BUSINESS AWARDS
Lubelle Boutique
Brooks boutique Lubelle has women in mind
Andrea Klassen Medicine Hat News
A Brooks boutique is hoping its unique offerings can convince citizens to buy local, instead of hopping in their cars and heading out of town.
Co-owners Cindy Jensen and Monique Better opened Lubelle Boutique in August 2008, after the lack of women’s retail in Brooks led them on one too many shopping road trips.
“We were always finding that we had to shop out of town for ourselves,” Jensen remembers, “and (we thought) why not put our dollars into our own community?"
The store offers a range of hard-to-find clothing, specializing in what Jensen likes to call “cute-casual.”
Brands include Hudson Jeans, Part Two and Mexx. Handbags from eco-friendly designer Matt and Nat are also available, along with jewelry, scarves and even the occasional piece of lingerie that shoppers would otherwise have to leave the community to purchase.
Smith Funeral Home
Smith Funeral values small-town connection
Andrea Klassen Medicine Hat News
Almost 60 years have passed since Brooks resident Dale Smith started Smith Funeral Home Ltd. out of his home in 1951.
Since then, the company has moved into its own building on 3rd Avenue West, and grown to include two more family members, including current president and owner Ron Smith, who took ownership of the business in 1991. His son-in-law, Kelly Tanigami, is also one of the home’s three funeral directors.
Together with five part-time staff members, the team assists its clients with all aspects of funeral planning, from casket and floral selection to other necessary arrangements.
Tanigami says the funeral home’s long time presence in Brooks is one of its greatest assets.
Smith Funeral Home is the only mortuary service operating in the area and serves not only the Brooks community, but the numerous small towns surrounding it as well.
102 — REPORT ON SOUTHEAST ALBERTA 2010 ■ Celebrating our Community
After so many years in the community, Tanigami says the funeral home’s staff are familiar faces in town.
“You know the saying, you go down the street to buy a carton of milk and you never come back?” he asks. “We can go down to the market and have it take 20 minutes, because people know who we are and they’ll stop and talk to us. We’re very fortunate that way.”
He thinks that familiarity makes it easier for families to come to Smith when a loved one passes on.
“It’s still a small town mentality,” he explains. “So many of the families we serve, we’re friends with them, almost like family. And I think people are very comfortable in phoning us and saying ‘hey, Kelly, mom died. I need your help with this.’”
Tanigami, who was born and raised in nearby Rosemary, says that closeness doesn’t just exist in Brooks, it’s something they see in surrounding communities as well.
“Families (in Rosemary) will call me, and they’ll call me personally,” he says, “which is very unique... It’s a very different situation than it would be in Medicine Hat, or any city.”
“We have a good idea of what kind of clientele we have now, so when we go to buy we think about our customers and what they ask for,” Jensen says. "I really find that Brooks women, they're not really into dressing up for stuff.”
Instead, she says women are looking for casual wear that’s “classy looking stuff, not too high end... just a nice, cute little outfit.”
A year and a half after opening, Jensen says the store is developing some dedicated regulars, usually women over 20. But it’s still difficult to convince locals who’ve gotten out of the habit to make Brooks their first shopping destination.
“I think it's harder in a smaller community to get people to come into your store first,” says Jensen. “I still think people want to shop out of town.”
To combat that urge to get away, Lubelle Boutique has already run a full slate of sales, promotions and special events.
A Christmas Men’s Only Night gave male shoppers a chance to buy presents for the women in their lives, and get a bit of advice from Jensen and Better along the way. And the duo celebrated the store’s first anniversary by giving away a $500 shopping spree.
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