It’s a store within a store. MB Creative Cafe is taking shape inside the front entrance at the new Landers’ True Value Hardware Store on M-139 in Scottdale—poised for opening December 1.
MB Creative Cafe has a diverse mission—to serve as a snack and refreshment center inside the hardware store—as well as a showcase for multiple products created by female-owned businesses throughout Michigan’s Great Southwest. It’s the brainchild of Megan Mooneyhan of Bangor and Brittney Posten of Stevensville.
Brittney worked in the corporate world for over 8 years in a variety of roles ranging from customer service to sales and eventually Strategy and Operations. Megan worked at WalMart for 9 years starting as an associate and working her way up to management.
Megan’s favorite job was in the Walmart bakery and she would often find the time to create fun cakes and cupcakes for friends and family parties. She would often hear that she should open a bakery.
In 2020 Megan and Brittney both lost their jobs due to COVID and decided to start MB Creative. Brittney explains how it all came together:
“We started meeting and agreed on a few things. One, we wanted to have creative freedom with our business and we came up with the name MB Creative Cafe with the intention of having a cafe with workshops in the evenings. Two, we didn’t want to go into debt. We had both lost our jobs to COVID and the future was uncertain. Three, we would work hard at getting our name out into the community. We did just that by participating in many markets where we got to the point where people were reaching out to us regularly to ask us to participate in markets. The hot cocoa bombs were our viral entry into the community and tripled our following and the word of mouth continued to help us grow!”
Megan has been working for MB Creative full time and has been able to stay at home with her 5 year old and Brittney just had her first baby in April 2022. They already dream of passing their business down to their daughters.
Brittney picks up the story from there:
“At the end of October 2020 we received a shipment of hot cocoa bomb molds and we shared that we were offering them and our business really took off! We made thousands of cocoa bombs before the end of the year. Our cocoa bombs were in 8 stores from New Buffalo to Kalamazoo. We rented a kitchen and spent most of our days there, even pulling a 17 hour day where we took a break to run and get heating pads for our backs and inserts for our shoes! More restaurants and stores were reaching out but we just couldn’t physically make any more of these hot cocoa bombs. We never dreamed that some chocolate would triple our social media following and allow us to make more than our corporate jobs.”
Landers Hardware Group owner Doug Landers reached out and told them that he thought the business would be a wonderful addition to the front of his new store in Scottdale. To start, they have about a dozen local and women-owned businesses that will offer beautiful quality items in the shop. The instructional workshops are already taking off. Their dream is to have a large space with a kitchen, workshop, and sit down cafe. Brittney and Megan say they are so grateful to Landers for the opportunity. And they can’t wait to open MB Creative Cafe next month.
