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January 22, 1999/5 Shevat 5759, Vol. 51, No. 17
Every day is Valentine's Day at Scottsdale store
MICHELLE ACKERMAN
Staff Writer
Putting together a romantic experience for herself and her fiancee, John Schwantes Jr., had taken Debra Sharker more than three hours of errand-running. She had stopped at one store for scented candles, at a music store for a romantic CD, at a third store to buy massage oils, and finally, at a gourmet bakery for appetizers.
As the evening progressed, Schwantes turned to Sharker and said, "You went to so much trouble today. Why? Why'd you do it?"
Without a pause, Sharker leaned over and whispered, "Cause I love you."
And a store was born.
'Cause I Love You Ltd. is a new, one-stop shopping boutique in Scottsdale specializing in gifts for loved ones.
"Nobody was in the business of love, and that's what I wanted to do," explains Sharker, the co-owner and operator.
The store features a wide selection of candles, romantic foods, picture frames, perfume bottles and jewelry. It even has a section of romantic books and a spa/bath section. Completing the store is a men's gift section, featuring such items as leather-covered flasks, journals, desk sets and shaving kits. Almost all of the gifts are handmade and/or assembled specifically for the store.
If you want something that goes beyond a tangible gift, the store offers romantic adventure packages. The store will arrange for a limousine, complete with aromatherapy candles, romantic music and a gourmet picnic basket, to "kidnap" you and your special someone for a getaway workday lunch excursion.
Sharker explains that she designed the package to demonstrate how even in the middle of a busy workweek, there can be romance.
"We want people to know that you can say 'I love you' in an hour," she says.
Other romantic packages include arranging for a gourmet chef to come into the couple's home, prepare a meal and clean it up, or for a masseuse or masseur to provide an at-home, hour-long pampering massage.
Sharker, a 41-year-old Phoenix resident and native of Alabama, credits her fianc‚ not only for inspiring the store, but also for encouraging her to open it.
"I had always dreamed of one day retiring and opening a boutique. John said, 'So do it.'... I walked away from a 17 year career, a big salary and a big title."
Before 'Cause I Love You, Sharker's professional journey had taken her into sales, marketing and management. Most recently, at Tiffen Manufacturing, Sharker was vice president of sales for consumer markets.
Using her marketing skills and creativity, Sharker has come up with assorted programs for her store. With "Special Occasion Prompts," customers provide the store with a list of important occasions and the store will call, fax, or e-mail the customer a reminder two weeks before each date. And she invented the "Get Out of Hot Water!" program, which consists of cards that one person gives to his or her significant other, after the other does something wrong, advising the one at-fault to "Go to 'Cause I Love You, buy me something wonderful and all will be forgiven." Sharker's store also has a gift registry and a Friends Referral Program, through which customers receive gift certificates when they refer a friend to the store and the friend shops there.
Getting her store set up in time for its scheduled opening last week wasn't easy. The merchandise arrived only three days before the store was set to open; the walls had been painted the wrong color; the hand-painted floor took two men nine hours to finish; and the $3,000 lights she specially ordered to illuminate the store in a soft glow burned out in one hour. To top it all off, on opening day, "The cash register died. It was deader than dead!" After an hour of credit-card only transactions and a quick run to the store to buy a new cash register, things were back up and running.
Sharker, who owns the store with Schwantes, hopes to open two more stores within the next three years and then franchise or license the idea in other states.
'Cause I Love You, located in the Harkins/Shea 14 Center at Shea Boulevard and Scottsdale Road, officially opened for business on Jan.13. A grand opening party, complete with book signings and a speech by Mayor Sam Campana will be at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 3.
"This store is me," says Sharker, "... from the paint on the walls and the floor, to every little gift in here. I don't want people to wait for a birthday or Valentine's Day to say 'I love you.' The world would be a better place if everyone just said 'I love you' more."
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