Years ago, an Atlanta accountant who hated her accounting degree drove where others feared to drive. “Don’t go down there, sweetie,” people cautioned. “There’s nothing good south of the airport.”
Luckily, Cari Campanile didn’t listen, and she stumbled upon Peachtree City.
Originally from south Louisiana, Cari came to Mercer University in Macon for her MBA. Soon after Sept. 11, 2001, however, she took an accounting position in Atlanta.
“I was miserable,” she said. “I needed the creative side of things.”
Cari had grown up as an artistic kid who watched her father and mother build and sell houses. The smell of fresh paint and new wood still takes her back. She considered opening a patio furniture store in Destin, as a branch of the stores her parents owned in other beach towns. When that didn’t materialize, at 27, she opened a patio and furniture store on Hwy. 74 in the nice town she had discovered—Peachtree City.
During the past 15 years, and a move to Hwy. 54, Cari has ‘grown up’ with her customers and so has her son, Mason, 7. Unlike large furniture chains, Campanile’s has no commissioned sales. The staff works together. “We love what we do,” Cari said. “We live, sleep, eat and breathe other people’s houses.”
Cari often creates plans customers can accomplish as their budget allows, learning whether they have kids, grandkids or pets. She loves color and the growing trend of jewel tones, but most of her customers prefer stylish, functional pieces such as the neutrals that dominate Campanile's showroom. “This isn’t an area where people live just for show,” she said.
With many lines of indoor and outdoor furniture to fit any budget, Cari often orders pieces her customers have found online or in a magazine. “People still appreciate working with a person,” she said. “They trust me.”
Cari credits customer loyalty and word of mouth with keeping Campanile’s going without which, “I don’t think we would have made it through,” she said.
And, she admits, “I always hated that accounting degree, but I couldn’t run the store without it.”