We're Finally in Our New Store ...

This morning we opened our doors and received well wishes from our business neighbors. Along with an inspiring card from Sharon and Rich from Humble Heart, Beth and Marlene from Osceola Street Cafe brought over a basket of fresh baked cookies, yummy. I think I might have eaten half the tray. :-
Josephine from Aunt Ds Gourmet brought a fabulous jar of pink, green and white gumballs, Paul and Linda from the Flagler Grill brought over a bottle of Chandon, a California Brut, Tanya from Puppuccino's Pet Boutique brought over a super cute dog bowl filled with doggie cookies and Rippy's favorite, "the stick". Kelly our first and very missed employee brought Rippy a purple flip flop collar. Just adorable.
"Karma" Mary saged our store for good karma, Joanie from The Love Garden, Frank and Jan from Coconut Bay, Lisa from Pelicans and Periwinkles Pam from the Stuart News, and friend Linda and of course Stephen, Monica. Bailey and Anthony Bonanno joined the celebration. Serge our neighbor with his special gal pal, Sandra, gave us a bottle of Dom with a couple of beautiful glasses.
We are truly blessed to have such special people in our lives.

Our first customer in our new location was Kristina from Thurmont MD who found us through MC Morris blog. This was her first visit to Florida and said she had to find us. She ordered her first pair of monogram Bonanno's!

When Domenick and I knew we were moving I started to sketch some ideas on paper as to what I wanted for our new location.

I called in Deirdre Fawcett Peters owner of Portobello Road, Interiors and Antiques in Deephaven MN 952-380-0181, who is a customer of ours. I asked if she would look over what I sketched and help me pull it all together. Between her fabulous ideas, Domenick's tweaking, we came up with this ...

The store front was Realty Unlimited and the room you see was the main office. We removed the walls, added dressing rooms ...

I love the way this room came out. We will add fabric on either side of the dressing room walls to frame the space and I plan to put a big black and white photo of Jackie Kennedy wearing my Dad's sandals. Too cool!

Below is the larger part of the room. We removed the island and added our counter space.

Below is another shot of the retail space. We have lots of windows in the front of the store as well as the back. It just feels very cheery inside, especially with the fun green we picked for the walls. Check out the detailed pic of our monogrammed seat cushions. You might have to click on the image to get a closer look.
Love, Love, love them!

Where in the World are your Bonanno's?

We'd love to hear from you ... When you're vacationing, snap a picture in your Bonanno's and send it along with a little story about where and when to:vivianb@stephenbonanno.com

You keep sending them, we'll keep posting them.

Rome, Italy






















































Our hello's from Rome.
Pics show two from the Colosseum and one from St. Peter's Square.
Tom and Paula

Your Bonanno's Sure Get Around

We received this really great picture from Karen and Dave which reminded us of an idea we had awhile back but never got around to doing. So without further ado, we'd like to introduce our newest feature:

Where in the World are your Bonanno's!?"

We'd love to hear from you ... When you're vacationing, snap a picture in your Bonanno's and send it along with a little story about where and when to:
vivianb@stephenbonanno.com
You keep sending them, we'll keep posting them.

Darien, CT




















Joe Mackenna / photographer

Okay, so they may not be authentic "biker"-wear,
they still get worn at the Darien, CT Memorial Day Parade!!
(on our Harley-Davidson Road King) at the
May 28, 2007 Memorial Day Parade in Darien CT.
Regards, Dave and Karen

Chalk one up for the Good Guys!!

My heart is racing and my hands are still shaking ...

Yesterday: A very sweet and unassuming gentleman came into our boutique and spent approx. $200 on Vineyard Vines for himself and his wife.

2 hours later he was back purchasing the very same things, FOR THE SECOND TIME! Apparently after leaving our store he put the bag in his car and thought he locked the doors. Not that Stuart is a bad or dangerous town by any means, it's quite the contrary. Our town is so Mayberry like that Domenick swears Opie and Sheriff Taylor will be walking by any minute.

Still, in my opinion, you should ALWAYS lock up your car!

So when Mr Sweet and unassuming returned to his car, his golf clubs and cell phone were still there, thank goodness, but no "Stephen Bonanno Sandals' shopping bag.

He asked that we call him if anyone should try to return the items, and said he was going to file a report with the police ...

After we closed for the day Domenick and I discussed if someone were to come in with the stolen merchandise, how would be handle it. We gave ourselves a CODE WORD which would mean to call the police. .. and that was the end of that.

Today, we were busy as usual with walk in customers, shipping and web orders when I heard a woman come in expressing she would like to return the items her boyfriend bought for her, but she doesn't want store credit because she doesn't wear these kinds of clothes. she starts going on and on "I mean, look at me, I wear black biker clothes ..." Domenick is explaining store policy when I suddenly hear the "CODE WORD."

I think I say very calmly to Domenick, "you'll need to fill out a Return slip," which was also part of our plan. So he's writing very slowly, and very detailed and I'm in the back on the phone with the police. My heart is racing, I couldn't breathe, I'm whispering into the phone trying to explain to the police what went down yesterday and what was happening right now.

While on the phone, they asked that we detain the woman for as long as possible and for me to stay on the phone with them. So I went to the front and started talking to the woman with the phone at my ear. While I talked, the officer in my ear was telling me the Police were out front our of store waiting for backup.

They finally walked in and after about an hour of questioning they handcuffed her. A stunned Mr Sweet and unassuming came in (I called him as soon as I hung up with the police) to claim his merchandise. And it was off to the lock-up for Miss "I don't wear Preppy clothes".

Domenick and I high fived, settled our nerves with a glass of Chardonnay and went on with the rest of a very busy day.

SO YOU'VE HEARD BY NOW ... WE'RE MOVING!

NO. We're not closing our doors, and NO, we're not leaving Stuart! We're just moving around the corner.















Domenick and I have had our eyes peeled for anything that might open up on Osceola Street, since we opened our boutique on Flagler Ave., 4 years ago.

We love our current location, but we've learned very quickly that most people treat Flagler Ave like a back street. Here's the reason, Since so many shops go through from Osceola St. to Flagler Ave. shoppers assume, for good reason, once they've seen it on Osceola St, there's no reason to walk around to Flagler Ave. What they don't realize is there is a handful of really cute and unique shops that sit only on Flagler Ave. such as:

Puppuccio Pet Boutique, where you can get the cutest pet accessories for your pampered pooch.
Aunt D's Gourmet has the best coffee in town not to mention, really great gourmet foods and gift items.
Luna's Pizza where you can get the best garlic knots
High Heeled Boutique who has beautiful shoes and handbags.
and then there is us ... So anyway, 2 months ago a friend of ours contacted Domenick and told him about a space opening up on Osceola. We went to take a look ...

The new digs is about 100 Sq Ft bigger than what we have now, but on Osceola Street the foot traffic quadruples, so needless to say, we jumped on it.

OUR NEW DIGS:
We're going to be in the Real Estate office right next to Duffy's Sports Bar @
3 SW Osceola Street
Stuart, Florida 34994
















We'll be giving Stephen Bonanno Sandals a face-lift:
** New interior colors with the guidance of Dee Dee Peters, interior designer.
** We'll be changing up the colors of the boutique logo.
** We'll have much better lighting!!!
** We're adding more phone lines! (same numbers)
** We'll be adding an interactive computer in the front of the store so you can play with colors to help you visualize what your sandals will look like.
** We've already added a new web address so it's easier to remember www.sbsandals.com
** We're adding a TV monitor in the front of our store window so people can watch a slide show of how our sandals are made. I thought it would intersting.
** Oh yeah, and the coolest change is, Domenick and I will have a real office. Currently we've stuffed two desks back in the stock area. What you see is Domenick's desk in the foreground and my mess in the back.


























As we make the changes I'll keep you posted with pics.
SO STAY TUNED!!!