Bakery Bliss and Bookstore Bonanza: The Secret Sauce Behind Princeton's Small Business Magic
One thing about Princeton residents is that they will come out and show support. Often the main attraction of Princeton, New Jersey, is Princeton University, but have you ever wondered what keeps this suburban community going?
Small businesses just like Fils-Aime’s and Moltke’s surround the University's campus and help create this sense of comfort around the town. Their contribution to their community is constantly recognized by both university students and citizens of this area. Sometimes communities can fail to notice small businesses as huge corporate chains arrive in their communities, but in Princeton, it is clear that these businesses residing in Princeton are highlighted and are here to stay.
From Haiti to a pastry shop in New York to owning his very own bakery shop in New Jersey, Edwidge Fils-Aimeowns Little Chef in the suburban area of Princeton, New Jersey. For 20 years, this small business has only just grown and kept the Princeton community going, but Fils-Aime’s business is not the only small business on the block.
Dorothea von Moltke along with her husband and brother-in-law own Labyrinth Books, it serves as an academic scholarly book store for both those of the community and those who attend the university nearby.
What stands out from both these businesses is that they have been around for a while, even throughout the pandemic. One might say that the only reason they succeed in the neighborhood is because the university is right next to it, but it's actually the community that helps serve as an aid to these businesses. They are always contributing to the community. Both the bakery and bookstore have a lot to offer to this community, and the residents here realize that.
Dorothea von Motlke states “Yes, we do a lot of events. I would say that during the semester, we do probably 3 to 4 events a week…I do a lot together with the Princeton Public Library…”Motlke illuminates her efforts to be more involved within the Princeton community and shows her contributions to both the community and the university students. “So I try to reach in both directions into the community and onto campus… If you're curious, you can always hop on to the events page on our website.”
Huge chain corporations have become big with causing trouble for smaller businesses, specifically book stores.
Sometimes, in their journey as a small business, they face lots of problems such as chains and other spaces being more accessible, such as Amazon, Moltke says, “Amazon is the evil empire for people like me…”
“Around course books, the rise of Amazon required a couple of moments of real restructuring because…you just can't compete with someone's prices. The Amazon book prices are set explicitly not to have to make a profit. So how do you compete?”
Moltke helps demonstrate the difficulties that small businesses owners face while also specifically talking about her experience as a bookstore owner, but the suburban area never lets down their community. The Princeton community is often contributed by small businesses such as the book store and bakery shop, but what about the community giving back to these small businesses?
The university definitely helps these small businesses in a variety of ways, as they inform students of certain small businesses surrounding campus. Moltke and Fils-Aime demonstrate exactly how this process happens.
Moltke depicts; “We opened here at the invitation of the university. They were looking for someone to have a community bookstore that was also a scholarly bookstore, but that would also handle course books for them.”
Fils-Aime correlates the same response within his interview, stating–
“Yes, it's like, a lot of, a lot of my customers still always come in, old ones, and then the new ones… they always send a new customer, and then it's always, at the beginning…” Says Fils-Aime. “...It was hard for me to get students, but soon after, like, one year, two years, it's just like, one tells the other group, one tells the other group, and then that's what I've been having, a lot of students…”
Fils-Aime and Moltke illuminate and highlight the struggles as a small business owner, while maintaining their contribution to their communities, and making sure that people understand that their community also gives back to them.
“Most important for me, it's just like, you know, do the right thing. Do the work. Keep the business going the way I started at the beginning, and then focus on it. And then give the service the customer needs.” - Edwidge Fils-Aime