A FitNice Blog By Marily Morgan
This blog is about a family business that has persevered through good times and bad. Ann and Rick Maas opened their first sewing and vacuum store in 1983. It was a family business. Their business grew—they moved into a larger space—their business grew — until fire destroyed their livelihood in December 2016.
Through very strong customer support and damage documentation for insurance coverage this family rebuilt their business in a new location; opening the doors in October 2017.
There is a video accessible from their Facebook page (search: Super Stitch Sewing and Vacuum) that tells the story of their rebirth after the fire. Synchrony Bank, a financing option many sewing machine dealers use, offered small businesses an essay challenge on how they would use $20,000 Synchrony prize money for themselves and also give back to the community. Ann and Rick decided to enter. They wrote about their business philosophy and how they would use half the prize money for their store’s back parking lot and the other half would be given to their local fire department’s radio system. They were beyond thrilled to learn they had won. Watch the video!
When I spoke with Ann by phone, I asked her what made her business a success. They are connected with their customers. She feels that without the support of their customers, they might not have reo-pened. Their customers, who considered themselves friends, convinced them otherwise.
They offer classes that, before Covid, hold up to 20 attendees and their machines. Like many others, she has had to reinvent herself during the pandemic. Covid brought “used to sew” crafters out of the wood-work making face masks. Sewing machines soon became hard to get. They were on hand to help.
Her son is in charge of marketing and their website. They were able to find ways to offer classes and keep customers involved. She and her granddaughter Violet, a budding fashion student at Parsons, have filmed several videos for viewing on their YouTube channel: Super Stitch Sewing.
Ann met Judy at a sewing expo through Kym Goldup-Grahm, owner of Kym’s Sewing Revolution in Aus-tralia. Kym said she HAD to meet Judy . . . the rest is history. They connected, Ann booked Judy for a Fit-Nice workshop and a friendship was formed. I asked Ann what her first impression of Judy was . . . she responded “highly energetic”. I think we can relate. She hopes to bring Judy back for another workshop as she enjoys garment sewing and would like to offer this easier road to garment construction to her cus-tomers. Judy does that to people.
Once again, we see that when people are able to work their passion, they will most certainly become suc-cessful. Let me encourage you to tell your local dealer how much you appreciate then and the part they play in your life. It seems we keep losing more and more fabric stores; don’t let your local sewing ma-chine dealer be one of them. They need your support. Go to Super Stitch at: www.superstitch.com or visit them next time you’re in north west Pennsylvania.