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From Brava Magazine, April 2009
by Cayce Osborne
Skin care can be a complicated issue.
Can that expensive body lotion really
do all it claims? Are the ingredients
beneficial, or are all those scientific-sounding
concoctions listed on the label doing more
harm than good? The decision on what to
buy and how much to spend is often difficult,
and having a trusted friend to recommend
a product is how many of us find our lifelong
favorites. Thanks to Chuck Bauer and
Chuck Beckwith, shopping at The Soap
Opera is like entering a store where your
best friend has tried each and every product.
The shelves are lined with products Bauer
and Beckwith believe in and have actually
tried. With a staff who is similarly informed,
it's hard to go wrong with anything you'll
find at this venerable State Street institution.
Having been influenced by small European
specialty boutiques, Bauer and Beckwith
opened a small cart on the Library Mall as
art students in the 1970s. They soon moved
to a permanent storefront and kept upgrading
their retail space, eventually purchasing their
current location at 319 State St. in 1982.
"We really wanted something independent
that we could do in the nature of a
small business," says Beckwith. "We both
grew up internationally and realized that
smaller stores could be pretty great. In the
'70s, retail was not that exciting, and nobody
had small stores." Body care items were
relegated to drug stores or supermarkets,
and because of this they were able to hit
upon an underserved niche. The Soap Opera
has been a success ever since.
Their achievement has been no accident,
however. They've put in long hours, created
a warm and welcoming environment, and
above all, provided peerless customer service.
"Our products are personal," explains
Bauer. "So we have the intimacy of a small
space and a counter with a lot of personal
service. There's hardly any of that left.Kind
of like bookstores used to be: small, personal,
where the people had read everything
and could talk books."
Product lines like Crabtree & Evelyn,
Roger Gallet, Maja and their in-house brand
have been favorites since the store's inception,
and they seek out new additions — like
decadent MOR soaps—when the inspiration
strikes or because of a customer request
or recommendation.At the same time, they
are careful not to become slaves to trend, as
those products often come and go.
"There's always that temptation to
purchase every new thing that comes along,
like towels and shower curtains," says Bauer.
"Pretty soon you become foggy in the mind
of your customers. We've always prided
ourselves on keeping our focus really sharp,
and if they've bought something here before,
they can very likely get it again.We are loyal
to the lines we carry."
Because of this loyalty, you'll often overhear
customers telling personal stories
about their favorite products — maybe
reminiscing about when their mother used
to shop here, or that their favorite European
brand isn't carried anywhere else and they're
so happy to find it again. Shopping at The
Soap Opera is an engaging experience,with
a knowledgeable staff who always puts the
customer first.
Counter service will never be interrupted
by a phone call, for instance. "You know
how it is — if the phone rings, that comes
first. It's like someone is being allowed to
butt in front of you in line.Why is that? We
never, ever let that happen here," says Bauer.
All calls and e-mails are handled by Bauer
in the downstairs office, while you'll most
often find Beckwith upstairs working with
customers or creating a window display, a
division of labor that has evolved over the
life of their partnership and works perfectly
for both of them.
While Beckwith calls good customer
service "an old-fashioned value," at the same
time their attention to detail meshes well
with the modern consumer's demands. They
maintain an extensive Web site that allows
customers to order online or over the
phone, and packages are shipped out the
same day the order is placed.
With all this focus on the store, it's a
wonder the two have any free time, but in
addition to traveling — during which they
often stumble upon new products for the
store — they maintain two local households,
and Bauer enjoys plein air painting.
Their Madison home in the University
Heights neighborhood is often a stop on
local architectural or garden tours, and is
indeed a marvel of design. Working with
the architect who first revamped their storefront,
they handed over a 200-item wish list
and three years later, the house was done.
"We consider it a great place to share
with people. It's a wild house,with 11 levels
in it, so we're constantly on the stairs. But
we're thrilled with it,"says Beckwith. Another
project is their second home, a farm near
New Glarus, and while Beckwith refers to it
as "their little weekend getaway," it also
boasts an impressive 18 acres of planted
prairie and an oak savannah restoration.
It could be said that Bauer and Beckwith
actually have three homes—if you include
the store itself. They are proud to own a
building on State Street and to be part of
the downtown community — something
they have become well known for and that
has been well documented.But when asked
what we might not know about them, Bauer
responds, surprisingly, by bringing up the
issue of retirement.
"No one has ever asked us about it.We
would like to say that there are so many intangibles
about working, but the rewards
are ongoing." With a hard-working staff, for
which both men are grateful, they have the
flexibility to put energy into their homes
and their hobbies. As for making any
changes to the rewarding life they've carved
out for themselves, Bauer puts it simply: "If
it's not broken, don't fix it!"
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