Pithy sayings don’t hang around long unless they’re true.
One example, is the one cited above, attributed to Mark Twain.
Three area business owners have followed that sage advice.
Crafting quality
“The reason I call my business ‘Heirloom’ is, what is an heirloom? It’s something you’re going to hand down to your grandkids. ... You are starting to see a little more people recognize quality. All my stuff is solid wood. It’s going to hold up. It’s going to last.”
Those words, spoken by Heirloom Custom Furniture owner Wynn Fredenburg, define the purpose of his nine-year-old business. In his shop near the Dutchtown area, Fredenburg crafts wooden tables, beds, dressers, vanities, built-in pieces and just about anything a customer can think of.
He began woodworking as a youngster, helping his father during summer breaks from school. After studying architectural drafting in college, he spent a decade working with an interior design company and a custom cabinetry outfit. Then, he opened Heirloom.
“It’s taking two or three images the customer likes and combining them into one,” he said. “One thing I like about woodworking is it’s not the same thing over and over again. It’s how do I turn this 2-D drawing into a 3-D world?”
Using hardwoods such as maple, cherry and walnut, Fredenburg is able to provide unique pieces to fit a customer’s need.
“I can still to this day walk into a job I’ve done and remember this particular section,” he said. “I don’t have a favorite piece because each piece has its own unique quality.”
While some jobs are straightforward, others require outside-the-box thinking.
“It’s figuring out the steps, ‘You can’t do this until you do this,’” Fredenburg explained. “There have been times when I’m struggling with trying to figure something out, but in the middle of the night, you wake up and a light bulb went off. It’s just bizarre.”
While the COVID-19 pandemic throttled some businesses, Fredenburg’s grew.
“I have been getting a lot of home offices, people wanting to redo an office in their home because they were going to be working from home,” he explained. “People haven’t gone on vacations, so they have a little more money and said, ‘Let’s redo the kitchen.’ My business in the last year has gone up dramatically.”
He said a big part of being successful is respecting his customers.
“I pride myself on showing up on time and communicating. I don’t know how many jobs I’ve gotten because I kept people in the loop,” he noted. “Your time is important, too.”
While the work is labor-intensive, it’s really not “work,” Fredenburg said, recalling a grandparent’s advice.
“‘Find something you enjoy doing and try to make a living out of it, and you’ll never work a day in your life,’” he recalled. “I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years now, and I still get up every day and enjoy doing it.”
One-stop shop
If you need it, MKay Supply in Benton, Missouri, probably has it.
From children’s toys to adult beverages, alfalfa hay to Reuben sandwiches, parts to tools — the seven-year-old business offers an eclectic inventory in its spacious main store, complete with loft. A second building houses hay and a service area.
“We are a one-stop shop — the one-of-a-kind place that puts a smile on your face” sing-songed owner Malinda Milam. “That’s our goal.”
The genesis of MKay was an idea for a local outlet to save people time.
“We said, ‘Somebody needs to open up a store so that you don’t have to run to Cape or Sikeston [Missouri], especially on a weekend or an evening,” she explained.
And so, putting her business degree to work, Milam began drawing up plans for an outlet that would carry an array of commonly used household parts — plumbing, electrical, power tools — along with the tools and hardware to install them. From there, plans evolved to include children’s items, health and beauty aids, sporting goods and some groceries.
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“We were going to sell meat and cheese by the pound. ‘Well, you know what, we can make a sandwich,’” Milam recalled, giving birth to one of the store’s most popular attractions, it’s deli counter. The deli has become a meeting place known for its large sandwiches and complimentary coffee.
Now, MKay features consumer goods, construction materials and agricultural supplies, as if Bass Pro Shops and Bed, Bath & Beyond had a baby.
Milam’s 14 full- and part-time employees — who seem to know every customer who comes in — spend lots of time monitoring inventory, which helps keep parts in stock and work-arounds in play.
“I have a wonderful team, and that team works all together with myself to do the ordering a couple times a week. As things are selling out, we work to get them back in,” she noted. “With that being said, we are always looking for another option. We don’t like to say, ‘We don’t have it.’ ... We are here to help, and we can’t do that if we don’t have the product.”
Check the labels on MKay’s inventory, and two hallmarks stand out — industry-leading names and locally/America–made products.
Find Benelli shotguns, Vortex scopes and Yeti coolers in sporting goods and Tribute horse feed and Showtime dog food in the pets and livestock section. The store is also a Stihl power tools dealer, stocking an extensive lineup of saws, trimmers and accessories.
“Stihl has done two national advertisements here,” Milam noted. “They have been here for ladies night out for battery-powered units.”
Among the Missouri-made products the store carries are St. Louis' Sammy Soaps, Perryville’s Grandma Bea’s Natural Products and Cape Girardeau’s Smokin Brothers grills.
“We really like to pride ourselves on ‘Made in the USA’ and things made in Missouri, and anything that is as we are, a hometown local entity,” Milam said.
American muscle
Shawn Pincksten, owner of Midwest Direct Auto in Cape Girardeau, took Twain’s words to heart.
“I don’t work a day in my life. I just love it,” he said while standing in his shop at the intersection of Sprigg and William streets. “I tell everybody I’m a car enthusiast. So, when I get down here, I just love it.”
His embrace of American muscle cars is a family matter.
“I grew up with it with my dad. He was a car dealer back in the day. So, it’s just in my blood. I grew up with my dad having these old cars and riding in them. It was bound to happen for me,” he said.
Pincksten has been in business since 2010 and at his downtown location for about seven years. He is a one-man shop, though he occasionally brings on extra help, when he can find someone who knows a carburetor from a clutch — a task getting more difficult by the day, he said. Pincksten buys and sells vehicles around the country — and sometimes beyond, having shipped one vehicle to Australia. Finding vehicles to buy has become easier online.
“Back in my dad’s day, he just had to go about buying and selling locally. Now with the internet, gollee, I buy cars from California and ship them back to California, all over,” he said. “Rarely do I sell a car locally anymore.”
Pincksten’s passion projects have one thing in common: They are true American muscle cars. In late September, gracing his shop floor were a trio of Chevrolets — a 1955 BelAir, a 1970 Camaro and a 1965 Corvette.
“I love the old [Chevrolet] Chevelles, the old Camaros — just anything with a big and loud motor in it,” Pincksten explained, noting the protectively covered Corvette, the prize of the group, could sell for upward of $150,000.
Normally, after Pincksten buys a vehicle, he spends two months or longer going through it with a fine-toothed comb to make it as pristine as possible, “like something I’d want, something nice all over.”
Pincksten said once a car is ready for its next home, it usually doesn’t sit long in his shop.
“They usually go pretty quickly once I get them ready, just because my taste is kind of in line with everybody else’s,” he contended. “You can’t beat a slick, black, old muscle car. This stuff is all high-demand stuff, very sought after.”
But as in every business, setbacks can occur.
“I had a ’69 Camaro. Had it sold for $55,000. The day before I was selling it, I took it around the block to do a shake-down test on it. A guy pulls out in front of me, and I T-boned him,” he explained. “Luckily, he had insurance. It just stings a little because I had it sold.”
Part of being successful as a vintage vehicle dealer, Pinskten said, is knowledge of the vehicles built up over time.
“These days, they just hook up a computer to your diagnostic port, and it tells you what’s wrong with the car. These old cars, if you have an issue, you kinda have to know, you have to have been around this stuff to know. That’s very hard to find,” he noted. “The old guys who grew up with this stuff, it’s just that — they are getting old, and they are either retired or done working on stuff like this.”
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