Retailers Had Humble Beginnings

As a teenager, Bill Underwood worked in his father’s gas station in Mountain View, Okla.

“I fixed flats and all that,” Underwood said.

After high school graduation, Underwood attended Southwestern State University in Weatherford, Okla., which at the time was considered one of the best watch-making schools in the country.

Three years later, Underwood was a “certified master watchmaker.” He used those skills for the next four years in the Navy.

Underwood moved to Fayetteville in 1957 to operate John Roberts College Jewelry Store on Dickson Street. The Norman, Okla.-based company specialized in college class rings.

After six months of losing money on the Fayetteville store, the company sold it to Underwood, who changed the name to Underwood’s College Jeweler’s Inc.

Underwood said he invested $1,000 in the store, which then occupied 900 SF at 623 W. Dickson St. in the building that now houses Editype Business Services. He said the store brought in almost $25,000 in sales that first year. Underwood wouldn’t reveal his current sales figures.

The store remained in the same location until 1966 when it moved to its current home at 611 W. Dickson St. During that time, Underwood earned a business degree from the University of Arkansas.

Now, Underwood’s Fine Jewelry has 7,000 SF of retail space, and the founder was named entrepreneur of the year last year by the UA’s Walton College of Business.

“I wouldn’t take a million dollars for the experience, but I certainly wouldn’t advise anybody to do it that way,” Underwood said.

Mason Hiba

Other area retailers also started successful businesses without a huge financial investment.

Mason Hiba grew up in Damascus, Syria, and came to Fayetteville to study engineering. After earning an engineering degree from the UA, he realized that wasn’t what he wanted to do for a living.

Instead, Hiba started a retail business in Fayetteville’s Northwest Arkansas Mall in 1989 with only $1,500.

“I didn’t spend money on food,” he said. “I ate very little. Everything went back into the business.”

Now Hiba has three stores: Mason’s Leather Boutique in the mall, Mason’s on the Square in downtown Fayetteville and a Mason’s Leather Boutique that opened in August in Rogers’ Village on the Creeks shopping center. The stores sell primarily women’s clothing and accessories, but the leather boutiques also carry men’s shoes.

Being an entrepreneur in Northwest Arkansas’ retail market can be stressful, Hiba said.

“It’s about being motivated, creative and brave,” he said. “A lot of times, I say to myself, ‘Oh my God, what am I doing?’ … But I love every single day.”

Scott Crook

Scott Crook came to the UA to earn a graduate degree in chemistry.

In 1973, he began selling Old Town canoes out of his garage to earn extra money.

“I just had a few hundred dollars in that first shipment of [six] boats I got,” he said.

The business did so well that in 1975 Crook opened the Pack Rat Outdoor Center in 800 SF at Fayetteville’s Evelyn Hills shopping center. There, he sold camping and hiking equipment in addition to canoes and kayaks.

Since then, the Pack Rat has outgrown four different buildings. In 2001, Crook constructed a new 15,000-SF, $1.8 million building at the corner of Gregg and Sunbridge streets in Fayetteville where Crook said the business will have more elbow room.

Crook said the Pack Rat brought in $1.4 million in sales last year, a 13 percent increase over 2002.