Runnin 4 Sweets: An 11 year journey to being a community staple
REXBURG, Idaho (KIFI) - The next time you may find yourself walking or driving through Rexburg's Main Street, there's a shop nestled into one of the buildings near the intersection of 1st East. The shop called Runnin 4 Sweets has been a part of the Rexburg community in part thanks to the joint efforts of Mike and Patti Lehman.
The name for the store comes through the shared interests of the couple.
"We love to run. Therefore, we run for our sweets," Patti said.
Her husband Mike adds they have had lots of fun learning along the way.
"It's been a very positive experience. We've had a lot of fun doing it. Setting it up. We have a lot of fun finding new candy, new sodas, great experiences at trade shows. We found many favorites coming by, people making a recommendation, asking if we could get that in. And and so many of my favorites today came from the recommendation of others who said, 'hey, you got to try this'. And we found it to be good. And so that's that's where it's a very positive, very happy place," Mike said.
They say when starting up their store, they were wanting to fill a specific niche, and the inspiration for what they decided to do came from all over.
"We have a lot of people who travel in the area or returned missionaries if if they served missions outside the country. Finding their favorite treats is a is a great, great big deal," Patti said.
"When starting the business, I received some good advice of stay out of the way of the other stores find a niche and play your own game. And that served us very well because we don't have a Snickers bar, we don't have a Hershey bar, we don't have what other people have. And so if other stores have most of the things, we will drop them," Mike said.
For the Lehmans, like many other businesses, they have had their ups and downs, but they say the good memories help keep them going.
"They say it takes 5 to 7 years to be established. And so we knew that going in. And so we've just stuck it out and tried to build our business and expand to things that we thought would be popular or great," said Patti. She added that "It's really fun when we see happy customers. We had we had filled all our space in our original position and and we expanded our sodas when we moved. So we have, I don't know, four or 500 different sodas. So from all over the country and a couple of international sodas."
"People get very excited when we bring in something that they enjoyed in another country or another place, another time in their life. And so that's something that helps us because I know that Walmart or whatever, they can only carry so much. And, and so we fill a niche by saying we can bring that in," Mike said.
They say that seeing the happy faces of those come into their store is the fuel that keeps them going.
"When they see something that they're so excited about, kids at kids in a candy store of any age."
"The joy, people who get excited all ages, all, oh, I haven't seen that in years. Just every time you see that, it just like we're here for the right reason. So and that's you can see 80 year olds do that. Oh, I haven't seen that forever. People from other countries and stuff that have traveled here who, you know, international students who didn't know that we had stuff from their home country, just a piece of home. And so anytime you see that joy, that happiness, we that's what gives us the satisfaction and know we we have something that people look for and desire," Mike said. He added, "That's what gives us the satisfaction and know we we have something that people look for and desire."
The Lehmans say they hope to continue to run the store for as long as they are able and hope for more success along the way. You can visit their shop at 58 E Main St, Rexburg, ID 83440. They open at 11 a.m. and close at 8 p.m. daily and are closed on Sunday.
