st paul pioneer press
jan 13, 2008

Jon Novick left the corporate world to open an in-home store catering to vegans looking for the latest available goods in clothing, accessories and food. After two and a half years, he's making the leap to a storefront.

BY JULIE FORSTER

Jon Novick laughs when he recalls passing time in his younger years playing "office" with his brother and sister.

"My brother was the slumlord," he says. "He was always raising our rent."

Fast-forward a few decades. Novick still operates a business, but now it's real. As owner of Fast and Furless, a vegan boutique on Snelling Avenue in St. Paul, he's pretty much a one-man operation. And though his brother is no longer his landlord, he still pays rent to a family member: his dad, Harvey.

With help from his friends and family, Novick converted the 300-square-foot living and dining room of the house he rents from his dad into a boutique. He sells goods produced without using parts of animals. Probably not the sort of business he envisioned as an 8-year-old.

His shop holds haversacks made of inner tubes from recycled bicycle tires, handbags made of hemp and stationery pouches fashioned from highway billboards. Neatly displayed on metal Ikea shelving are vegan shoes and boots, satchels and wallets. Colorful jars of candy and food such as soy jerky and marshmallows made of locust bean gum sit on his built-in dining room buffet. He has cosmetics and body care items, belts and T-shirts. "I thought I really wanted the Twin Cities to have this," said Novick, 38. "I want us to be on par with San Francisco and New York."

Since opening the shop in fall 2005, he has scrimped by, living in space in the back of the home built in 1925 by his great-grandfather. He practices a simple vegan lifestyle, consuming no animal products whatsoever—not even honey.

After earning a business degree at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and working in corporate America, he longed to give business a go on his own. "I wanted to run with the ideas I had, and you can't do that in a big corporate place," he said.

Opening a shop in his home seemed low-risk. Still, it wasn't an easy decision. His proposition, after all, was a vegan boutique not in vegan-centric Los Angeles, where he once lived and where his idea took hold, but in steak-and-potatoes St. Paul. He mulled and mulled. When his mother asked him, "What have you got to lose?" he realized she was right. His corporate jobs made it possible for him to save the $12,500 he used to buy inventory, redecorate his living quarters into a shop and start his business.

Today, Novick works day and night and enjoys being on his own. He takes what he needs from the sales he makes to pay his modest expenses. He values the creative freedom his venture allows. When he has an idea, he puts it to work instead of wading through levels of corporate bureaucracy.

By outside appearances, he enjoys it. When customers stop in, he welcomes each one, happily chatting with easy laughter. Always when he talks, he's smiling.

Michelle Shaw, an elementary school teacher in Edina, likes the personal attention she gets when she walks into the shop. Novick places special orders for her. Plus, she knows she won't have to read labels, scrutinize ingredients or worry about whether the items she buys conform to her veganism. Although she says there are stores in the area that sell a limited number of vegan products, she doesn't know of any other store in the Twin Cities that sells only vegan products. "I can buy anything in the store," said Shaw, 37. "He's definitely on the cutting edge on knowing what's out there."

Shaw started making the trek to St. Paul from her home in Northeast Minneapolis after seeing something about his shop in a newsletter. While customers like Shaw are keeping his business alive, random traffic is something he needs.

Even though he has colorful signs out front and in the windows, his storefront gets little attention from the cars that zoom up and down Snelling Avenue. Mainly, his customers know about the shop from word of mouth. He also does some online selling. Last year, he managed $60,000 in sales before paying rent, utilities, for the products he buys to sell and for general operating expenses such as credit-card processing, insurance and fees for his accountant. Despite a long list of expenses, he has managed to eke out a tiny profit.

Now, he's ready to take on a bigger risk. In February or March, he'll move his shop to the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis, where he hopes to increase his visibility. He's sharing a space along Franklin Avenue with an animal rights group, which will pay a quarter of the rent. Just recently, he put his name to a five-year lease there. "This is a big risk for me," he said.

He calls Seward "veg central" and has researched the number of businesses and restaurants that cater to vegans and vegetarians in the area. In his bigger location, he'll have room to expand his inventory with more clothing and shoes.

Novick's vegan sensibilities were born during college in Madison when he first tasted nut loaf at a cooperative house during Friday night Sabbath dinner. Later, he stopped eating red meat for health reasons. Eventually, he lost his taste for poultry and fish and finally made an ethical decision to give up dairy and eggs and to become fully vegan.

While his goals are ambitious, he doesn't have any illusions that his work will finance a materially rich lifestyle. "I just want to survive," he said. "I don't have dreams of spending winters in Tahiti or buying a fancy car or a big home. As long as I can survive, that's my goal."

Julie Forster
(651) 228 5189

COMPANY SPECS
Name: Fast and Furless
Location: Snelling Avenue in St. Paul (Moving soon to Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis)
Type of business: Retailer specializing in products for vegans
Founded: 2005
Web site: fastandfurless.com
Owner: Jon Novick
Employees: 1
Revenue: $60,000
Competition: Other retail stores and boutiques
Challenge ahead: Making move to a higher-traffic but higher-cost location