Business
DAN 1. BARISH
VICE PRESIDENT
REGIONAL SALES MANAGER
For most people. investing is one of the biggest
financial steps they'll ever take. So its important that you gel
the best advice you can. as early as you can. on just how to
handle things. That why Dan and everyone at Comerica
Securities goes out of their way to help. beginning with
meeting you on your schedule, not ours. So call Dan at
(810) 948-2902. You'll get off on the right foot.
COMerlCaSecurines
WE USTEN.WE UNDERSTAND
WE MAKE ITWORK"
a Broker-Dealer. member NASD/SIPC.
and an affiliate of Comerica Bank.
Comerica Securities is
Internet Access!
New Direct Local Service
Residential & Commercial Services
Here are some ways YOU can use the Internet:
• Religion
• Entertainment
• Business
• Research
• Homework
• Career
• Science
• Government
• Computers
• News
• Shopping
• Education
• Sports
• Politics
• E-Mail
• Technology
• Travel
• Weather
Dial-Up Access is economical too! (Residential & Commercial price the same)
• $25 per month and volume discounts are available
• Special Offers and Gift Paks available
Local Calling Access from (and their surrounding areas)
Walled Lake
Lake Orion Pontiac
Aubum Hills Bloomfield Commerce
Rochester W. Bloomfield
Birmingham Clarkston Drayton Plains Oxford
Special New Years Offer $12.50 per month!*
(810) 334-5492
Call Now for Internet with Speed!
*offer only good for six month and one year contracts
1
T H E DET RO IT J E WIS H N EWS
1)SpeedLink
00
A Division of SpeedNet, Inc.
http://worspeedUnk.net
email webadman@speedlink.net
531/2 West Huron Street, Suite 211
Pontiac, MI 48342
Tel: (810) 334-5492 Fax: (810)332-5570
Modem AAccesz (810)334,1940
TRUST YOUR NEXT CATERED AFFAIR TO THE FINEST KOSHER CATERER
We Cater At
Most
Synagogues,
Temples,
Hotels
and the Halls
Of Your
Choice
CLASSIC CUISINE
Approved by Council of Orthodox Rabbis
PHILIP TEWEL
Food and Beverage Director
(810) 661-4050
Farrnington Hills, Michigan
STAR page 59
a person's attention. Instead of 30 chandise before customers enter week after Red Wings captain
Steve Yzerman visited the store
seconds, rm getting people seeing the store.
"Once the promotion is over, and signed the jersey, it was worth
and standing in my store for
maybe 30 minutes," Mr. Odetalla they will turn around and sell the $120.
The profit margins don't thrill
says.
2
a all sports fans. Many would ar-
Michael Fishman, owner of
gue that paying anything at all
the Sports Gallery in Birming-
isn't fair, because if it weren't
ham, hired Celebrity Place-
>r-c for fans, sports figures wouldn't
ment Services to bring in Red
2 enjoy the kind of fame and
Wings defenseman Nicklas
wealth they have today.
Lidstrom for a celebrity auto-
Mr. Gold sees it differently.
graph session a few weeks ago.
"'IV personalities have more
It was the first time he's host-
longevity, but the average ath-
ed a celebrity visit, and it drew
lete's career is five or six years.
a few hundred customers.
All athletes have to market is
"It would've been better, but
their name, so they have to
there were eight or nine other
cash in while they can. If the
players around town. The Rus-
store owners are going to make
sians (five Red Wing players)
a profit, then why not the sports
are real popular right now. It
stars, too?
was fun. It was a great oppor-
"At the same time, it's a risk
tunity, great exposure," he said
to the business owners as well.
To cover the cost of bringing
They're banking on people to
in an athlete, owners try to es-
pay and see a celebrity. They're
timate the number of people
also gambling that the money
who will attend and divide the
they're fronting to buy the jer-
athlete's fee by that estimated
attendance number. This helps Michael Gold of Celebrity Placement Services . seys, sticks and balls the
celebrity will sign are going to be
them determine the fees they
charge customers to get photos, stuffat two or three times the orig- sold," he says.
Adds Mr. Fishman, "Playing to
sports cards, jerseys, pucks and inal price," he says.
Mr. Gold, for example, pur- see and talk to an athlete is about
balls signed.
Mr. Gold says business owners chased an unofficial Detroit Red the best way a guy can get an au-
often ask athletes to sign mer- Wings hockey jersey for $90. A tograph." ❑
Still Cookin' After
All These. Years
JULIE EDGAR STAFF WRITER
N
orthwestern Highway used
to be the corridor of choice
for discriminating shoppers.
Nowadays, on Saturdays,
you could shoot a cannon through
some of the stores and restau-
rants, including Bonnie's Patis-
serie.
But owner Bonnie Fishman
has no plans to move the place she
opened 16 years ago when she
was a mere 26. Where else would
she find a genuine cottage on the
banks of a gentle stream, a place
that offers customers the refuge
of a rose-filled arbor to enjoy their
pasta with roasted corn sauce or
tea and cake?
And even with slow weekends,
the intersection of Northwestern
and Twelve Mile Road still bus-
tles with hungry businesspeople
during the week. Ms. Fishman's
catering and corporate lunches
take up the slack that was par-
tially caused by the explosion of
big and small stores along Or-
chard Lake Road.
"Saturday used to be the
busiest day of the week. There
are still as many businesses, but
retail is stagnant," she said, not-
ing the closure of several of the
original stores at Applegate
Square and the imminent de-'
parture of FID and Merchant of
Vino. "It'll be like a ghost town
around here, but rm reluctant to
move."
After returning from California
with her husband, podiatrist
Robert Ketai, Ms. Fishman
opened Bonnie's with $30,000, a
song by today's standards, she ac-
knowledges.
A graduate of the Cordon
Bleu cooking school in London,
she had previously managed the
Money Tree in downtown De-
troit and had only been away for
just over a year, so people knew
her.
Plus, Bonnie's was one of the
first authentic patisseries in the
metropolitan area.
"Business was good from the
start. People liked the idea of food
made from scratch," she said. Af-
ter two years, she had already re-
couped her initial investment.
The first four years kept her
baking in the kitchen full time,
even with three other full-time
employees. Ms. Fishman, mother
of Ben, 13, and Hanna, 8, still
comes in every day, but she
doesn't put on an apron. Instead,
PHOTO BY DANIEL LIPPITT
WHEN YOU INVEST
YOU'RE BEGINNING A
PROCESS THAT WILL
INVOLVE SEVERAL STEPS.
BUT NONE ARE
BIGGER THAN THE
ONE YOU TAKE
To MEET:
The crew at Bonnie's Patisserie in Smithfield (left to right): Joan Melnlck, Nancy
King, Patrick Cornelius, Maureen Clark, Bonnie Fishman and John Smith.