A downtown of ‘doers’: The women who revitalized Vicksburg

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VICKSBURG, MI — Downtown Vicksburg has had an influx of new businesses in the past few years.

A common denominator? Many of them are owned and operated by women.

A sampling:

There’s the corporate retiree who now owns a bookstore.

The young mom who custom-makes “clean” cosmetics and skin care products.

The two sisters who opened not one, but two stores in town in the past year.

The trend “is not on purpose,” said Tory Hollister, who opened Oopsy Daisy flower shop five years ago. “It’s not like we were all, ‘women power.’ It’s just been very organic.”

Still, she said, “I’m just really proud of it. I think there are other communities envious of what we have going on here.”

The wave of female entrepreneurs comes amid a downtown revitalization plan in the village of 3,973 people, south of Kalamazoo.

That plan included sprucing up physical spaces, hosting events to attract visitors to the village and filling vacancies in downtown storefronts.

Today, there are no vacancies in Vicksburg’s downtown. The village business community is flourishing, and female entrepreneurs are largely responsible for that, said Jim Mallery, the village manager — as he lists off one woman-owned business after another.

“In the 11 years that I’ve been here, the women have worked circles around the men, and you can quote me on that,” said Mallery, who became village manager in 2016. “Predominantly, the males are a lot of talkers and the females are a lot of doers.”

It’s not just the women business owners, he added, giving a shoutout to Syd Bastos, who stepped down last year as executive director of Vicksburg Arts.

“She was instrumental and a pit bull” in advocating the importance of the arts in downtown revitalization, Mallery said. “She won me over, and she’s another female who’s been a key component” of the village’s evolution.

As for the town’s women entrepreneurs, there’s a wide span in ages and backgrounds.

One of the founders of Hot Flash Pottery is in her 80s; the owner of Zoja Beauty is in her 30s. Several had preexisting ties to Vicksburg; many others did not.

Among the former is Veronica Levin, who opened Hot Flash Pottery in 2019 with her mother, Lupe Smith. For Levin, owning a business in Vicksburg has special meaning because of her family history. The village is the hometown of her late father, Ron Smith, and his forebears were among Vicksburg’s first white settlers.

“The Smiths used to own a shoe store in town,” Levin said. “They had a lumberyard. They were bootleggers, too. They were all entrepreneurs.”

Her grandfather had a television repair shop in Vicksburg at one time, Levin recalled, and he also “used to do lapidary. He had a rock shop called Smitty’s Rocks and Things.”

Levin grew up in Illinois but often visited Vicksburg, especially after her parents retired there. Levin, her husband, and son moved to Vicksburg in 2017, buying her grandparents’ home.

“I grew up seeing Vicksburg when it was thriving, and I’ve seen Vicksburg when it went through hard times,” Levin said. “Now it’s on the up and up again, and I’m loving it.”

‘A hidden gem’

While Levin situated her business in Vicksburg largely for convenience, for most of the women, it was an intentional choice.

That includes Kimm Mayer, who said Vicksburg’s female energy was one reason she and her business partner picked the village as the place to open their Gilbert and Ivy bookstore four years ago.

“When you look around, a significant number of the businesses here are female-owned or female-operated,” Mayer said. “That’s one of the things that attracted us, because we were like, obviously, the climate is friendly to women.”

There were other factors, too, said Mayer, who spent almost 40 years in corporate jobs before opening her store.

She and her business partner “wanted a small town, because we’re both from small towns,” Mayer said. “Vicksburg had the right criteria. It’s kind of a bedroom community with an educated population. It has a walkable downtown.”

Another big factor: Village leaders’ support for downtown businesses, particularly in sponsoring events that draw outsiders.

That includes ‘Burg Days, in which the town blocks off the downtown streets on Wednesday evenings during the summer and brings in live bands, food trucks and entertainment for children. The weekly event can attract thousands.

“I can’t say enough about the village and their dedication to bringing people into the community,” which is great for business, Mayer said.

Josie Bays, who opened Liv La Mode Boutique four years ago, concurred.

“I get a lot of customers who would not regularly come down here” as a result of ‘Burg Days and other village-sponsored events, she said. “My sales are up a significant amount on Wednesdays. It’s really helped me.

“I was actually just talking to a friend who has a business in Portage, and she’s like, ‘You’re really lucky that you’re in Vicksburg because of the support that we get with all these events,” Bays said. “Lots of communities don’t have that.”

Vicksburg’s vibe is what drew in Julie Prange, her sister Shelly Schebeck and Schebeck’s daughter Paige Schebeck.

The three were renting out stalls at a Mattawan vintage market when they decided to open their own store. They had already tried that once in their hometown of Schoolcraft without success. So they came to Vicksburg and opened Mama Jo’s Trading Co. in fall 2024.

“Vicksburg is just so inviting, and it’s so walkable, and it’s so friendly,” Shelly Schebeck said. Plus, “they’re doing so many things that are great for all the businesses in Vicksburg that we thought, we could probably do quite well here.”

And they have, the sisters said. In fact, they recently opened a second location at the north end of the village in a space that can accommodate bigger items, such as furniture.

“Vicksburg really is a hidden gem,” Schebeck said.

Another growing business is Zoja Beauty, which opened three years ago in the building that once housed Smitty’s Rocks and Things.

The store sells “clean” health and beauty products formulated without ingredients linked to harming human health or the environment.

“I not only sell clean beauty, but we manufacture upstairs,” owner Sara-Kaitlyn Miller said. “All the candles are made here, the lip balm, the lipstick, anything with the Zoja Beauty logo.”

‘We’re all friends’

Mallery gets lots of praise from the women as being a champion of downtown business owners.

“From Day 1 that we met him, we knew he was going to be someone in our corner to help us be successful, so we love that,” Shelly Schebeck said.

For his part, Mallery said he’s been impressed by the women’s efforts at creating synergy among the downtown businesses.

“I think the biggest thing is, all of us strive really hard to work together,” said Deanna Hazen, owner of the Mezanmi Play Cafe, which is a combination coffee shop and indoor play center for children 6 and younger.

Bays agrees.

“We are all friends, and we all communicate, and we really don’t step on each other’s toes,” Bays said. “Like, if we know one person sells something, we don’t sell it. We all work really well together.”

One example: It was the women business owners who spearheaded Vicksburg’s “Galentine’s Day” in February — a “girls night out” event on the night before Valentine’s Day, when downtown businesses stayed open late for “shopping, flowers, drinks and snacks.”

Hazen also recently organized a summer walking club. Members meet Wednesday mornings for a walk through downtown. Each week, the walk begins and ends at a different business, which offers a special deal that day to club members.

“We were going to do June, July, and August, but we had so much interest that we included September, too,” Hazen said. “We’re really excited about it. It will kind of expose different people to other people’s businesses and just really build that community feel.”

Building community has been a focus among the female entrepreneurs.

Mayer, who spent 40 years in the corporate world, sees part of her mission as using her store to bring people together around books.

That includes hosting book fairs, workshops, an author speaker series, and a Boozy Book Club that includes themed cocktails. In April, Gilbert and Ivy was a sponsor of a two-day literary arts festival in town, which could turn into an annual event.

Next door, Levin is also focused on drawing people to Vicksburg via Hot Flash Pottery.

She and her mother initially bought their building in 2019 to have a place for their ceramic kilns and potter’s wheels, with Levin selling their pottery online.

But that evolved after the pandemic, when Levin acquired enough equipment to hold pottery classes — which quickly filled up.

Now, she’s offering monthly memberships, giving experienced potters broad access to studio space and equipment. It’s so popular, there’s a waiting list.

“I’ve built a community, and I love that,” Levin said. “It makes me really happy.”

Mezanmi Play Cafe has become yet another destination for people from around the region.

“It’s a place for parents to come together, get out of the house and relax while their kids can play and moms can chat,” said Hazen, who bought the business in January 2025.

Families can pay by the day or get a monthly membership to use the indoor play space, she said.

“Surprisingly, people drive here from Kalamazoo, Portage, Mattawan,” Hazen said.

The women say they are pleased and proud of how Vicksburg’s downtown has changed in the past few years, and their role in making that happen.

“We’ve never regretted” locating in Vicksburg, Mayer said. “It’s just got a great vibe, and it keeps getting better.”

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This story originally appeared in MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette.