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By Kim Gooden for the Tribune

EMMONS — What started with $1,500 and a dream in 2016 has become a very successful business for Lisa Erickson, co-owner of Border Market in Emmons.

“That’s all I had,” Erickson said.

But she had a vision of what could be, a business partner and determination to make it work.

Erickson’s husband, however, was skeptical.

“I told him we were going to do this and he said, ‘You’re going to open a store and be open three days a month? You’re crazy. Nobody’s going to come to a store that’s only open three days a month,” she recalled.

Now, nine years later, she has proven that it could be done.

Erickson and her business partner, Michelle Hermanson, came up with the idea to open a store when the consignment shop they had been a part of closed. At that time

Erickson was the manager and Hermanson was a consignor of repurposed and custom-made furniture.

“Michelle is amazingly creative,” Erickson said. “The stuff she comes up with boggles the mind.”

“When we first opened we were concentrating on our paint line,” Erickson said. “We sold repurposed furniture, some home décor, a few antiques — not because of the antique value but because it might be something someone would want — and some accessories.”

Over time they have expanded to seasonal home decor, skin care products, mixes for food items, cards, clothing and miscellaneous items .

“We never intended to sell clothing, but we’ve pivoted into that mostly because of COVID,” Erickson said. “Our customer base is a little bit older, and people that age don’t like to buy clothes online. They want to go in, try it on, feel it and see what quality it is. They don’t want to drive to the Cities or wherever — they want to come here and see it. That’s the people we sell clothing to.”

And if it wasn’t for Sue Reindal, who models all of the clothes that appear on Border Market’s Facebook page, Erickson said they wouldn’t keep the clothing.

“But it’s close to her heart, and she’s so good at picking out clothes,” Erickson said. “She has really good taste, and she’s a great model.”

Having to order a minimum quantity of things is very frustrating, especially with the clothes.

“People come in to buy clothes, and if we don’t have their size they ask if we can reorder it,” she explained. “What they don’t realize is that we order things six months to a year ahead and the distributors don’t even carry the same things anymore.”

The clothing line in the store changes a bit every month because new clothes come in weekly. As a result, they are continually switching clothes, putting up new clothes, and rotating what they have available.

But clothes are not the only thing that gets rotated.

“We have nine rooms and we change them every month except when we get into the Christmas season. Then we hold back because there are just too many fragile things for us to keep moving the inventory,” Erickson said. “The rest of the year we move things around and spruce things up so when people come back it’s a totally different store every time we’re open.

“And we have people who come back every month just to see what we’ve changed.”

The thing that dictates how things are moved around is the furniture that Hermanson brings in as pieces are sold.

If a new piece doesn’t fit where a sold item was, or doesn’t go with the décor in that area, then they have to move the piece of furniture and the décor to another spot.

“And pretty soon it’s just like dominoes,” Erickson said.

“It’s a lot of work but it’s the nature of what we do.”

All of the furniture in the store is repurposed or custom built by Hermanson, and every piece is for sale.

“Furniture is a very good seller, but not everyone needs a new piece of furniture every month, so furniture sales go in waves,” Erickson said. “All of a sudden we’ll sell every piece of furniture we have and then we scramble to figure out how we’re going to decorate.”

Another thing that sells well is the food items.

“We never expected to sell as much food as we do because we’re only open once a month, but we sell food items like crazy,” Erickson said. “Soup mixes, beverage mixes, snack mixes, dip mixes, seasonings — and many are gluten-free.”

They strive to be very cognizant of what their customers need or want.

Among the skin care products they carry are Caren products that were created for people with skin issues caused by chemo and radiation therapy.

And when they go on buying trips, they buy with people in mind because they know what kind of clothes certain customers like or what kind of décor certain customers like.

They also consider the people they know in the area and what colors will work in their homes when they order new paint colors.

“We try to buy what makes our customers happy,” Erickson said. “But we don’t always hit a home run!”

With limited storage and new items coming throughout the year, they can’t keep single and trendy items of clothing and décor that are left at the end of a season. So they donate some of the clothes and personal care items to area women’s shelters and various agencies.

“We do a lot of donating because it’s important to me to give back,” Erickson said.

Other things that are more classic may be held over until the next year.

“Sometimes there are things that weren’t popular here this year, but if we bring them out next year they will be gone just like that,” she noted.

Because they are only open the second Thursday, Friday and Saturday of every month, they try to make it an event every time they’re open.

“We always have cookies, some sort of beverage, and some sort of special going on,” Erickson said.

They are also open by appointment.

“And if the light is on, no matter what we’re doing, people come in,” Erickson said. “It’s crazy, but we love it! We never turn anyone away.

“That’s one nice thing about living in a small town – you get to know people.”

They have gotten to know many customers that come from a wide area.

“People come from Algona, Blue Earth, Austin, Clear Lake, Mason City, New Richland – many who come on a regular basis,” Erickson noted. “And we’ve had people from as far away as New York City who come every year, and from the Caribbean.”

Always looking for new ways to generate interest in their business, they held a style show last fall.

“The first style show was very successful, so we may make that an annual event,” she said.

They are also planning to start doing Facebook Lives — online sales with items being shipped to the buyer — with some of their seasonal and clothing items.

“That is one of our new marketing strategies for the future,” Erickson said.

They have many other dreams and plans for the future as well, but they need a new location first.

“We have outgrown our building,” she said. “And we don’t want to leave town — we are established here.”

So until something opens up, they will keep doing what they’re doing — offering customers a large variety of items and friendly service.