THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 7, 1996 TAG: 9608060146
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 04 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: EARNING A LIVING IN VIRGINIA BEACH
SOURCE: BY LORI A. DENNEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 104 lines
Jill Reeves runs a simple business - she spends seven days a week selling four products on a seasonal basis.
Simplicity, she says, is what enables herself and daughters, Kristine Reeves Johnson and Terri Reeves Melone, to provide the ``best customer service and product'' and ``do it better than anyone else.''
About the only obstacle the women face daily is brand and product recognition.
``It's a real education process because this isn't anything you can find around here,'' said Jill Reeves. ``No one knows what it is.''
The women are the main managers for Rita's Real Italian Ices, a franchise out of Pennsylvania.
Out of a tiny red and white building on Lynnhaven Parkway near Rosemont Road, from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., the women dish out eight to 11 different flavors of Italian ices, made from a strong fruity-flavored mix and plenty of ice.
Altogether, 18 different flavors are available, but the women rotate their offerings, which are mixed daily. Most of the mixes include pieces of real fruit.
The flavors include lemon, lime, cherry, chocolate, tangerine, peach, strawberry, pink grapefruit, banana, watermelon, pineapple, mango, root beer, blueberry, pina colada, vanilla, grape and java.
If customers are undecided as to which flavor they want, the women offer small samples for free.
Two new flavors, passion fruit and orange, will be available for free taste-testing Aug. 12 to 25.
The ices, unlike a snow cone, are actually mixed using a patented recipe. Ices are mixed daily and ``moshed'' every half hour so the mixture doesn't toughen.
``It's a soft-serve homogenized product,'' said Jill Reeves. ``It's not two separate things put together, like a snow cone with added syrup. It's mixed and then cooked in the refrigerator instead of an oven.''
The Reeveses sell three types of ices - regular; gelati ices, a mix of ice cream and flavored ice; and custard, a soft-serve ice cream also mixed with ice. The regular ices are sold in four sizes - small, medium, large and quart-sized - and sell for 95 cents, $1.25, $1.76 and $2.95 respectively.
Custard ices come in small and medium for $1 and $1.45. Gelati ices, also in the three sizes, are $1.25, $1.75, and $2.25. The ices can be eaten by spoon or straw.
The women also sell pretzels for $1.
Customers are served through a walk-up window. The business, all 450 square feet of it, does not offer sit-down dining.
Outside the little building are several park benches for patrons to sit and enjoy their tasty treats.
When the three principal owners - Jill's husband, John Reeves; brother-in-law Tom Semcheski; and Tom's sister, Joan Abrams - bought the franchise and formed the Virginia Italian Ices Corp., they bought the rights to a two-mile radius around their store.
Tom Semcheski and Joan Abrams live in Pennsylvania. Abrams is a silent partner, while Semcheski helps out occasionally.
Another Rita's has since opened in Churchland Shopping Center and is owned by another franchisee.
Jill Reeves said she and her husband, who works full time in government, bought into the franchise because they ``were looking for an investment in our future and something to root us to the area.''
During 30 years of marriage, the couple has moved 19 different times. Jill Reeves was ready to find a place to call home when they moved to Chesapeake three years ago.
The couple knew about Rita's and the product because they're from Pennsylvania.
They hope to one day put the store's management in the hands of their daughter, Kristine Johnson, 26, and then continue to branch out with more stores. The family employs 10 part-time workers, including daughter Terri Melone, who also works part time. Kristine Johnson and Jill Reeves are the store's only full-time employees.
``We're right where we should be and comparable with other Pennsylvania stores that opened at the same time,'' Jill Reeves said.
The store, in its second season, is open from March through October. Only one franchise store is open year-round, and it's in Florida.
Meanwhile, Johnson and Reeves continue to serve neighborhood folks and regulars every day. There's the folks known as the ``mango couple,'' a man they call the ``medium cherry guy'' and the ``mango and pina colada people.''
During the winter months, Kristine Johnson works in retail and Jill Reeves travels.
When the Reeveses bought into the franchise they had to pay a franchise fee and will continue to pay sales-based royalties for the franchise for as long as they're in business.
This particular franchise operation is somewhat stringent. The business cannot be operated in a major mall or a strip shopping center, unless it's located on the end, Jill Reeves said. The only employees allowed to make the ices are the ones who have completed a week's training and are licensed by the franchisee to do so.
``The idea is to be able to go to any Rita's from Pennsylvania to Florida and get the same ices with the same texture, same flavor and no discernable difference,'' said Jill Reeves, who added that buying a franchise is really like buying the expertise of a consultant. MEMO: For information, call 468-8914. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Jill Reeves, left, and daughter Kristine Johnson own and operate
Rita's Real Italian Ice, a franchise out of Pennsylvania located on
Lynnhaven Parkway. by CNB