Heiress To The Blue Front Maintains The Tradition
Heiress to the Blue Front maintains the tradition
By Bob Schairer
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
A woman is in charge of the cigar store, and she’s doing just fine, thank you.
The woman is Jill Warren, 37, and the business is the Blue Front Cigar Store.
The business was willed to Warren by longtime owner Ray Collins, who died approximately two years ago.
Warren had worked for Collins 10 years prior to his death.
IN A SENSE, she was almost literally born to take over the Blue Front some day. Her birth took place virtually across Packard Street from the Blue Front. She lived in the house for 21 years.
She says regular customers of the store were not surprised that die should become the Blue Front owner. They rather expected her to take over, she observes.
Out-of-town salesmen, however, have been surprised that a woman is in charge, she adds.
While the Blue Front maintains a full line of tobacco supplies, the store is most famous, of course, as an outlet for a broad range of newspapers and magazines.
TEN PAPERS ARE carried daily on a regular basis, and the number rises to 15 to 16 for Sunday. Some of the Sunday papers include the London Times, the Miami Herald, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, store manager Tom Paul reports. The store also has carried the London Observer, but Paul expected that paper to go out of business.
The store also still lays claim to being the largest outlet west of New York for the Sunday New York Times. Warren declines, however, to pinpoint a specific number for various reasons.
At least 2,000 different magazines are sold by the store. Playboy is the leader among the monthlies. Leading in the weekly field are Time, Newsweek and TV Guide.
PAPERBACK BOOKS are another big item for the Blue Front.
The store’s supply is kept fresh and up-to-date by a supplier.
The Blue Front receives referrals from other bookstores for various hard-to-find paperbacks by bookstores. Bookstores also make magazine referrals.
A few school supplies are carried by the store, particularly typing paper and bluebooks, which are in demand by college students.
The store also stocks a few games and toys, items which move best, Warren says, at Christmas time.
Another big item is comic books. The Blue Front carries some 500 different comic books. Good comic book customers, Warren reports, are college students. The students tend to collect and save them, apparently with the hope they will acquire value, she adds.
FRISBIES AND T-SHIRTS also are among items for sale at the Blue Front.
As many different frisbies as possible are stocked - five different kinds, says 26-year-old store manager Paul.
T-shirts come in a variety of colors and with a variety of messages and illustrations. The Picasso shirt is the No. 2 best seller.
What’s No. 1? Why, what else but the Blue Front shirt.
Few changes have been made or are scheduled to be made in the store.
A general cleanup which led to wider, brighter aisles is pointed out by Warren.
A BIG CHANGE for the store will be installation of a bank teller machine by Ann Arbor Bank and Trust Co. Access to the machine from the Packard Street sidewalk will be available 24 hours a day. The service is scheduled to commence after Sept. 1.
But big facelifts for the store are not in the works. There will be no fluorescent lights to replace the bare bulbs in the ceiling and no new paint job, Warren days.
Thus old customers can continue to feel right at home - old customers such as George Bennett who has been dropping in for more than 50 years to pick up his morning paper.
They can continue to feel at home during long hours - 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Sundays - and while being served by a staff that includes the owner, manager and three part-time workers.
Blue Front owner Jill Warren, left, and manager Tom Paul preside over the historic campus tobacco and periodical store willed to Warren by long-time owner Ray Collins when he died two years ago.