This week we’d like to give a shout-out to Ibett Shipley and her Ibettink at Huebner & Bitters in far north-central San Antonio.  They specialize in embroidery, invitations, and other personalized products and gifts, all delivered with stellar service.

The personalization is further enhanced by custom Ibettink online stores, free of charge for various organizations, schools and associations.  They stick their respective logos on this coffee cup or that towel, and voila; it arrives at their doorstep in 10 days or less.

Ibettink’s survival during the government lockdowns of the last couple years showed classic American grit.  They did it with creativity, partially pivoting to making masks when no one knew for sure what was going around, and wanted to protect themselves and others.

They also printed up the first batch of InfuseSA shirts that you see us wearing around town. 

Ibettink is a great example of a couple things.  One, when a company succeeds in satisfying customers, it expands, until they tap out the local customer base. 

Then, if they haven’t already, they start selling outside their local borders.  This brings in revenue from abroad (whether outside their town, state or country).  In some instances, they might even open branches in other jurisdictions. 

This virtuous wealth-creation cycle leads to several small business opportunities, as it did for Ibettink. 

Enterprising entrepreneurs open restaurants, salons, autobody shops, etc.  Some might franchise dry cleaning, or postal delivery stores chains, for example.  Any of the former, like Ibettink, could find a niche, and morph into the latter, and the cycle keeps flourishing.

We salute establishments like Ibettink who navigated the thicket of public bureacracy to open their doors, and we work toward seeing those regulations slashed so more can enter the fray and push our society to more prosperous heights.

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We’d like to give a shout-out to Gino’s Deli Stop N Buy over off Huebner. They’re a wonderful example of a business that takes serving its neighbors seriously.

During the government shutdowns and winter storm of the last couple years, they had supplies on hand when residents had difficulty finding items as basic as bread, milk and firewood. Then, misfortune struck Gino’s.

Sales plummeted when construction all but blocked customers’ access to the deli. When Infuse SA Outreach Director and board member Suzie Bayne learned of this, and that owner Aleem Chaudhry incurred more debt in lieu of laying off any of his workers, she jumped in to help.

She took to the bullhorn of social media to spread the news of Gino’s plight. As a result, the community did the same, sharing stories of how Gino’s helped them at various times, touting their menu in the process. Sales subsequently recovered.

This is just one of the many things InfuseSA is all about. If this sounds like you, or you’d like to help in any way, considering donating time and/or financial resources.

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