The Scrub Hub, which began as a vision to compete in a niche market, is celebrating a decade in business.
The mother-daughter team that owns and operates the store saw a necessity 10 years ago and with local resources, have seen their store at 19033 State Route 11 grow with new products and a growing base of customers, making the Hub more than about sanitary duds. Bonnie M. Herman, now a part-time X-ray technician, saw a need from her years of working in the medical field and approached her daughter, Emily Herman, with an idea.
“She’s been buying scrubs all her career and we always had to travel outside the north country to get them,” Emily said. “Even on family vacations, we’d look for a scrub store.”
“On vacations in Florida, I would stock up down there,” Bonnie said. “There were two stores within five minutes of each other, and you could try the scrubs on.”
Now, people from miles away travel to the Scrub Hub to stock up.
“We’re basically the only free-standing store that specializes in scrubs north of Syracuse,” Bonnie said. “And we have people who come from Syracuse, Massena and Malone to shop.”
In 2013, Emily graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business economics from SUNY Cortland. Her mom suggested they put their experiences together and open a store.
Bonnie credited the Watertown Small Business Development Center based at Jefferson Community College with giving her the knowledge and confidence to open a store.
“It’s a great course and I would suggest anybody who is going into any type of business to take it,” Bonnie said. “It’s phenomenal. They had guest speakers that came in and you could ask questions.”
In the course, she learned about such topics as banking and insurance.
“And things that you wouldn’t even think that you would need,” she said.
When it came time for Bonnie to write a business plan, she said the center was there to help her. She felt confident, her “ducks in a row,” when she approached Community Bank for a loan request.
“When she brought the idea to me, it was like, ‘Oh, gosh,’ because I didn’t know anything about scrubs,” Emily said. “I had worked at a shoe store in high school and through college. I knew retail. But not scrubs.”
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