Today we’d like to introduce you to Louise Mawhinney.
Louise, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I acquired Duck Soup, a retail store in Sudbury, in October, 2014, from the family of the original owner who started it in 1971. Back then, a gourmet food and kitchenware store was a real novelty and they went even further – calling it a “contemporary general store”. While it’s best-selling item was and still is Duck Soup Blend Coffee, they were the #1 seller of beanie babies from the launch to the heyday of the little critters. Duck Soup has always been hard to categorize. One thing is certain though: it’s a beloved local institution in Sudbury. There’s only one location so we focus on our broad range of products, listening to customers and tailoring inventory to demand. We still sell coffee, candy and cheese, and kitchenware such as Le Creuset, All Clad, Swiss Diamond, Breville and Jura. I moved to Sudbury from the UK in 1985, and quickly found that Duck Soup carried international food, including many British favorites. I really bought the store to prevent it from closing upon the retirement of the previous folks. It just felt like a home from home and was very valuable to me. I soon discovered that many people felt the same way and I have been supported by a strong customer base with a great emotional attachment to the quirky place. I jokingly say that I am “retired” as prior to this, I had absolutely no retail experience: I was a biotech CFO! I did have a lot of experience with startups though, and bringing vibrancy back to Duck Soup after it had been practically wound down for closure was something that I knew would fit with my business expertise.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Of course I realized that retail is going through a major transition. People have to be given a reason to walk into a retail store when they can get almost anything online nowadays. Sudbury has a lot of people who work full time and endure long commutes during the week. I was one of them. At the weekend you don’t want to be driving all over the place: you want somewhere local that’s fun to take the family. With that in mind, we made sure we had plenty of events going on in the store, such as cooking demos, chocolate tastings etc. We even bought a toy kitchen and grill for kids to play with while their parents shopped. A big challenge was getting the word out about Duck Soup’s revival and that took a while but it has definitely happened. I must give credit to the original owner, Richard Ressler, and his business partner Pierre Weiss. They implemented many business practices that have turned out to be really critical. I don’t know if other retailers did or do these things, but there is no doubt in my mind that their business plan (they met in the Babson MBA program prior to starting Duck Soup) was genius. Diversity seems to have kept Duck Soup open all these years while many kitchen shops have closed their doors. Hiring high school students is critical: they provide energy, creativity and customers (their family and friends). There is absolutely no overhead: nobody stands around behind the counter doing nothing. Everything is done by people who are there to serve customers. We receive inventory, price it, put it on the shelves, bag snacks and candy, make bread and our Kiff brand baked goods – all right there while waiting on customers!
Please tell us about Duck Soup.
In October, 2014, I walked into a retail store that was in wind-down mode with two friends who helped me out for the first couple of years. We got through the frantically busy Holiday season in a whirlwind, with the support of loyal customers, the prior owners and great vendors, one of whom came in after hours to show me how to “merchandise”. The first change we made was to get a full liquor package store license in March, 2015. We now carry really cool craft liquors and a small selection of French, Italian and South African wines. In February, 2016, we expanded the store into the vacant space next door and doubled the size of it. We turned half of the new space into a beautiful kitchen for hands-on cooking classes, and in April, 2017 we acquired the Kiff Foods baking company. The kitchen was certified for baking and we now make not only Kiff, but also a great baguette that we sell most days of the week fresh out of the ovens. We recently partnered with an Acton chocolate maker called The Happy Chocolatier. He had a retail store in Acton that he closed down to focus on taking his Cubze truffle line national. Now all his other chocolate products are made and sold exclusively in Duck Soup! We were featured on Chronicle in July, 2017 and won awards for our cooking classes in both 2017 and 2018. The goal is still to keep Duck Soup open for future generations to enjoy its uniqueness, and my passion is for creating community. For that reason, we host lots of cooking classes for kids, including special classes for handicapped children, summer camps and early release classes. I also love to help launch locally made products.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would be the first to admit that I am extremely lucky to have the support of the community. I was determined to keep Duck Soup open, but I really did jump off a cliff without a clue about what to do next. However, I now know just how uncertain the future of retail is. It doesn’t matter how much money you made yesterday, if the customers don’t come in today or tomorrow, you are done for. It is a very tenuous lifestyle based largely on cash flow. Before the internet, a store like Duck Soup could support two families with stay at home moms, put kids through college and provide health insurance. Now premium pricing is dead and I don’t think the old days will ever come back. It really is a labor of love, but the reward is seeing the delight on the face of a customer who has just found a comfort food from their Cape Town childhood, or a parent who is bringing in their child to pick out a Duck Soup $1 bag of candy, just like they did at that age. Or helping an Arizona resident create a very special gift basket for dad who still lives in Sudbury. There’s a touching human story every single day. I certainly did not expect to be able to make a difference in the lives of so many people through operating a retail store! And who knows where this is headed? It’s an adventure I am amazed and excited to be living. I do not know where we are headed, or how long Duck Soup can be viable, but for now we are doing just fine, thank you, and having a huge amount of fun as well!
Contact Info:
- Address: 365 Boston Post Road
Sudbury, MA 01776 - Website: www.quackquackquack.com
- Phone: (978)-443-DUCK (3825)
- Email: info@quackquackquack.com
- Instagram: @ducksoupsudbury
- Facebook: Ducksoupsudbury
Getting in touch: BostonVoyager is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
