A store times four: In tough time business owners pitch in to open a unique space at Shoppes of South Haven

Call it a capitalistic collaboration.

Sweet Bay Prints celebrated its grand opening Feb. 6 at the Shoppes of South Haven on U.S. Highway 98.  However, the business’s name doesn’t reveal the total picture.

The storefront shop actually houses four independent businesses. With only a curtain to separate the businesses, each facet is individually owned and operated.

A personalized stationary and gift shop, Sweet Bay Prints is the anchor and owned by Sheri Scruggs.

“I had gotten busy enough that I outgrew the space at home. I needed to separate business and home,” she said.

This is Scruggs’s first independent business venture, but she has worked in retail for 15 years for other people and has a degree in merchandising.

“I wanted to have my own business,” she said.

Raised in Birmingham, she moved to South Walton six years ago from Tupelo, Miss. 

Jacqueline Ward has only been in the area for 18 months. She moved with her 8-year-old daughter and 4-year-old twins when her husband was transferred.

Originally an artist, Ward switched to “the less toxic” field of photography when her daughter was born.

“I went to school on a fine arts scholarship, but photography evolved with me and I began to love it more and more,” she said. “I dabble in commercial work, but I most like to shoot people.”

Ward laughs as she says that she has now been in the photography business long enough that she has shot couples’ weddings who then returned for first anniversary pictures, and then for her to shoot their babies. 

Ward shoots digital images in color that can be converted to black and white or sepia in post production.

Then came Alison Churchill, who saw a need in the area for a professional embroidery business.

Churchill moved here four years ago from Atlanta and has also been doing custom monogramming on towels, bags, and apparel from her home. The business was brisk enough for her to invest in a larger, professional machine and she needed some place to put it. A Sea of Stitches was born.

“People can buy items here in the store to be monogrammed or bring in their own. I can put a name or initials on kids’ apparel or any clothing,” she said.

Former Seaside Repertory Theatre actor Kevin Boyle was the last link in the foursome with his Poor Truman marketing and graphic design services.

Boyle moved to South Walton in 2006 after graduating from Florida State University with degrees in international affairs and French.

While Boyle is not sure what he originally intended to do with his degrees, he does know he really wanted to do comedy and open a bar. After his bar failed, he figured he couldn’t do math, so he turned to comedy.

During his three years with the Rep, Boyle freelanced as a graphic designer. He left the theater in October, about the same time Scruggs and Ward approached him about joining them in a cooperative.

“It made sense,” he said. “Four businesses in one store front. Going in together saves costs.”

But why the name “Poor Truman”?   

“That’s what my mom used to call me when I was having a tough day to remind me I work in paradise,” he said, referring to the movie “The Truman Show,” which was shot at Seaside.

Contact all four artists at 850-267-1000.