, which I kind of ignored, thinking those pains and aches I had would go away and were just emotional because I had lost her. But they turned out into a major, life-threatening disease. I”™m thankful I”™m still here; I”™m healthy. I take my baby aspirin every day. And I do a lot of praying.”
Miller is among perhaps 50 million uninsured in the U.S. and their ranks are growing. She is too “wealthy” to qualify for government services, but not making enough to afford health care, even at reduced costs through her local chamber of commerce, an organization many small business owners across the region turn to purchase group policies for themselves and employees. “First things first,” says Miller. “The rent, the gas and electric and food.
There isn”™t anything left for health insurance.” Miller”™s also a risk, since she”™s got a pre-existing condition. “That”™s where extra prayer comes in.”
The recession, in a strange twist, has made stores like Miller”™s more attractive. Although she offers a healthy mix of old and new, she”™s got a penchant for new or gently used vintage clothing. “I had three women come in recently who were going to a party with a Victorian theme,” she said. “I was able to dress them, head to toe, with the perfect outfits. I like unusual things and so do most of my customers.”
“I survived losing a loved one, a major heart attack, almost every material possession I owned, but I still thank God for every day He gives me, even if some of them are tougher than others,” said the retailer. “Now, our job as small businesses is to try to survive this economy. We don”™t know how long this is going to last or what will be left when it”™s over.”Â
Miller fully expects to be there to share “war stories” one day, similar to those with which her own grandmother, a survivor of the Great Depression, inspired her.
