This northern Michigan retailer is banking on a summer with lots of foot traffic
This northern Michigan retailer is banking on a summer with lots of foot traffic
Most of the year, Annie Lang Hartman’s business, Compass Paper Co., is mostly online, but last year she opened a seasonal brick-and-mortar location in northern Michigan. Predicting lots of previously pent-up demand from tourists this summer, Lang Hartman has reopened her store.
We opened our seasonal store in 2020, and we reopened last weekend. It’s actually in Fishtown, which is a preserved fishing village, so all of the shanties, they’re not heated, they’re not insulated. It’s very much a seasonal location.
Heading into the summer, we have been doing really well. But I think a big part of that is that we have launched 90 new products, so we added more, like, tote bags and camp mugs and things like that.
This summer’s gonna be really interesting, just knowing people that have Airbnbs and people that have hotels here, knowing how quickly things were booked to this year and seeing tourists come to the area already. This is really early season, but it’s already been busy. People are just trying to get ready and get set up but also feel safe about all the tourists that are going to be everywhere right now.
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