here. and that opportunity to come and have somebody say, hey, how s it going, and really mean it? all of that is what creates the opportunity for me. dani cone is the owner of cone & steiner is, a small chain of three convenience stores in seattle. i ve been in the service industry my entire life. and one of my favorite things about the service industry are those relationships that you form, literally, over the counter. for dani, the community focus, or shop local idea, isn t just limited to her relationship with her customers. we believe in creating opportunity on all sides of the counter. which means with our team, with our customers, and with our vendors. this isn t the dani cone show. this is us. for her largely urban, millennial customers, small batch locally sourced products are a big draw. so many of the products are surrounding us in this store that we re sitting in have roots here in seattle. shopping local gives all of us a chance to grow.
good. they both say the customers love being able to pass through from one place to the next, and at the capital hill store, there s a wide open passageway between her shop and the next door bakery. they let us use the walk-in, we store our excess ingredients over there. we have a really nice relationship with their staff. we use their bathroom, they use our bathroom. customers just flow back and forth. it s really nice. customers that weren t aware of cone & steiner see it through the window and while dani is very focused on developing her own community she is quick to tell you that she has not lost sight of her own bottom line. i mean it s a business. in a for-profit business if our business model is not viable and successful, then i can t create jobs. i can t create that shelf space for local vendors. i can t create a community place for people. i can t do any of these things. with seattle as her hometown, dani says she s got a great example of a shop local success
in fact, she sees her shops as a three-way growth opportunity. for manufacturers who get shelf space. for shoppers who get unique products, and for her stores which get a reputation for offering these kinds of hip goodies. we support them. but in that way, they also support us. we have unique access to some of these products, because of what we do. because that s part of our values, and part of our business model. dani is providing an incredible service. erin nelson is head of seattle made a local manufacturer s advocacy group. she sees an economic impact in what dani is doing. there is an exponential multiplier effect in terms of the amount of money that stays in the community when you are having local retail, local manufacturing, and employing local staff. dani s expanded vision of shop local doesn t stop with her customers and vendors. it also extends to her neighboring storekeepers, too. here at the pioneer square store, she opens the wall between her store and her next