Bearberry General store opens in Lake Leelanau
By Ross Boissoneau
Sun contributor
Part gently used, part brand new. Part camping necessities, part office supplies. Part collectibles, part home goods, and all of it at Bearberry General Store.
It’s all part of the scene at the store in Lake Leelanau. A store owner Sarah Schultz says she had no interest in starting until opportunity came knocking. “It was Bearberry Vintage,” Schultz explains. She was taking items there for resale from her parents’ home after they had passed away when one day the owner told Schultz she was moving to Florida. “Do you want to buy the store?” she asked Schultz.
With a background in retail sales courtesy of her experience at her parents’ store downstate, Schultz saw an opportunity to offer items she believed the area could use and without having to drive all the way to Traverse City or wait for an online supplier to deliver. “Everybody misses the Business Helper,” she says of the departed arts and crafts and office supply store in Suttons Bay. It offered paints and yarns, pens, pencils, scrapbooking supplies and more, and typically in smaller quantities than a Staples or Meijer.
“I could do envelopes, Sharpies, pens,” she thought. She agreed to purchase the store’s contents and the landlord agreed to transfer the monthly lease shortly before Thanksgiving, and Schultz opened Bearberry General Store Dec. 1. Following the holiday season, Schultz closed the doors for a month to refurbish and refresh the space.
While Bearberry Vintage focused on used clothing, home goods and other items, Schultz opted to change direction. With Evergreen Consignment across the street and Samaritans Closet nearby, she thought it better to complement those businesses than compete with them. “I changed the emphasis. I thought I’d rather have something else,” Schultz says.
She calls the new Bearberry a modern version of an old-fashioned general store, with pet supplies, Darn Tough socks, rugs, coasters, mugs, towels, and other new products, along with a few items recalling its past as a secondhand store. “I still have one room for vintage,” she says.
She came to the new Bearberry with experience gleaned from working for and with her parents, who operated a store much in the same vein. Their Clarkston Country Store Main Street Antiques sold a mix of vintage items, antiques and the typical things you would find in a general store – penny candy, pens and pencils, etc.
She worked at the store, including as a buyer for the store – as a youngster. “They started me helping,” she says. The young Schultz began keeping track of the items she was placed in charge of, seeing what sold, where it was from, and began accompanying her parents to gift market shows in Chicago. “It was fun. I was a kid in junior high walking into a booth,” she recalls. When the proprietors would ask if they could help her, thinking she had simply wandered off from her parents, she’d ask what the prices were, how many they sold, and other questions that demonstrated she was a serious customer. “I’d rattle off the tax ID number,” she says with a laugh.
Fast forward, and as an adult Schultz worked in a variety of settings. She taught at the Leelanau School and was a park ranger on South Manitou Island. She taught downstate before returning to the area and subsequently cleaning out her parents’ home before the unexpected return to retail sales.
“The timing was perfect,” she says. She anticipates a continued shift in stock as summer approaches. “I’ll clear out the room with dishes and get in supplies for camping and gifts,” says Schultz.
She is clearly enjoying her new/old role, evident in the way she rattles off the products she is stocking. “Dog collars and leashes, they’re guaranteed. They’re super popular. I’ve already placed a new order.
“Braided rugs – I’ve got coasters, trivets and placemats. I got a few braided rugs but I should have ordered double (the number). I got them in on Wednesday, by Friday I only had a couple left.”
Throw in the stick candy, stickers, postcards, greeting cards, pillows, tablecloths and remaining vintage items, and it’s clear Schultz is working hard to have a bit of most everything on hand to fulfill her customers’ needs. After all, what else would one expect in a general store?
