Life is about relationships. For Sandy and Rob Archer, many of those relationships began in Charlottesville. The two met at the University, founded their first business in Charlottesville and have since raised a family here.
After the Archers graduated from the University, they made the decision to move back to Charlottesville. Rob had been working at larger, more structured, corporate companies — at AT&T and IBM — but he and Sandy wanted the freedom to make their own decisions and do their own thing.
So, in 1991 they founded Arch’s Frozen Yogurt, which has since moved from Ivy Road to the Corner. This wasn’t the only change made to Arch’s since its opening —the frozen yogurt place wasn’t always self-serve soft serve.
“You would come up to the counter and order, and we had these things called Archer’s,” Sandy said. “There was the Crunchy Monkey, Strawberry Delight — we had 21 of them. You would order them and they would make them. It was about the service. We waited on the customers; it was about taking care of the customers.”
The Archers ran Arch’s for 23 years. Rob agreed that a focus on people set Arch’s apart.
“We had so many connection points with the community because we employed so many of the young people,” Rob said. “We got to know so many people … You would go and hang out at the business establishments. You’re not sure what you’re doing one day, but you go could go to Arch’s and know you’re going to see someone.”
After starting Arch’s, Sandy opened 250 Central in Waynesboro. The shop served coffee and sandwiches and was a place the community could mingle in the evening.
“When the food was good and people were happy, that was the reward in a way,” Sandy said. “It created revenue, yes, but [you’ve] really got to like what you do to do it for so many years.”
Their business later expanded to meal catering.
“We had a young lady who worked for us at Arch’s, Katie, who was having difficulty with [her sorority’s] food providing — she was in [Delta Zeta],” Rob said. “Then we met the house mother at the time and had a conversation about how we could do the food service, and Sandy hit it out of the park.”
Sandy cooks and caters meals to many sororities at the University, in addition to other groups. She cooks for the orthopedic faculty once a month as well as for various women’s sports teams.
“We both ran track when we were here undergrad — that’s our tie to the athletic department,” Sandy said.
In the middle of business comes the Archer family. Rob and Sandy have four children and a Bernese Mountain dog, Fletcher.
“At first it’s about the business and the customers, but then you start having kids and it has to be about family and business,” Sandy said. “You have to be all-in.”
Rob is an executive lecturer for the business minor program within the Engineering School. Rob and Sandy’s oldest, Okleigh, is a first-year at the University.
The best part of teaching for Rob is the opportunity to engage with and inspire young people. The relationships formed back when he and Sandy first started Arch’s have continued today — Rob had a former employee turned Capital One executive come and speak to his product development class.
Today, Charlottesville remains home for the Archer’s and their businesses.
“There’s a lot of cool energy [and] great people. The University is a great place; we met here,” Rob said. “We’re so relationship-oriented, we have all these great relationships here. The community in Charlottesville is a great community. It’s unfortunate that the world saw something in August that had nothing to do with the people here — two groups of people who don’t live here fighting here and everyone who does live here said go away. The reality is our community is a great place.”
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