Hassenpfeffer: Things I Found in my Mother-in-Law's House: The Medicine Cabinet

Hassenpfeffer: Things I Found in my Mother-in-Law's House: The Medicine Cabinet

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Video

A Rainy Day in Georgia

I just looked out the store window and saw it raining....hard.....what a great sight. It's been a long while since it has rained here. Hopefully it will continue for some time.

At the front door of the store, there are some cobwebs. In most retail shops one would not expect to see cobwebs. It is not attractive to most shoppers. Here however it is a reminder to me as the starting point of my journey through natural cures, old fashion medicine, roots and herbs, and spirituality. Back in 1965 I was working here as a stock boy. My first job was to remove everything from each shelf, dust it and the shelf, then replace it. I thought ...what a chore and what a waste of time. I did not realize that Doc Miller had a specific lesson for me to learn. After a few Saturdays, I knew where everything was. I knew how the arrangement of the store fitted into the philosophy of the business. And from reading labels as I dusted I started learning what everything was intended to achieve.

Aha..WAX ON... WAX OFF!!!
I'll get into the story of the spider's web, next time.

Famous quote: The fees a service provider charge are only a factor to consider. Remember what John Ruskin (1819-1900) said.

"It is unwise to pay too much, but it is worse to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money - that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes loose everything because the thing you bought was incapable of doing the thing it was bought to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it cannot be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you run, and if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better."

Not bad for a cigar maker???

Paul McCartney's Ripoff

Paul McCartney's new solo album hits stores Tuesday and both the title song "Run Devil Run" and cover photo were inspired by a chance visit to a drugstore in what the former Beatle calls the "funky" part of downtown Atlanta.

McCartney credits his inspiration to Miller's Rexall Drugs, a working pharmacy just south of the old Rich's department store at 87 Broad St.Over the years, Miller's also has come to specialize in products designed to ward off Satan and bring the good life. It's a down-home, laidback store where bottles of demon-chasing bath beads and floor wash, incense, candles and even lottery-winning guides fill glass counters and line the walls.

The store, located at ground level in a nondescript stone-and- brick building more than 100 years old, was founded by Donald Miller, the uncle of current owner Richard Miller."There was a grocery store --- Miss Atlanta Supermarket --- in here, but it had closed, so this space was open," Richard Miller says (his semi-retired uncle works part time at the store). "This was the heart of Atlanta as far as shopping for black customers went at that time and he saw this as having a lot of potential."

The area today hosts a variety of mom-and-pop businesses, having lost large merchandisers such as Rich's and Kessler's. "But it's a pretty vibrant area," Miller says, adding that his customers "are a wide range of people --- high government officials, lawyers, janitors, schoolteachers and retired people. We see a lot of second- and third- generation customers.

"McCartney, 57, discovered the store in January when he was in town with two of his children. His daughter Heather was unveiling her household creations at a trade show at the AmericasMart Atlanta. (McCartney's wife, Linda, died in April 1998.)McCartney says his son James, 21, "wanted to visit the funky side of town. So we went down there and were just wandering around the block and we came across this sort of voodoo shop selling cures for everything."I was looking in the shop window and I saw this bottle of bath salts called 'Run Devil Run,' " McCartney says in a release accompanying the album. "I thought that was a good title for a song. So when I was on holiday after that, I started thinking of words for it and it came quite easily."Steve Rosenblatt, a marketing vice president for Capitol Records in Los Angeles, said that McCartney had taken "some snapshots" of the store, but later decided he wanted a professional photographer to shoot it."He ended up writing the song 'Run Devil Run' for the album and wanted it (the store) on the album cover," Rosenblatt said. The cover depictions have been altered slightly, with the name "Miller's" on the Rexall sign changed to "Earl's." But the rest of the two storefronts are very similar, right down to the Herbal Viagra advertisements."Run Devil Run is a merchandise line produced in Birmingham by Sonny Boy Products. Of the company's prospects for sudden fame, co- owner Sherry Sexton said, "We're in a wait-and-see mode, but we're getting a Web site up Friday (today)."Asked about McCartney's "voodoo" reference, Sexton said, "We don't call any of our products voodoo. All our products have prayers and Bible references."Alvin Whitehead, 37, a regular customer at Miller's who as a child accompanied his mother to the store, agrees, saying Run Devil Run and similar products bring "power to the mind" and compares their use to "taking an aspirin when you're sick."A soft-spoken man, Miller, who lives in Marietta, welcomes any exposure the CD might bring."I have two children in college, so I could use the extra business."Like wholesaler Sexton, Miller, who employs a part-time pharmacist, says the items are "spiritual not voodoo," but concedes, "the difference is connotation . . . there's really no difference.

"As it turns out, Miller didn't know of the McCartney connection until a journalist told him this week. At that point, he recalled an unusual incident that occurred "two or three months ago," when a long black limousine stopped in front of the store and three people jumped out."When I saw the limo pull up and people pile out in front of my store, I went out and asked all three of them --- there was a lady, a photographer and the limo driver --- what they were doing and they wouldn't tell me."I started asking more questions: 'Are you from the FBI? Am I in trouble?' They wouldn't even give me their names. They just told me they were on assignment for someone overseas with a lot of money."Now, Miller is convinced the party of three was working for McCartney, and that the former Beatle and leader of the band Wings may have been along for the ride."I'm just an average Joe," Miller says. "Maybe guys like Paul McCartney do hire companies around the world to take pictures for them, but not in my realm of reality. So I'm thinking Paul was in the limo. I don't think photographers usually rent stretch limos for a one-hour shoot."At this point, Miller doesn't expect to hear from McCartney, but he does have one request. "I'd like to invite Paul to sign autographs at the store the next time he's in town

"ILLUSTRATIONS/PHOTOS: Bath salts called Run Devil Run stocked by Richard Miller (above) in his drugstore started a flow of ideas for Paul McCartney's new CD (below). / WILLIAM BERRY / StaffMcCARTNEY'S NEW ALBUM"Run Devil Run," a 15-track roots-rock CD features, in addition to "Run Devil Run" and two other McCartney originals, up-tempo covers of rock 'n' roll evergreens, including Gene Vincent's "Blue Jean Bop, " Ricky Nelson's "Lonesome Town," Big Joe Turner's "Honey Hush," Chuck Berry's "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" and Elvis Presley's "All Shook Up."To hear "Run Devil Run" and other songs from Paul McCartney's new album, dial 511 and enter 8600 and Soundline number 424. Each call costs 50 cents.

He never called.

Miller's Mysteries From Forty-two Years of Retailing

Hi,
My name is Richard and I have been working at Miller's Rexall since I was 12 years old!

Miller’s was established in 1965 by Dr.Donald Miller( yes, my uncle). The independent Pharmacy and retail business competed with other national chains in the downtown Atlanta area. First year sales covered all expenses and Donald was very happy. Being an astute businessman "Doc" (as he is lovingly called) realized that he could not compete with the chains for long and started looking for that special niche to make the store a success for the long haul. Over the ensuing years Miller’s has grown and prospered. The niche was simple to find. Just get the customer whatever they wanted, educate yourself about the product, and provide it at a reasonable price. That's it. That's how it worked. And that's how it's working today.

Throughout this blog I will share the many fascinating stories (hopefully one a week) that I have experienced and share the unique perspective I have gained over the last 42 years. I'll share the products we tried, the way they work, and why it has been a success for my family. By sharing my personal thoughts, feelings, and favorite things with you I hope to share the wonders of "being blessed" with a very satisfying "job" and a wonderful life.

Now back to a little history:

I worked at Miller's during the summer and Saturdays throughout my high school years.

After high school I attended the University of Georgia. It was a four year experiment in which I studied many diverse courses. Among them were Pharmacy, Religion, Chinese history, African studies, Accounting. Mastering none but enjoying the classical social studies I believe I "got me" a well rounded education.

Anyway my heart belonged to the store. I just loved retail and all it involves.

I joined the operations full time in 1975, as manager of retail sales. Over the next few years Miller’s was challenged with various market conditions that threatened profitability. Sales grew and peaked in 1983. The Marta rail line was built under Broad Street and changed traffic flow in the area. Completion of the construction caused sales to drop by half. Continued change in the area, Rich’s, H.L. Green’s, and Kessler’s closing has challenged Miller’s to change and adapt to ensure continued success.

By expanding the business with a national mail order division, Miller’s sales and profitability have continued to grow. We added this new fangled thing called a website in 1993. It was created by my son Brian when he was thirteen years old. Go take a look at it!

Locally Miller’s product line and service has kept it’s doors open with recognition as Atlanta’s only independent downtown natural pharmacy and store where the saying is;

" If you can't find it anywhere else go to Miller's they have it all".

A revitalization of downtown is now occurring, with condominiums being built in the Kessler Building across the street and vacant buildings in the area are being leased and developed. Miller’s future is looking very bright.

Enough of that for now. I want to share some of me. I know that old fashion sayings sound corny. But if you really research them they endure because of the simple truth they convey. Here are a few of my favorite:

Selected Quotations from the Thomas Jefferson Papers

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Thomas Jefferson was a prolific writer. His Papers at the Library of Congress are a rich storehouse of his thoughts and ideas expressed both in official correspondence and in private letters. This brief selection suggests something of what awaits users' own online investigations into the writings of the man who was the third president of the United States, the founder of the University of Virginia, and author of the Declaration of Independence.

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"Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights." Thomas Jefferson to Richard Price, January 8, 1789

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"bigotry is the disease of ignorance, of morbid minds; enthusiasm of the free and buoyant. education & free discussion are the antidotes of both."
Thomas Jefferson to John Adams, August 1, 1816 Thomas Jefferson Papers Home

"What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment & death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment . . . inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose."
Thomas Jefferson to Jean Nicholas Demeunier, January 24, 1786

"our particular principles of religion are a subject of accountability to our god alone. I enquire after no man's and trouble none with mine; nor is it given to us in this life to know whether yours or mine, our friend's or our foe's, are exactly the right."
Thomas Jefferson to Miles King, September 26, 1814

”My friend and confidant the Honorable Richard Miller is of extreme good houmour”

Thomas Jefferson to his wife in bed June 30, 1846

Did I mention I was born on June 30, 1953? At least this go around.

See ya next time.