The QUEEN Bee
A part-time job could have been an unambitious gig, were Lauren Patchett an unambitious person. When Lauren was 16 years old, she took up a summer job, working at a quiet little shop in Honey Harbour, Ont., a 15-minute drive from her family’s cottage. It was meant to be an easy job to fill up the long summer days, something to occupy her time when she wasn’t swimming in the shimmering waters of Georgian Bay or hiking amidst the pine trees, before returning to the city in the fall. A typical job for a teenager. Only a few years later, however, she would own the place.
“I’ll be with you in just a second,” Lauren, now 26, tells me. I’ve just arrived at the Hive, the store that she owns and operates. It’s completely revitalized from the quaint place where she worked as a teenager, warm and spacious, with every item carefully selected and artfully displayed. Our conversation will have to wait, however. Right now, Lauren has customers.
In the short time I’ve been at the store, Lauren has felicitously greeted each shopper by name. “Hi, Miss Davis!” she says as she hugs one woman. Lauren talks to everyone as though they’re the most important person in the room, her large blue eyes never breaking contact with whomever it is she’s currently talking to. I realize it might be a while before she has a spare minute, so I keep busy browsing the merchandise
