The dream began with a friendship.
Pam Biddle and Kathy Baugh met through their sons playing baseball together during their elementary school years. Their friendship blossomed as their sons entered their teenage years and began playing football together at Albertville. “We really met through our children, and then we didn’t see each other much when our kids went to college,” said Kathy.
It started with decorating ideas for one room in Kathy’s home. Both Pam and Kathy painted, bought pictures, recovered furniture items, and shopped for additional decor for that room. “When we got one room done, we would decide to start on another room until we ended up doing the whole house,” Kathy stated.
During that time Pam and Kathy visited a home decor store in Birmingham, and Pam expressed that she was interested in starting a similar establishment. Kathy encouraged her to talk to the store owner, and Pam eventually did. This led to Pam stocking home decor items in her garage. “I was a 32-year schoolteacher, but I tried to help her as I could,” Kathy said, referring to Cherrywood Market’s humble beginning. With the assistance of family and friends, Pam was able to keep stocking her garage with home decor items. Thus, the foundation of Cherrywood Market was being established.
“She eventually wanted a building, so I tried to help her start looking for one,” Kathy stated when Pam knew it was time to upgrade from her garage home decor store on Cherrywood Drive. It turned out that Kathy’s son had a building that Pam could rent. She eventually purchased that building in 2019.
With the rapid growth of any business, a time arrives where an owner needs a partner who can bring order and process to the expansion challenges. Neeysa Biddle, Pam’s sister-in-law, was the perfect fit for organizing the business details that were located in Pam’s head. “After having retired twice from healthcare management and returning home to a somewhat normal schedule and life, I found myself ‘invited’ to help bring order to the business side of the operations of Cherrywood Market,” said Neeysa. “As Pam and I waded through the previous year, month by month, transaction by transaction, a story of retail, on steroids, unfolded.”
Neeysa became the glue that held Cherrywood Market’s infrastructure together, and the brain behind their processes. “The story of Cherrywood Market was a story of rapid growth, of ever-increasing customer satisfaction, of community involvement, and of incorporation of other businesses,” Neeysa stated. “In short, it was lightning in a bottle.”
Pam’s interior decorating creativity can begin with a paint chip. “Pam has great ideas,” said Baugh. “You can take a picture of your room or a piece of furniture to Pam and ask her how to arrange the room, place the piece of furniture, or pick the bedding for the bed. She is so great to help guide you where at other home decor stores, you’re kind of on your own.” Since Kathy’s home remodel, she has loved learning over the years from her friend how to accent parts of a room or a piece of furniture.
“Pam and her team are so great at showing how to change a room or bring a room together with something as simple as a pillow,” Kathy stated. Cherrywood Market is not your typical home decor store. Pam is focused on her customers’ shopping experience, and she enjoys implementing superb hospitality and customer service into those experiences. This is the uniqueness of Cherrywood Market!
If you want to experience the uniqueness of Cherrywood Market for yourself, you will want to book your personal Cherrywood Market Experience. We can’t wait to turn your space into a place of comfort and hospitality.
