HOLMES BEACH - Susan Eacker never lived on Anna Maria Island, but her roots here
go back to the 1880s. She and her husband, John Malan, sold a prosperous Cincinnati business stringing custom bead jewelry to open Nica Rose,
a larger store with an expanded inventory, on Anna Maria Island.
Now Eacker hopes the area that supported four generations of her family will support her in her new endeavor.
The couple sold 10,000 necklaces, bracelets, anklets and rings last year from a 9-foot-by-12-foot
kiosk in Kenwood Towne Center in Cincinnati. They paid $50,000 a year in rent for the tiny space. They earned $300,000 last year.
Before coming to Holmes Beach, they thought about opening a bead business in Key West,
even putting down a deposit for a booth on the famous Duval Street, for which they would have paid $4,000 a month.
But with bars in the prime tourist area starting to fill up as early as 10 a.m. daily, Key West was a little too noisy for them, they said.
Nica Rose opened last week at 5508 Marina Drive in a roomy 1,200 square feet, for which they pay $1,700 a month in rent.
They've exchanged the benefits of a crowded mall bringing hordes of people past their business for the laid-back ambiance
of island life, Malan said.
"This was a lifestyle choice," Malan said. "I live half a block from one of the most beautiful beaches in the world. I like to swim in the ocean."
Malan fell in love with the island on his first visit when the couple was married on the beach here a year ago.
Eacker visited her grandparents many times on the island when she was growing up.
Her great-grandfather, William Fulford, was one of the early Cortez fishermen and sea captains,
moving to the area with his brothers in the 1880s. Eacker's grandparents, Jack and Sally Moore,
started Moore's Stonecrab Restaurant on Longboat Key.
A lady in her 70s came into Nica Rose who remembered Sally Moore's banana cream pies, Eacker said.
Susan Eacker's mother, Polly Moore, was born on the island back in the days when islanders had an image of barefoot peasantry.
"Mainlanders looked down on islanders," Eacker said. "They were poor fisher folk."
The history of the area inspired Eacker so much that as a doctoral student of history, she wrote her dissertation on a women's
history of Cortez, titled "Mullets, Mangoes and Midwives."
Exotic beads from Africa, Bali, Thailand, Italy and Austria act as both inventory and decoration at the Holmes Beach store.
In addition to strung and loose beads, the store is the island's exclusive distributor of Sister Agnes Soap,
handmade in loaves and sold by the slice. Nica Rose also carries Nicaraguan pottery in pre-Columbian and modern designs.
Nica Rose was the name chosen for the business after Eacker spent several months in Nicaragua visiting relatives and buying
pottery. Natives of Nicaragua are known as "Nicas," Eacker said.
In his e-mail messages to her, Malan would refer to Eacker as his Nica Rose. As a term of endearment, the name stuck and became a new business.
The couple decided to expand their inventory beyond just jewelry to relieve the pressure that comes with having to make their own stock.
Malan can string up to 12 necklaces an hour, depending on the size of the beads and the holes.
"It takes a load off to have a product we don't make," he said. "I know people who've done very well selling soap."
Berangere Gohy, a tourist from Belgium, returned to Nica Rose on Tuesday to show the proprietors two rings she made from $6
worth of Swarovski crystal beads purchased at the store.
"It's cheaper to buy crystal beads here than in Europe," Gohy said. She paid 10 cents apiece for the beads.
Malan said he would rather sell jewelry than beads, because dealing with loose beads "is a pain." But he
acknowledges that he doesn't know yet what the market will demand, and loose beads may be what people want.
"You give up traffic when you're not in a mall," Malan said. "Now, we have to advertise and bring people to us."
Source: © 2004, The Bradenton Herald. http://www.bradenton.com/
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