Hard Times Hit Michele’s Bake Shop After 50 Years

After 50 years, the location and name of —132 Linwood Plaza in Fort Lee—remains the same.

Owners Thomas and Marlena Stolarek immigrated from Poland in 1984. They didn’t know each other at the time.

Living in New York City and wanting a business of their own, they purchased Michele’s Bake Shop in 1997 from its second owner, Angelo Nigro. Both being so talented with their hands, they are still in business, and the dough, after 14 years. Tom still bakes and Marlena is still baking cookies and cakes.

Both Tom and Marlena worked in a Kosher bakery called Greenbaum’s on 200th Street in New York City, where they met. Tom kept the bakery and pans clean, while Marlena designed and shaped the cookies. Because Marlena has good hands, along with a good imagination, she became the cake decorator. Tom mixed the dough, and then had the job of working three to four ovens at a time with no trouble. Tom had an easier time than Marlena; he spoke English, but she did not.

Both with their hands in the dough and living in New York, they fell in love and married in 1990.

They left Greenbaum’s in 1989; Tom was manager at the time. They moved to Fort Lee to live their dream by buying Michele’s Bake Shop. Prior to the purchase, Marlena had worked at Michele’s for three years, and prior to that had worked at the Yankee Stadium bakery and J&R Bakers in the Bronx for a total of four years.

After acquiring the business and keeping the same employees, Marlena said, “Being an immigrant, the present bakers somehow got along very well with me. I also was the only woman. I didn’t speak English that well at all.”

Marlena said, “We worked from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.; it was hard. The men would say I worked like a horse, they would comment how I’m not a woman (I worked just as hard if not harder than they did)! They were jealous. It turned out one left by himself and the other guys we had to let go due to business being slow.”

Today, with business the way it is, Marlena said, “The economy is taking quite a toll. H-Mart as well as Starbucks has quite an effect on us. The business has dropped by 50 percent.”

Marlena added that in addition to the economy, competition is "making it hard."

"There are bakeries in all of the markets [Korean-Americans] support ... I know our product and prices are good, but I find [Korean customers] just don’t patronize us.”

Marlena went on to say that Costco also poses a significant challenge.

"I shop there and see my customers," she said. "It makes me feel I have to change the dynamics at Michele’s. The call for ‘bakery’ has decreased."

“We also have to stay Kosher, that’s the way the business was sold to us,” she added.

Marlena once thought that by making changes she could make the bakery more attractive to her customers.

“I would make the shop an ice cream and bagel store,” she said. “I would also keep my baked goods, cookies and rugulah, but I would reduce the amount of bread. The landlord would have to approve the change. Then I’d have to take out a loan.”

The rugulah and cookies are the best sellers and are cooked from scratch and without preservatives.

“Some of the recipes are the old-fashioned ones and haven’t changed since the Stolareks bought the business,” Marlena said, “We have added recipes to keep things interesting.”

Marlena said she speaks to her customers regularly to get ideas that might help improve the business, and that she takes their suggestions seriously.

"Tom and I still design cakes to fit the occasion," she said. "Designing comes particularly easy to me, I’ve been doing this a long time."

But business was bad enough last year that the couple tried to sell it. In fact, that thought they had a deal in place, but their landlord "killed that deal," Marlena said.

“He didn’t want to hurt the bigger companies like Starbucks and H-Mart," she said. "The landlord knew [the potential buyers] would take the space and renovate it to make it bigger; he didn’t want that.”

Marlena said she's still looking to sell the the bakery and move into a different line of business in another area, possibly west of New Jersey.

“I hear Pennsylvania has warehouses available for less money than I am paying now," she said. "I would create an Internet business.”

As it turned out, on Jan. 23, Marlena told Patch her landlord had increased the couple's rent to $11,000 a month for 2012, a substantial increase over what they paid in 2011.

“All my plans are at a standstill," she said. "We have a lot of things to think about going forward.”

Looking back, Marlena said, she realizes that buying the business was a big commitment.

“It took all of our savings and brought my husband nearly to depression," she said. "Our earnings go to the landlord, and it is the landlord that we have to contend with. We have to stay positive and keep hoping tomorrow will be better. The future will take its course. We both are trying to look ahead to better days.”

If Marlena and Tom were to sell the business, Marlena said the first thing they'd do would be to take a vacation.

"We haven’t had one of those since we started the business," she said.

Marlena received a nursing degree, and Tom earned an engineering degree in Poland, where he worked for two years. Marlena also has a real estate license. They have a seven-year-old son attending .

Michele’s Bake Shop can be reached at 201-947-4206. For more information, call or visit their website.