Bud Ungar opened Mar-Lou Shoes at the Old Arcade, Cleveland, in 1958, to serve a very special segment of women, including his favorite customer, wife Marcia Lou: Their feet were too large or too small or too wide or too narrow to find well-fitting high-quality  shoes in department stores.    “Dad knew he was onto something good,” son Dan Ungar said, when customers came from western New York and Pennsylvania and outside Northeast Ohio. The store grew to four locations until, in 1996, they decided to merge the chain into one large store at Hilltop Plaza, 5142 Wilson Mills Road, Richmond Heights…

If you want to see why Joe Grande’s a contented, cheerful guy, you’ll have to stopby 5323 Wilson Mills Road, Highland Heights. Watch for the sign on the north side of the road that says Grande’s Nursery. It’s set on two acres, and operates out of a one-room schoolhouse that was moved to the location in the early 1900s, and includes an old wooden voting booth, too.Be careful of the two cats in the parking lot.Check out his customers, some of whom were likely customers when his father bought the nursery around 1974. They’re smiling, naturally. They’re buying flowers, vegetable starts and …

When Horatio Dunn founded a hardware store 89 years ago, he gave the store hisname. When Joe and Kathiann Smith bought the store in 2002, they weren’t about to mess with tradition. The store remained Dunn Hardware. Another thing that didn’t change, Joe Smith said, is the customer service that hasmade Dunn a Heights and Hillcrest institution. “When we moved from Mayfield Road in January 2010, we gained a lot of newcustomers,” he said, “and they’re learning about real service. Young people think it’sabout wide aisles and lots of products.” At Dunn it’s about guys in red vests who help customers…

Maybe it was inevitable that Beachwood native Joel Fink became a chocolatier – even though his tastes ran to Swedish Fish, Now and Later and red licorice as a child and college student. “I was a candyholic,” he said. “I’d say to my roommates, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if youcould go get fistfuls of whatever you wanted?’” he recalled. So his first business venture was the Candy Company, a Beachwood Mall shop stocked it with barrels of all his childhood favorites. Soon enough Fink’s inner Willie Wonka emerged, and though he knew nothing about making chocolate, he bought “one little chocolate machine…

When Tatiana Yakusheva emigrated from Russia 16 years ago, she tucked a dream into her suitcase of clothing. Someday she hoped to have her “own little place” of business – a tailoring and alteration shop, to be specific. After 10 years of working for others in such businesses, she’d saved enough to make her dream came true. She opened her shop, Your Tailor, at 6118 Mayfield Road, Mayfield Heights. As it happened, the shop’s name gave her a little trouble, but nothing that time hasn’t healed. “I do women’s alterations, too,” she said. “Years ago I didn’t know that the word tailor was for men’s…

Boris Shapiro could write the book on self-sufficiency – if he weren’t so busy doingabsolutely everything that needs done at Arts Jewelers, his shop at 6114 Mayfield Road, Mayfield Heights, a block east of Lander Road. He does the bookkeeping, manages inventory, keeps the shop clean, repairs jewelryand watches, and creates special-order jewelry in silver and gold. And he’s the shop’sonly salesperson, a position that involves buying scrap silver and gold and estate jewelry. “Other employees would drive up the cost of merchandise,” Shapiro said. “You can buy a diamond for 10 times less here …

Dale Styndl of Perry is very much the realist when it comes to the merchandise atRefurnishings, 5125 Mayfield Road, Lyndhurst, the used home furnishing shop he co-owns with Marie Whalan of Willoughby Hills. He doesn’t crave any of the stock, past or present, neither the high-quality new norvintage. “I’ve fallen in love with many pieces over the years, but just having the stuffpass through is enough for me,” Styndl said. And that leaves more for customers looking for a bargain – like the person whobought a Stickley dining room set and buffet for a fraction of the $15,000-$20,000value. “It was …

Feel free to ask John Petralia’s advice when you shop for wine at the Wine Barrel. Since 2006, when his mother, Mary Gides, bought the long-standing wine store at 6649 Mayfield Road, Mayfield Heights, his “fair knowledge” of wine has burgeoned. His wine education began at an early age. “I was brought up in a household where the family made wine,” he said, “and we drank it responsibly from the time we were young, just like they do in many other countries.” Suggesting a wine barely scratches the surface of Petralia’s expertise. Stick around for his discourse on grape cultivation, the history of…

Don’t be put off by the drab strip shopping center at 828 SOM Center Road, Mayfield Village. Just pull in, park your car, and venture inside Spirit of Clay, the paint-your-own pottery studio located there. What a surprise. Vibrant walls of purple, lime green and orange enclose inviting work areas for painting, glass fusing and clay work; and sample products painted by owners Kathy Hess and Kelly Strah are amply distributed around the shop to inspire the creativity surely lurking in all visitors. The studio is a dream-come-true for the business partners who met when they worked together at a …

Carl Merkel knows how to skate, but his real expertise lies in fitting ice skates on problematic feet. “It’s very satisfying when you solve problems for people, and they come back and tell you how well the shoe worked,” he said. That’s what comes of 31 years in the ice skate business. He started to learn the art as a high school sophomore, and 13 years later he decided to give his first employer,Nichol’s Sporting Goods, some competition on the West Side. He opened a shop near Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. After several moves, his shop, The Skater’s Edge, settled at 5648 Mayfield …

If you have the questions, Seth Dragomer has the answers – if perchance you’re wondering about playing paintball. And his store, Best Paintball Supply, Inc., 5414 Mayfield Road, Lyndhurst, is the place to go before your first game. When he opened nearly seven years ago, the shop became the East Side source forenthusiasts, and that included Dragomer himself. He’d been reluctant to join his friends in the game, but after he tried, he was a goner. The game is “some of the most fun you can have,” Dragomer said. “It’s cool to seehow you handle yourself under fire.” But does it hurt to get hit by …

Robb Bechtel leans on a sunflower seed counter, stands on a recycled milk cartoncarpet, and smiles what surely is a recycled smile. Just kidding – although recycling is absolutely the law at Bechtel’s four-year-old business, Rapid Refill Ink, 818 SOM Center Road, Mayfield Village. His shop specializes in recycled ink and toner cartridges priced to appeal to thebudget-minded shopper. “You can save up to 50 percent on recycled cartridges,” he said. “Manufacturers make their money on ink and toners, not the printer. It’s the old razor blade theory: you give away the razor free, and sell the …

When Margie Axelrod bought the Casa Dolce bakery at 5732 Mayfield Road, Mayfield Heights, about 3 ½ years ago, she set about to express her passion for all food, not just dessert. The result: a café, bakery and takeout shop with more than 50 food choices, from seared sea scallops and complicated appetizers to an array of traditional Italian favorites and seasonal comfort dishes, like meatloaf. “We added lots of food because I’m a chef,” Axelrod said. “I’m Italian. I just cook!” She also teaches a monthly cooking class, except in summer. Besides daily specials, she always cooks Italian wedding…

When Dave Pretnar bought Wild Birds Unlimited Nature Shop, 5736 Mayfield Road, in 2009, he changed the wall color to light sage, moved the bird feeders to the wall, and boned up on bird attracting and bird feeding. But he absolutely didn’t want to change the customers, many of whom had frequented theshop since it opened in 1991. “They’re really, really nice,” he said. “And I learn a lotfrom them.” Pretnar quickly learned why bird feeding is the second-most-popular hobby in theU.S., next to gardening. “It’s addictive,” he said exuberantly. However, it’s not without its problems. Are deer …

Brent Gilberto didn’t have to think long and hard about leaving his corporate salesjob of 15 years to take over the family business, Jo Vann's Tobacco Shop, 6260 Mayfield Road, Mayfield Heights. It was a matter of family loyalty.His father, Anthony Gilberto, had been running the business since it opened as aCedar Center candy shop in 1959, and he was ready for a break. Brent Gilberto bought the business about nine years ago, and his father now works part time.“It’s a lot of fun to work here,” Brent Gilberto said. “I’ve made a lot of friends.”The shop, he said, offers the largest cigar …