Over 20 Years In Business
Pioneer Entrepreneurs Helped To Create The Wellington We Call Home
By Deborah Welky
Schaefer Drugs
Significant changes in the Wellington business community have taken place over the past 20 years. With a front-row seat to everything that has happened are the pioneer businesses, those whose founders risked their livelihoods to establish retail enterprises in the fledgling community of Wellington in the years before incorporation.
Chuck Schaefer opened Schaefer Drugs in October 1979 and, although more and more drugstores have opened up in the area, it has not affected his business much.
“People like to do business with people, not institutions,” Schaefer said. “I’m lucky enough to have long-term employees, and my customers can usually walk into the store anytime and talk to myself or a member of the family. My son Jay is the store manager now. Six or seven years ago, I signed a lease to take us to 2025 whether I’m here or not. I don’t do all the work anymore anyway. I’ve got two other pharmacists with me.”
Schaefer said that the biggest change to his business model has been dealing with insurance companies. “The insurance companies are making it more and more difficult for independent drugstores to survive,” he said. “It’s a level playing field for us right now because we do compounding. We can make specific drugs and also have a big veterinary business. We can accommodate some needs that are not met by the big chains. We do 95 percent of our business with the people who live here full-time, and the community continues to grow.”
Horizon Pool & Patio
Chuck Grove opened Horizon Pool & Patio in 1985, and has worked hard to keep up with the times.
“I think the main thing that has happened in our business has occurred in the last five to eight years,” Grove explained. “Many pools in our area are now 20 to 25 years old, so we are now doing a lot more pool remodeling. It’s very common that, instead of downsizing, people are choosing to stay in their houses and put the money they’d spend on a move into improving it.”
Horizon also benefits from two complementary seasons. “When people who live here year-round stop using their pools in the winter months, then the snowbirds start using their pools. They realize they need a heater, which is a fairly big-ticket item and compensates for customers not buying floats and toys. Plus, a large portion of our business is maintaining pools, and that stays steady all year long.”
Visions Salon
Tom Monticello opened Visions Salon in 1988 and has been keeping up with local styles for nearly 30 years. “Yeah, I was 6 years old when we opened,” Monticello laughed. “We started in a small space, then expanded to 2,500 square feet. We remodel every five years or so to stay modern.”
Through the changes, Monticello’s mission is the same. “We focus 100 percent on hair services — hair design and especially color. We have about six master colorists on staff, doing everything from touch-ups to hair painting, the latest trends in the color world,” he said.
Today, Monticello is doing the hair of his original clients’ children’s children. “We have every age group of stylists. Our protégée hairdressers may be age 19 and overseen by a master stylist, then we have senior master designers for people who need a more experienced touch,” he explained. “We try to advise both men and women to stay contemporary as they age… We don’t do anything that’s dated.”
Woody’s
Richard Wood opened Woody’s, his shoe and leather repair shop, in June of 1987 and has seen some major changes in his industry over the decades. During the equestrian season, he takes his show “on the road,” setting up a trailer at the show grounds to be available for on-site repairs.
“I’ve upgraded my trailer to a 29-footer,” Wood said. “We needed to bring out more equipment, and we needed more workspace. The riders have a big impact on our business over the five-month equestrian season. Things do break. If I wasn’t here on the spot, I don’t know what they’d do. In the beginning of the season, we get bombarded with boots from all over.”
As a cobbler, Wood doesn’t think much of many shoes on the market today. However, he keeps his focus on high-end footwear.
“Many of today’s shoes are injection molded — they’re made by chemists. They’re glued together using 100 different kinds of glues. They’re not repairable ladies’ high-heeled shoes and men’s good loafers and dress shoes like they used to be. Society women buy the best shoes, and some have them for 40 years,” he said. “In riding boots, we used to have five big names, and now there are about 50. Your good brands are still making quality products. I’m old school. I’ve been in the original Wellington Mall for 29 years, just trudging along doing a quality job using quality materials.”
Wheels of Wellington
Stan Kilbas of Wheels of Wellington has also seen materials change over the past 20 years. Kilbas opened his store in 1995, moving to its current location in the original Wellington Mall in 1997.
“Since that time, the biggest change in the bike business itself has been the products we sell,” Kilbas said. “The road bikes have gone from steel and aluminum to carbon fiber. It used to be that mountain bikes were hot sellers, then the road bikes, and now it’s gone to more of a comfortable cruiser-type ride.”
Kilbas now also has to compete with big box stores along State Road 7. “We put a major emphasis on providing the best customer service,” he said. “Our summers have gotten busier than previously, but the kids aren’t riding bikes like they used to. A lot of the equestrian folks use bicycles to get around the show grounds, so we do a lot of selling and servicing in those months. And we have customers bring in bikes that they’ve tried to assemble themselves.”
Wellington Florist
While many still identify founders Dean and Melinda Varvarigos with Wellington Florist, it’s their son J.P. who has managed the shop for the last 10 years.
“We’ve had substantial growth since we opened in May 1991,” J.P. said. “In 2014, we expanded our shop, doubling our size, to accommodate the needs of Wellington. The equestrians are a big part of our customer base, but we also do deliveries for those who want fresh flowers in their homes weekly. Those people want what’s trendy, so we educate ourselves at different symposiums and workshops to learn what’s new. We get busy for dance troupe recital season and prom — and Wellington’s Father-Daughter Dance is huge. There’s always something going on. Valentine’s Day has grown out of control. We do 500 to 600 deliveries. Mother’s Day is also huge. NuVista, the new local nursing home, is big now, so we send a lot of flowers there.”
With many year-round customers, Wellington Florist is now a less seasonable business. “For 20 years, we weren’t profitable in the summer, but now we are,” J.P. said.
Van Dell Jewelers
Jack Van Dell opened Van Dell Jewelers 40 years ago in Wellington and has been selling custom, handmade jewelry ever since.
“Eighty percent of what we sell, we make in the stores,” Van Dell said. “The internet and social media is what has changed for us. The digital world has had a big effect. Rather than looking through the cases, clients send us downloaded photos and say, ‘I want one of these,’ and we create the piece. The majority of what we do is hand-done and requires expertise.”
Embracing this new way of shopping is what has allowed Van Dell to open several shops in the western communities. “The population of the Royal Palm Beach-Loxahatchee-Wellington area is well over 110,000. Each of our stores has a base of 1,000 to 2,000, so I can put them in close to each other and not hurt the original store,” he explained. “The convenience of the computer has made it easier for clients to shop quickly and, if you don’t have a shop close to where they want to go, you’re going to miss out. It behooves us to put more, smaller stores in a wider area rather than having one big store and expecting them to come to us. That’s why I’ve just signed to open my fourth store.”
Van Dell’s business has always flourished during the winter season, but he has also seen more year-round business. “We used to live for the season,” he said. “Now the season is more like dessert, and the rest of the year is meat and potatoes.”
