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File photo
Donald’s Bagels & Bites, shown in this file photo, is one of two Lynchburg bakery restaurants that have closed.
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Donald’s Bagels & Bites reopening - Sept. 1, 2008
Two well-known bakery restaurants in Lynchburg shut down on Friday due to cash flow problems, their owner said.
Although The Bakery on Timberlake Road and Donald’s Bagels & Bites had strong sales, their revenue could not keep up with interest charges, said Jyl VanDusen, owner. Although the shops could have stayed open, VanDusen said it would have been unfair to her suppliers and 21 employees to operate and risk not being able to pay them.
“Once you know that it’s time to close, it’s just time to do it,” VanDusen said. By staying open, “You could make more money, but you also incur more debt.”
VanDusen hopes to sell both businesses to someone with enough capital to operate them with fewer cash flow issues.
She bought both businesses because circumstances came together so that she felt it was what God wanted her to do: Soon after she decided that she wanted to run an eatery, she heard that The Bakery was for sale; When Donald’s Bagels closed almost exactly one year ago, everything came together for her to buy it and re-open it.
The Bakery became popular with Liberty University students last year when two students led an effort to patronize the business and donate money to help pay medical bills for VanDusen’s husband.
Her husband died in May this year, VanDusen said.
The businesses did well. In four years, The Bakery’s sales increased from $575 per day to about $1,100 per day, Van-Dusen said. She didn’t own Donald’s Bagels long enough to judge its progress, she said.
Although sales were up, so were the interest rates on the credit cards VanDusen used to finance her operations.
Small businesses that don’t own real estate can have trouble getting secured credit, such as a loan or a credit line, Van-Dusen said. She bankrolled the business with credit cards, which usually have higher interest rates than secured credit.
One of VanDusen’s cards increased her interest rate to about 37 percent, and she paid $22,000 in interest in 2008, she said. “I was making over $5,000 in payments (a month) with 53 percent of it going to interest,” she said. “You can’t do that and have enough cash flow.”
“Had it not been for that we would have been in the black.”
VanDusen had hoped to sell the businesses without closing them. She finally decided on Thursday night to go ahead and close.
Jackie Cofer, an employee at Urgent Money Service next door to The Bakery, said she was surprised to find the shop’s doors locked on Saturday. “I know they missed out on a lot of money on Saturday, because there were a lot of people in the parking lot,” Cofer said.
Donald Nugent, the founder of Donald’s Bagels, said it was sad to hear about the businesses closing. “Business is rather unforgiving, in light of today’s economic environment,” he said.
VanDusen said she wants to sell the businesses to someone so she can repay two investors “who believed in me” and try paying her suppliers.
As for her decision to buy the businesses in the first place, she believes it may have been a “pop quiz” from God. She had the faith to keep trying, but she couldn’t ask her employees to do the same.
“It’s one thing for me to walk by faith,” she said. “But for other people who have trusted me to pay them, … they shouldn’t have to walk by mine.”
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Reader Reactions
It is always sad to see a local business not be supported enough by the community! I really wish more people would recognize the value of locally owned businesses.
Bill’s Pastry Shop on Memorial Ave. has the best Doughnuts in the area!
Man!!!!! All the cops are going hate this..Where else are they going to go now? Darn what a shame!!!!!!
That’s all right Ms cbreezes. There is no respect due. Read it from the beginning. I suggested that advertising [ALL YOU CAN EAT] would have made their businesses boom. This being Lynchburg and all.
Miss Daisy hates my tone. My tone gives her the crazy idea that I must think I’m better than her. Boy how she hates people thinking they are better than her. It gets her all steamed up.
Am I missing the point of this comment string? Is it about the closing of Donald’s Bagels & the Bakery or has it crossed over to Hatfields vs McCoys freud? With all due respect Ms. Daisy & Arthur, please don’t turn this into a personal freud but rather a community’s lament for 2 lost “friends”
Miss Daisy we are culturally worlds apart and, honestly, I never imagined you spent any time at all thinking about me.
You dislike my tone and people who have a “tone” like me.
You should be a comedian.
arthur, I am not a Southerner. I moved to Lynchburg about 20 years ago, when I was in my late 30s. Despite the fact that I am not a religious zealot, I very quickly grew to love Lynchburg.
If I get the impression that you feel superior to everyone, it’s only because the tone of your posts is always so condescending. It’s a trait I dislike in anyone—not just you. I know it’s something you wear with pride, though, which is certainly your right.
Really, arthur, I don’t spend as much time thinking about you as you might imagine. My world rolls merrily long regardless of any brief irritation your posts might cause.
Sez you Miss Daisy.
I don’t feel superior to ANYONE, but, I’m sure it looks and sounds that way to you. Our cultures are VERY different.
So, you and yours are nothing at all like the hundreds of religious maladroits I have met. So? Does that change the fact that their stronghold is YOUR town? Are you trying to convince me that you and your husband and friends are the “odd-balls” in Lynchburg?
Seems to me that if I was NOT hitting a note with you… you wouldn’t give a damn.
[you post to me] —- “I know you refuse to believe that such people exist, but it’s true, and it drives me crazy that you paint them with the same broad brush as the backwards, ignorant right-wing zealots you apparently run into all over the place.“—-
They control and TOTALLY dominate Lynchburg. You don’t. So, does that make you just marginalized in your own town, or utterly irrelevant too? Ask yourself Miss Daisy…. Who are you defending?
arthur, we had a conversation about your superiority complex back before you were arthur pewty. You feel entitled to feel superior to everyone, and I know I’m not going to change your mind.
You seem to have met completely different people in Lynchburg from the ones I know. My friends, and those of my husband and his family are intelligent, articulate, well-read, well-traveled, and not one of them has ever had anything to do with TRBC, Liberty or any part of Falwell-palooza. I know you refuse to believe that such people exist, but it’s true, and it drives me crazy that you paint them with the same broad brush as the backwards, ignorant right-wing zealots you apparently run into all over the place.
ANOTHER one from Joisey? Hey, is there anybody left up there in The Garden State, or are they all down here?
OK..OK.. Tell us what you miss the most in these 9 years. Food wise of course.
For me it’s BAKERIES (real ones)
French ones
German ones
Polish ones
Italian ones [translation: EYE-talian]
Greek ones
Then, of course, there is pizza. Yes Virginia has pizza, but only in the academic sense. Sure it is round, with tomato sauce and cheese, but, by no stretch of the imagination could it be called REAL pizza.
At the risk of offending my dear fellow Virginians (which I make it a point NEVER to do) this place is a gastronomic wasteland. Dogs eat better in Joisey than people do in Virginia.
I confess there are days when I would kick a crippled child for a Taylor Ham & Egg sandwich on a hard roll. Hard Roll… Ha… fat chance of finding one of them. Bread… don’t make me laugh.
Then, there is Rock & Roll. Not in Virginia of course. I’m talking Joisey. I have often wondered why Virginia never produced any music. (if you are thinking Dave Matthew’s… DON’T) Musically it’s easier to list the big acts that didn’t come from Joisey.
But, I fear some readers could be getting a false impression of my love for The Commonwealth. That would be bad. I wouldn’t ever want to be misconstrued. Why don’t I make an exhaustive list of the things I love here.
1. It’s VERY cheap
2. It’s warmer
3. Did I mention it’s very cheap?
Before I forget, what’s with the ham&biscuits;? When you are born, when you croak, get married, every holiday, when your dog gets run over,—- it’s always the same. Ham&biscuits;, crappy macaroni and cheese, beans and potato salad WITH EGGS in it. YUCK!
I mean, don’t go out of your way or anything.
Thank you one and all. Now, I feel SO much better for getting that off my chest.
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