Jeannie Kuno

By Aaron Mahoney (with files from Lara Fominoff)

Winner Winner

Local small business owner takes home international award for store design

Jun 4, 2019 | 12:18 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – When competing against some of the biggest malls worldwide, a store in Park Place Mall here in Lethbridge might not be expected to take home an award from the International Council of Shopping Centers, but in 2019 that was the case.

Jeannie Kuno, the owner of the Bomb Bar, won an international Visual Victories Gold award for most creative temporary store design in Las Vegas back in May.

It’s a significant award that beat out businesses from all over the world, and while Kuno isn’t the type to toot her own horn, it’s quite the accomplishment for a local business owner.

The International Council of Shopping Centers recognized Park Place Mall in their efforts and contributions to the community, that’s what their mission is, to make sure that retail real estate gets recognized for what they do in communities.

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“Our specialty leasing manager here at the mall stopped in and asked if she could nominate us, and I never thought another thing about it. I was absolutely surprised, and she went to Vegas to attend the awards, so she let me know right afterwards. It’s a fantastic feeling to know that other people are appreciating what you’ve done, and it just gives you the feeling that you’re doing something right,” Kuno said.

Inside the store

Kuno runs the all bath and shower store and says their main focus is bath bombs.

“While they’ve been around for 25 years, they’re really hitting it big now. Moms love them, kids love them, and moms love that their kids love them because it keeps them occupied.”

The award was given out for store design, something Kuno came up with herself. She got into the business selling bath bombs for another company, but they ended up increasing her buy price by 40 per cent.

“That 40 per cent would’ve equated to another $75,000 to buy the same product I purchased the year before. I didn’t know where I was going to come up with an extra $75,000, so I took the money I had set aside for the next season and started making bath bombs. I googled, I went on Pinterest, and I read everything I could whenever I could to figure it out. I made a lot of bad bath bombs and a lot of stuff that didn’t work, but Albert Einstein didn’t get it right on the first go either. I wasn’t going to let someone else determine whether I could get food on the table.”

Kuno grew up on a farm in between Raymond and Magrath and has called Lethbridge home for a while now, so she’s lived in southern Alberta all of her life.

“The business started local, and it ends local because there’s no other Bomb Bar anywhere else right now,” she added.

Another look inside

It hasn’t even been here quite a year for Bomb Bar at Park Place, as they opened June 15, 2018, and Kuno admits it was tough to open because not many people knew they were there.

“It was also really hot last summer, so we weren’t selling a lot of bath bombs because people weren’t bathing but our Christmas season was fantastic. We’re a gift store, and it’s a dispensable product, so it’s not something that’s going to sit on people’s desks. You use them up, and they’re gone, they’re not going to take up space.”