ON BIZ: Pizza Schmizza, Cold Stone Creamery close up shop

<i>Editor's note: This story has been amended from an earlier version, which contained inaccurate information about the volume of Cold Stone Creamery sales on a particular day.</i>

On Thursday, Pizza Schmizza and Cold Stone Creamery on Stewart Parkway in Roseburg flipped the ‘closed’ sign on their doors permanently.

Employees arriving for the morning shift were told they were no longer needed by the stores’ owner, Seth Buechley, a 1989 Glide High School graduate.

The franchise restaurants were not meeting financial objectives despite having 15 percent higher sales for 2007 compared to 2006, Buechley said.

Pizza Schmizza and Cold Stone Creamery, which are both up for sale, were open for about three and a half years, Buechley said. The building spaces they occupy near Albertsons are still under lease contract.

Buechley also owns a Pizza Schmizza in Eugene, where he says he will now focus his attention.

Pizza Schmizza and Cold Stone Creamery employed about 15 workers combined, he said.

“Today has just been a day of shock,” BZ Zeller, manager of Pizza Schmizza, said Thursday.

Cold Stone Creamery won the best ice-cream category in 2006 for The News-Review’s Readers’ Choice awards in Douglas County.

Buechley said that in the long-term, closing the businesses are in the best interest.

“We gave it a shot and we made a hard decision,” he said.

<b>ANOTHER BURG-BIZ LOSS</b>

After three years in the game — trying to break ahead by selling sandwiches and salads with gourmet coffee — the Gotta Hava Java shop on Garden Valley Boulevard in Roseburg has called it quits.

“I’m sad that I put three years in and had to close down,” owner Mike Mallory said, but earnings were marginal and the three years were long.

The three Gotta Hava Java coffee stands — which Mallory began opening 14 years ago in Roseburg — will remain open, he said.

Calling the restaurant business a tough one to break into, Mallory said he and his wife never had more than one day off at a time and decided to fold the sandwich, salad and pasta shop on Jan. 1, after their three-year lease ended and the landlord announced he wanted an extra $500 per month in rent.

Mallory said the rent for the 1,500 square feet of working space was already above $2,000 and he couldn’t incur the extra cost.

“We were building a business there,” Mallory said, admitting there were expectations for tough times, but the bleak economic forecast for 2008 also played a factor in his decision to close.

With wireless Internet, Mallory said the Gotta Hava Java restaurant also became a meeting place for different clubs and businessmen, regular customers who mourn the closure.

“Everyone told us the coffee is great, the food is great, the service is great,” he said.

<b>CANOPY INVENTORY SALE</b>

Carnival Canopy Rental and Sales on Elgarose Road in Melrose is having an inventory sale in March.

Owner Susan Harding said the passing of her husband, Richard Harding, a year and a half ago and the odd hours and the difficulty of hiring dependable workers led to her decision to close the business.

Since 1992, the Hardings provided canopies for wine and art festivals, weddings, sporting events and carports.

“We started out with one canopy” and now have about 70 to sell, she said.

Information: 672-7951.



• You can reach reporter Adam Pearson at 957-4213 or by e-mail at apearson@newsreview.info.