We visited three family-run businesses that have been following the customer flow in central Helsinki for decades.
*”The streets of our Finnish cities and capital are plagued by a blight where multinational rag shops, cardboard cupcake shops and hamburger joints have taken over the streets. We lack the fine diversity of European family businesses on our streets. “*
A reader comment raises the desire for a diversity of family businesses on the street scene. The city dweller needs content in their walks, where to go and why not aesthetic experiences.
Is it the case that the diversity of family businesses has disappeared from Helsinki?
One chain store after another in the inner city really hits the pedestrian’s path. There are still family businesses – you just have to look for them a little.
We talked to three entrepreneurs on a walk from the center to Töölö.
Wiipuri corset 1918
Very close to the heart of Helsinki, on the corner of Arkadiankatu, is the underwear store Wiipur’s Korsetti. In addition to the name, the year 1918 is marked on the large display windows.
On the shelves covering the back wall of the store, there are large quantities of black, white, skin-colored and colorful bras in neat stacks. Women’s nightwear and swimwear are also on display.
The company’s history takes it to Vyborg, maybe even St Petersburg
Wiipur’s Corsetti has been through wars, evacuations, the 1990s recession and most recently the corona virus.
The company ended up in the family, when Anu Nieme’s grandmother went to work at the Erikoiskorsetliike Rouvise located in Vyborg at the age of 16 in the early 1920s. He finally bought the shop in 1938.
– The business has now been in the family for over eighty years, Niemi calculates.
The shop was officially founded in 1918, but Niemi suspects that its history stretches back even further, as the shop was once advertised as a St. Petersburg specialty corset shop.
A family business to be proud of
Niemi will visit Paris again at the beginning of next year to see the new underwear models.
Niemi says that the underwear store’s regular customers are over 40 years old. However, younger people are also welcome. Mothers bring their daughters with them as customers.
Niemi doesn’t remember his grandmother, who originally bought and founded Wiipur Corset. Grandma died when she was three years old.
– I consider this with pride, considering everything that has gone through. Grandma also had to go to the emergency room a couple of times, and mother went through a depression, she recalls.
Marja-Leena Eronen is really pleased that her daughter left to continue the family business.
– My daughter is just like my mother, Eronen says with a laugh and disappears into the courtyard for a cigar.
A three-generation club
The Helsingin Sanomat reader’s comment on the Helsinki walking promotion program news continues as follows:
*\”In ancient European cities, family businesses are next to each other. These generations of cafes, bakeries, patisseries, butchers, tailors and boutiques create a warm and lively street life in cities in Europe. We have lost it.”*
On the other side of Kamppi’s Narinkkator, Tavastia, the city’s most famous music club, has been operating for decades. And still works. During the day, people are served by Restaurant Ilves, which is connected to the club.
Three people, all of whom have the last name Merimaa, are lounging from the entrance of the Tavastia club to the side of the hall.
– Well, the family is quite heavily involved in this, but we also have other partners and operators, says Juhani Merimaa.
Five decades of seafaring
Juhani Merimaa says that he came to Hämäläis-Osakunta, which owns the Tavastia building, in 1966. The funk house, built in 1931, housed a popular dance place called Hämis at the time.
However, Merimaa’s first images of the place are from the early 1970s, when its name had already been changed to Tavastia. He was immediately involved in the club’s activities.
– The basic essence of the place, that young people dance and listen to music, has been preserved.
Juhani Merimaa was already supposed to step aside from her role as CEO, but the corona period made more work.
– Every day was a little different, even if the business didn’t come, he acknowledges.
The man around whom other clubs are being taken
The disappearance of music clubs and concert venues from the center of Helsinki began even before the corona virus, and in the end Tavastia was practically alone. Juhani Merimaa does not consider it a good thing.
– It’s a bit embarrassing, because I would like Helsinki to be an interesting and lively music city.
He understands that the phenomenon is related to the development of the city center. The same can also be seen in other big cities in the world.
According to Merimaa’s experience, the change seems to take place house by house. One club will be turned into a giant hotel, the premises of another into a gym, and apartments will be built on the beach in the place of the third. The whole thing doesn’t seem to be under control by any party.
– Perhaps a more efficient use will be found for the premises, which is better suited to the business ideas, and from which a better rent can be obtained, he thinks.
Concert venues in the center will become really scarce if the rumors about Savoy closing down are true, Merimaa estimates.
– It is sad for the center of Helsinki that so many things are disappearing from here. If there is no supply, there is no demand either.
At the moment, the center is becoming quieter, he points out.
Brunch while doing the laundry
Not quite in the center, but in the inner city, on the edge of Töölöntor, you can still find the continental breeze mentioned in the reader’s comment.
What makes the business idea of \u200b\u200bthe cafe-restaurant special is, among other things, that the customer can wash his clothes there while having breakfast.
– We started the generational change in 2011, and it is still being done little by little here, he states.
Café Tin Tin Tango was among the first to expand its summer terrace operation to Töölöntor.
The reader ends his writing on the topic of walking centers as follows:
*\”Our dull and sleepy pedestrian streets could be enlivened with romantic new-style street lamps, new-style street furniture, street sculptures, fountains, looking statues, old-fashioned lemonade carts, ice cream carts, flower carts, candy carts, cotton candy carts, donut carts, street artists and of course a nice hat-wearing poser.*
*It’s better to reserve in the old one!\”*
*You can discuss the topic until Wednesday 19 October 2022 at 11 pm.*