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Is business better in Sumner?

By Avani Nadkarni/of The Herald

Indulge Cupcakes owner Jen Quaschnik recently relocated her dessert shop from Meridian Street in Puyallup to Main Street in Sumner. Interestingly enough, Brian Dikeman’s business, HomeVestors, relocated from the Sumner building Indulge is now located into downtown Puyallup.

“We switched almost exact locations,” Quaschnik remarked.

It’s an increasingly familiar pattern. In recent months, Indulge Cupcakes and Lucky’s Hot Dog Diner moved from downtown Puyallup to Sumner while Birds of a Feather relocated in the opposite direction. Baskets and Things went from Sumner to Puyallup many years ago.

“Both cities are great places to do business,” said Sally Zeiger Hanson, executive director of the Puyallup/Sumner Chamber of Commerce. “They both have the Sounder stations moving people in and out of the downtown area (and) both cities have a downtown core that operates as the soul of the city.”

Therefore, Zeiger Hanson said, business owners’ reasons for moving from one city to the other are unique to each business.

“We hear from our business owners that customers move seamlessly between the cities,” she said. “I think what you see when business owners (move) is that they’re refining their location and their operation for a real variety of reasons. They’re just kind of picking and choosing with specifics that have to do with their business.”

Or with their personal lives. Quaschnik’s children attend Sumner schools, along with the kids of some of her employees. Dikeman, on the other hand, grew up in Puyallup and wanted to return home.

“Originally (Sumner) is where we wanted to be,” Quaschnik said. “We couldn’t find a place, so we went to downtown Puyallup, which is equally cute.”

Still, her business often struggled because it was located on a one-way road just yards from the train crossing.

“We generally had people come in not because they drove past and found us, but by (word of mouth),” she explained. “You had to know about it to find it. That was a struggle.”

Another plus: The rent is cheaper, she said. That doesn’t necessarily mean all rent in Sumner is cheaper, however. Dikeman also said he was paying less rent at his current location, on the corner of Second St. N.E. and East Stewart, than he was in the building Quaschnik now is.

HomeVestors — commonly known by the tagline “We Buy Ugly Houses” — opened in the new location in late August and Quaschnik hopes to have Indulge up and running in Sumner this week, but both owners say they’ve seen positive changes already.

“The type of cars that (are) driving past our window (are) the type of people we cater to,” Dikeman said. “We’ve gotten a lot of phone calls from passers-by; we’ve seen a lot of community interest.”

Similarly, Quaschnik said she’s seen a lot of interest already, although Indulge isn’t properly open in Sumner yet.

“Everybody’s been great (and) people drive by and honk,” she said. “There’s always something going on at the (nearby Sunset Chev) stadium.”