Business profile: Swiss Maid

When Leroy Amstutz and his wife, Nadine, moved to Hope in 2010 they had always dreamed of owning their own business. After operating a part-time road-side stand near their home just north of Hope, the couple garnered such a following of faithful customers they took the plunge and opened the Swiss Maid Country Market, located at 310 Jackson Street, on the town Square.

Leroy recently spoke with HSJ and offered some background about not only he and his wife’s roots and what brought them to Hope, but also about the tasty treats and specials the Swiss Maid offers, the challenges he’s encountered as a small business owner, what he enjoys about being a part of Hope’s thriving business district on the Square and his hopes for the future.

Q: To start, what brought you to the Hope area? When?
A: We moved here in 2010. I grew up in Ohio and the Mennonite church there started a church here in the Hope area, the Haw Creek Mennonite Church just north of town. That is what brought us here. The church started in 2008 and we came a couple years later in 2010.

Q: Where did the name Swiss Maid come from?
A: We are Mennonite, which is similar to the Amish. We don’t use that as selling point. A lot of people call us an Amish store and that is ok, we aren’t opposed to that.
A lot of Mennonite roots go back into Switzerland, not only Switzerland, there were a lot of Mennonite from Holland and Germany as well. There are a lot of us with roots back into that, and then our marriage, we only marry people from similar churches and that narrows it down right there.
My wife and I both have Swiss background. Our ancestors came over from Switzerland. Her’s about 300 years ago and mine about 150 years ago or so. We basically took from our roots. There’s a lot of stores around similar to ours called Dutch Country or Dutch Maid or something like that. We went with Swiss for a little different set-up. We didn’t just go with a huge Swiss theme in our food necessarily, but it is because of our background.

Q: What year did you open?
A: We opened in April 2013.

Q: Was this something you and your wife always envisioned doing?
A: We dreamed about it for years. My wife had worked in a similar store before we were married. That was in Maryland, she came from the eastern shore. And so she had always enjoyed that. After we were married, we went to farmer’s markets in a couple different places. And finally, when we were here we had the opportunity to rent this building and get the store started. We had been running a roadside stand here from our house just north of Hope. The response has been overwhelming. The community of Hope has treated us unbelievably well.

Q: For those who haven’t had an opportunity to stop in, what types of items do you offer?
A: Our main thing is our deli. We’ve got delicious meat and cheese from Walnut Creek Foods, which is our main supplier. They’re based out of Amish country in Holmes County, Ohio. We really like their products and they do a super job of getting us good quality and good prices. We are very competitive with pricing in our deli.

Q: What other items do you offer?
A: Our next big category is our bakery. We do baking here, as well. We make homemade breads and cookies. And then we make angel food cakes, our pies, homemade noodles. We have cinnamon rolls and fruit rolls with fruit and cream cheeses. We also do Whoopie pies.

Q: For those who aren’t familiar with them, what are Whoopie pies?
A: They’re basically a sandwich cookie. The main one is a chocolate one. We put two cookies together with filling in the middle. Some people compare it to Ho Hos. They are way better than that. It has icing in the middle and two chocolate cookies on the outside. We also do a pumpkin one in the fall. Right now, we are offering a peanut butter cookie whoopie pie, as well. Those are really popular.

Q: What are your hours of operation?
A: We are open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Obviously, the girls have to come in earlier than that. It isn’t uncommon for someone to be here at 6 or 7 a.m. doing baking. Sometimes it is earlier.

Q: How many employees do you have?
A: Right now we are averaging six to eight.

Q: The Hope town Square is certainly growing, could you speak to the importance being a part of that growing business community?
A: That helped a lot to get us started, the traffic that as already on the Square. The businesses there helped us get a foothold. It is great to have activity on the Square. Obviously, bringing more people into town benefits us and I hope that our customer base is benefiting the town as well.

Q: If you would, please share your thoughts about what sets small businesses, like yours, apart from the seemingly ubiquitous box stores.
A: One of the things we really value with this is the friendships we have with our customers. Yes, it is a business relationship and they are supporting us, but we have made a lot of friends. And I think that is completely different from what the box stores are doing where you are just a number when you walk in there. Starting this business helped us to learn the people of Hope faster than we would have otherwise.

Q: Anything else about the Swiss Maid Country Market that you would like people to know?
A: One thing we sell on the side is poly lawn furniture.

Q: Really? How did that come about?
A: We sell sandwiches and we wanted a place for our customers to be able to sit down and eat. We didn’t really have space inside so we rented the empty lot beside us. We wanted to put some picnic tables on there and the fellow I contacted, who had those, said, ‘Why don’t we just put other furniture on there and sell that and it will do two things at once?’ So that is how it got started. I work with the supplier and he puts the furniture there and pays me a commission when I sell it. It has been a good little sideline for us, too.

Q: So everything there is available for purchase or order?
A: Both. If they like what is on the lot they can take that, but they can also place orders if they want a different color or style than what we’ve got -- that is an option as well.

Q:What has been one of the greatest lessons opening this business has taught you?
A: It is just humbling to have this kind of response and it makes me want to reach out and help others as well.

Q: What are some of the challenges you’ve encountered as a small business in the Hope community?
A: It is a little hard to say what the greatest one is. It seems like every time you turn around there is a tax waiting to be paid. Costs continue to go up. My biggest challenge right now is finding help. It has been a great challenge over the past number of months.

Q: What is your favorite item that you sell?
A: Probably our doughnuts we make on Wednesday. We make a glazed yeast doughnut every Wednesday. It is the only day of the week we make them. We open at 10 a.m., so come early because they can go fast. We aim to have doughnuts all day long and everyone who comes to visit gets a free one. We offer them for sale by the dozen and one half-dozen. And the next popular thing is every Tuesday we do pork tenderloins for lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and that has been a popular thing as well.

Q: For those who are planning to visit Hope, how would you describe Hope to them?
A: It is a surprising little town. You won’t see it all in the first trip or visit I’m pretty sure of that.

Q: As you look to the future, what are your hopes for the Swiss Maid Country Market and the Hope community?
A: I hope we can continue to provide good, healthy and well-priced products for our customers. I hope that the town of Hope can continue to exist and be a nice home for people for many years to come.