Fort Myers Florida Weekly

Survivors

73 businesses still around since Lee County started keeping records



EVAN WILIAMS FOR FLORIDA WEKLY      EVAN WILLIAMS/FLORIDA WEEKLY        Benson's Grocery in downtown Bonita Springs,      above, and the Ace Hardware store on Fowler     Street in Fort Myers, right, are two of 73 businesses    that have been doing business in town     since records have been kept.

EVAN WILIAMS FOR FLORIDA WEKLY EVAN WILLIAMS/FLORIDA WEEKLY Benson’s Grocery in downtown Bonita Springs, above, and the Ace Hardware store on Fowler Street in Fort Myers, right, are two of 73 businesses that have been doing business in town since records have been kept.

A 50th star was added to the American flag (for Hawaii), Congress announced that 3,500 soldiers would be sent to Vietnam, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower declared Southwest Florida a disaster area when Hurricane Donna ravaged Fort Myers. It all happened the year Charles Bundschu became a real estate broker in Fort Myers.

 

 


“I sold a mango grove to a doctor for $20,000 and made a $2,000 commission which I split with another broker,” he said. “I remember that because it was the first big one.”

The world was in many ways a different place then. Cape Coral, for example, “was nothing,” Mr. Bundschu said. “It was just swamp.”

However, some things don’t change. Mr. Bundschu, 84, is semi-retired and works out of his home office now, at The Landings on McGregor Boulevard, but continues to sell real estate.

His is one of 73 businesses issued an occupational license by the Lee County tax collector’s office in 1960 — the first year they were required — that is still around today. Others include Ace Hardware on Fowler Street, Benson’s Grocery in downtown Bonita Springs, Bill’s Fruit & Gift Shop in Cape Coral, Beacon Motel & Resort on Fort Myers Beach and one of the nation’s first Burger King restaurants, at 4004 Cleveland Ave. (The Whopper had been introduced in 1957).

BUNDSCHU

BUNDSCHU


Tom Jendrysik, assistant manager of the business tax department for the Lee County Tax Collector, said there are no records showing the number of businesses that started in 1960, only those that remain. All of the original license documents have disappeared into the trash bins of history.

Nationwide, about 205,000 new businesses were incorporated in 1960, says the Commerce Department. (More recent statistics show about 600,000 new businesses are incorporated every year, plus at least half a million unincorporated ones).

Keeping one running is tough in good economic times and bad. Less than half of businesses make it past the first five years, according to the Small Business Administration. In 2007, there were at least 80 businesses still around since 1960 in Lee County.

“You just keep working at it and do the best that you can,” said Jencye Schmitt, who owns the Ace Hardware store on Fowler Street with her husband Jerry and sister Mary Mahn.

The sisters’ grandparents bought the land in 1960, Ms. Mahn said, but didn’t open the store until 1968.

The family has been in the hardware business for generations, in Florida and Illinois. The sisters’ great-grandparents owned J.R. Parker hardware in downtown Fort Myers, which was forced to close because of the Great Depression.

Ace on Fowler survived maybe an even greater test than the current recession — a Builders Square opened up just down the street in the 1980s. To stay in business then, Ms. Mahn said, her family had to take a 30 percent pay cut, but eventually outlived the big box store.

Times are just as tough now.

“It’s real bad,” she said. “We’re struggling to keep the doors open with the taxes going up, insurance going up. Everything’s gone up and it’s hard to keep the shelves stocked.”

Her mother, Maxine Mahn, 73, sold out the Ace store to her daughters five years ago, and is confident they’ll survive these times too. “They’re going to have to pull their belt buckle in,” she said, “But we did too in the 1970s. I think the kids will do all right; they’ve grown up in hardware.”

Her secrets to longevity include nuggets of wisdom that, at times, seem fresh again: treating people the way they would want to be treated, and not spending more than you make.

“I think it’s basically about time we all woke up to the fact we’re living on too much credit,” she said. “I think if the American people will live off what they make, we’ll make it. We’re fighters.”

Others businesses say they have not lost profits, in spite of the recession.

“I don’t think it’s slowed down,” said Bob Jones, 78, owner of Bill’s Fruit & Gift Store in Cape Coral. Mr. Jones bought the store from the original owner in 1983 and is open on a seasonal basis, October through May. “As far as in-store sales, it’s probably running pretty close to what it was last year. People seem to be spending just as much now as they have in the past.”

The greatest business challenge Mr. Jones faced, he said, was switching the records and order taking to a computer, about 10 years ago.

At the Beacon Motel & Resort on Fort Myers Beach, General Manager Sherry Guess said new owners refurbished the motel when they bought it two years ago.

“I look out at the people on the street and I don’t see a recession,” she said. “I had a lot of cancellations for New Year’s, but we just book the rooms right back up.”

Benson’s Grocery on Old 41 in downtown Bonita Springs was issued a 1960 occupational license, but owner Albert DeBono said the store was built in 1926. He bought it from W.C. Benson in 1978 and runs it with his two sons, brotherin law and wife.

It was a challenge from the get go. Mr. Benson had often closed the store early or at his convenience and it took Mr. DeBono six months to regain a regular clientele.

Then, downtown Bonita was like a ghost town.

“This was a forgotten place in the 1970s,” Mr. DeBono said. “Bonita was the stepchild of Lee County.”

Still, with overhead like the price of insurance and food costs up, last year was “the hardest year I’ve had in 31 years,” Mr. DeBono said, “and the next one might be worse.”

His yearly goal is to have all his debts paid off by Feb. 1, but said he may not make it this year. The only other time it was this bad was when the street out front closed down for six months in the 1990s, when a nearby bridge was being replaced.

Mr. DeBono, 60, grew up in Detroit, where his father owned a small grocery store. Benson’s is also small compared to supermarkets, but complete: fresh produce, meat, canned goods, baking and baked goods, health and beauty products and more are all found here, stocked in neatly marked isles.

His secret to success includes working hard (the store is open every day from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., except Christmas and Thanksgiving when it closes at 3:30 p.m.) Also, treating everyone as an equal. Mr. DeBono described at least one occasion when he had to ask a customer who refused to wait in line behind a Mexican man to either go to the back of the line or leave. He also keeps special items in stock for regular customers.

“We take care of people,” Mr. DeBono said. “And we don’t overcharge anybody.”

Although the recession is cutting into many businesses, real estate broker Mr. Bundschu is optimistic.

“I grew up during the Depression,” he said. “This is nothing. There’s still work out there to do. I know people that are going back to work, people that have done a good job. And things are starting to pick up a little. We’re living in a very fortunate area; people are still coming down here.”

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