Eight years ago, she walked into my West Bloomfield store with a little plastic baggy full of cookies.
“Can I sell these here?” she asked Larry Krispin, whose shoulders arched up in a shrug.
“Why not? We’ll give it a shot,” he said.

For five years, Polly Levey-Carpenter baked her chocolate-chip loaves at a friend’s restaurant and sold them at Hiller’s. When the restaurant closed, she came to Krispin once again. “Can I bake at your store?” she asked.

“We’ll give it a shot,” he said.

Polly spends her days at my Plymouth store, overseeing a staff of bakers who mix flour, eggs, chips, butter, nuts and other quality ingredients into swirling batters.

Only the best ingredients go into Polly’s Pastries: Diamond walnuts, Amish Country eggs, fresh-squeezed orange juice. By hand, she whirls streusel in the middle of each cake and applies lemon glaze. Perhaps I like her so much because she is driven by a love of what she does. But I also like the melts-on-the-tongue softness of her baked goods.

Sour cream coffee cake, banana chocolate chip, double chocolate, Michigan dried cherry, triple chocolate fudge pinwheels, everything sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. There are ten handmade products now, and we sell 3,000 packages a month.

“My name’s on all these products,” says Polly. “It’s important to me to turn out something authentic. If it doesn’t come out well, it doesn’t go out.”

You’ll see her in many of my stores, sitting at a demo table, slicing just-baked cakes into sample bites. I am comforted by Polly’s presence, by her hard-working determination and talent striving to give Hiller’s shoppers something unique.

As a kid, Polly baked with her great-aunt Madie. “She’d save little tins from chicken pot pies. When I spent weekends with her, since she didn’t drive, there was nothing to do. So we baked. That was really love,” says Polly.

From impromptu baggies full of cookies made with and hand beaters to a standing mixer and walk-in ovens, she’s grown her business to 100 handmade products a day. The chemical- and preservative-free loaves sell out at $6.99 apiece. Her regular customers – yes, Polly has a draw of returning fans! – look for her bubbly smile and booming voice. Sometimes, they call with special requests.

“People from other states stock up, they buy six at a time,” Polly says. “A lady called the other day and said, ‘I’m coming tomorrow and I want banana-chocolate chip. Will you throw in a few extra chips?’ It was her daughter’s birthday and the only cake she’ll eat is mine! She came back two days later to thank me.”

When you do what you love, you make something lasting. When you pour your heart into a project, it sings. When you have freedom and the support of others, you create rich flavors. Polly’s Pastries: find it only at Hiller’s.

Our wine aisles are already exceptionally well-stocked with choice wines from around the world. Soon, you’ll see special cases holding bottles from one of my favorite winemakers, Celani Family Vineyards in California’s Napa Valley.

Tom Celani and I go way back, but that’s not why Hiller’s will sell his wines. It’s because the quality of his wine is unparalleled and his perspective on wine is one that I share.

There is wine that you drink with dinner every night and wine you acquire to celebrate special times. In my family, there is no better reason to open a bottle of great aroma and which dances on the tongue than when I gather my three sons around a table. That is a moment of pure celebration.

I’ve learned the hard way that moments are fleeting; we must take nothing for granted. I cherish every touch, every intimate connection.

The Celani family basks in the Napa Valley sunshine, similar as it is to their memories of quiet afternoons in Ferentino, their hometown near Rome. Generations of Celanis lingered over the table in word and in laughter, sipping from and refilling glasses of gemstone-red wine, tasting the countryside and its exquisite fingers of sunshine.

As I do with my sons, the Celani family celebrated generations of culture and ancestry. And just as I do, Tom Celani undertakes only those projects at which he can be the absolute best.

The long-held Celani family crest emboldens their estate in California’s voluptuous Vaca Mountain Range. A sailor myself, I smile when I see the coat of arms – three ships with silver masts sailing from a poplar grove over rough seas to an uncharted destination. Their story is my story is every American’s story, for most of us were new here once, seeking our fortune amid opportunity in a foreign place where anything was possible.

Vincenzo Celani came to America in 1912. He settled in Detroit and raised a family. By the 1960s, his grandson, Tom, began cultivating a love of wine, assisting his grandfather in making table wine for the family to drink.

By the 1980s, Tom was a serious wine collector, incubating a desire to produce Italy-quality wines in American soil.

Strolling between rows of Celani grapevines is like walking along Tuscany’s golden hills. Seventeen acres of vineyards and 120 olive trees bask in cool, fragrant nights of absolute dark and gorgeous starlight.

Just as operating grocery stores is for me a pursuit to fulfill people’s food desires, Tom Celani makes excellent wine because he wants to surpass everyday desires. He doesn’t care how many bottles of his superb chardonnay, merlot and cabernet sauvignon are uncorked each year as long as they leave a lasting impression on those who consume them.

The word “ardore” means passion in Italian, a fitting name for Celani’s best vintage. We are all in search of a life’s passion – be it true love with another or a calling to do work meaningful and far-reaching. Ardore represents Tom’s intense desire to produce something wonderful and in doing so, touch people in everlasting ways. I couldn’t be more thrilled to sell his wines at Hiller’s.

Our economy is so challenged these days, many are quaking in their boots. In our lifetime, we have not endured such stark economic realities, wondering which bank will fall next, which job will end for someone this week.

And if you are a business owner, you face questions of how to run a lean operation without compromising quality.

I’ve been a businessman with a heart for four decades, driven by an ethic to do what is right, to do good and to do well. If you know me even a little, you know I’ll never sell cheap food with shady origins so I can pad my pockets. Some years, I take less so you can take more.

Last week, when Toni posted the following comment to my blog, “And Now For Something Completely Different,” I sat before my computer screen, nodding, because she gets it.

Toni wrote the following:

“WALMART!?  Who with a conscience shops there anymore????????????????????

Paying a dime less for something made by a child working in a sweat shop is NOT cheaper in the long run. It doesn’t help the child…the people working at Walmart do NOT make a decent wage with good benefits. It is a store that is HOSTILE to labor.

When I purchase something at Hiller’s, I am investing in PEOPLE…the employees make a decent wage and have benefits, those higher wages are spent in the community, the contributions those employees make to local and federal taxes help sustain us all….LOOK AT THE BIG PICTURE!”

When times are tough, the instinct is to shed layers. Don’t buy the expensive cheese or a bottle of wine for a romantic dinner this weekend.

But we all need to eat. And looking at the big picture, you know that if you save a dime buying cheap food, you will pay later with poor health, lack of nutrients or simple dissatisfaction.

At Hiller’s you get quality AND value. With our new store brand, Our Family, and an extensive array of specialty, gourmet and ethnic items – not to mention the widest selection of gluten-free and allergy-sensitive products in the Midwest – Hiller’s has everything you need – and quite a bit more.

Think about it this way. By shopping at Hiller’s, you invest your hard-earned dollars in your hometown. You support a locally-owned company which supports local food producers and farmers. And you don’t waste precious fuel money shuttling between stores to get everything you need.

Thank you, Toni, for getting it. And thank you, Hiller’s shoppers, for your devoted support.