HOLLAND, Mich. (AP) - For the Holland Peanut Store and the Fabiano family, 2017 is a big year. Having first opened the store under the Fabiano name in 1902, this year marks the 115th year the business has been in operation.
The business, now located in downtown Holland at 46 E. Eighth St., has been family owned from the beginning and currently has third, fourth and fifth generation family members involved in operating the store.
It all began when Joseph Fabiano arrived from Italy. His first stop was in Pittsburgh and from there he came to Holland. When he first opened the store in 1902, it was called “Fabiano’s” and it sold bananas, nuts, produce, cigars, newspapers and confection.
The Holland Sentinel (https://bit.ly/2jBRl8J ) reports the next step came when Joseph’s son, A. Patsy Fabiano, built his own retail building at 24 W. Eighth St. in the early 1930s. The store was still called Fabiano’s and it became a successful soda bar and retail shop that sold homemade ice cream, Nutty Paddle Pops, fresh-roasted nuts and a large selection of handmade candy including peanut brittle, sea foam, candy canes and chocolates.
A. Patsy Fabiano, his wife and their 11 children lived in the apartment unit above the family store and like most family-run businesses, it didn’t take long for the children to be involved. As the story goes, the children grew up making candy, ice cream and candy canes and also served the customers. If it got too busy, they would run upstairs and get another sibling to help out.
The youngest of the children, Paul, worked with A. Patsy growing up but enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1952 and served during the Korean War. When he returned home in 1954, his dad gave him two options. He could either re-enter Notre Dame or he could start his own business.
He decided to open his own business and opened the first store known as the Holland Peanut Store, located at 208 River Ave.
Originally, the store was open seven days a week, but when Paul and his wife Esther opened the Holland Peanut Store and began to have kids, Esther decided there had to be one day off as a family day. It didn’t guarantee a day off for the family because orders still had to be filled but it did close the store to the public.
“There are some things more important than money and you have to have mental stability,” said current co-owner and fourth-generation family member Celeste Porebski. “Even if you don’t work, you are still thinking about the store. You ask yourself if there are enough people on at the store or what is going on. So, there is a day where you have to have some sanity.”
The Holland Peanut Store moved twice through the years, first to 32 E. Eighth St., and then in 1972, Paul and Esther moved the family business to its current location at 46 E. Eighth St.
In 1979, Fabiano’s dissolved, which left the Holland Peanut Store as the last store to carry on the Fabiano name.
Their four children, Celeste, Paula, Mary and Thomas all helped around the store and were the fourth generation of the family to have a hand in the business.
“Celeste, Mary and I all Dutch-danced, I was in the band and then Dutch-danced,” Paula Fabiano said. “Our friends would say ’Let’s go get some carnival food and meet up with the guys and girls’ but we had to run back to work and we would thread our way back through the crowd and come back to work. We would work whether it be in our Dutch costume or band uniform, we would go right back to work. And that’s OK. It wasn’t OK when you’re 15 or 16 but we put in our time.”
It was during this time the children were taught their hard work ethic.
“It taught us responsibility, it taught us to dig in with family,” said Holland Peanut Store co-owner Tom Fabiano. “There was many a time where mom was a spectacular stay-at-home mom and every breakfast, lunch and dinner was taken care of. During the busy times, Tulip Time, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentine’s Day, mom was down here but would run back home at around 3:30 p.m. to be home when we got home from school.”
There was a changing of the guard in 1998 when Paul and Esther decided to retire from the business. It was the four children’s turn to co-own the store and run it as the fourth generation.
Despite the change in ownership, the family business has continued to provide Holland quality products. Today, they still produce about a third of their products in-house and that includes roasting their own nuts and hand-dipping nuts in milk, dark or white chocolate. The hand-dipping process is still done by three generations of the Fabiano family.
“It is not shipped,” Paula Fabiano said. “We are not a franchise where they dip it up North and then ship it to us. It is done here and it always has been and always will be. And like I said, it’s all about the customer service and with that we want to always have a fabulous product. That’s why people come back. We put it in a box, we wrap it and put a bow on it for free.”
The emphasis today is still on putting the customer first and living by the golden rule. The family continues to do this through the training of each and every employee.
“We have standards for the kids we hire,” Paula Fabiano said. “They have to use everyone’s name here at the shop. They can’t just come in and say ’Hey.’ It’s ’Good morning Sarah’ or ’Good morning Celeste’ and that is something that these kids take with them forever. You get to know customers names and we try to get to know them. Our standards are very high to work here and help one another.”
And while running a family-owned business has provided ups and downs for the family, in the end, they are family and they are there to support each other.
“The thing about Italians is that we love each other and we like each other but, there are times where we could be yelling at each other one second and hugging the next second,” Celeste Porebski said. “That is how it is. That is how we survived.”
Moving forward, the future looks bright for the Fabiano family and for the Holland Peanut Shop. The fifth generation, granddaughters Samantha and Sarah, have grown up in the business and are “experienced, focused, educated, energized and confident.”
No matter what direction the store goes in moving forward, the Fabiano family all agreed that the partnership between the store and the city of Holland has been great and they said they would not be where they are today without the loyal and faithful residents of Holland.
“The Fabiano family of the Holland Peanut Store is extremely grateful for the loyalty, support, kindness, commitment and love of the fine people of Holland, Michigan and surrounding communities,” Paula Fabiano said. “It is with humility and gratitude that we look forward to serving you in the future.”
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Information from: The Holland Sentinel, https://www.thehollandsentinel.com
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