The Store aims to keep shoppers here in town
Lou Marzeles
News Editor
"Our goal is to help our community," says Nancy Kitchen. She and her business partner, Donna Lancaster, aim to provide that help in the form of a new business they're opening called, simply, The Store. The Store is at 710 S. Columbus Avenue. It opens for business Monday, Dec. 14.
Their retail shop will contain a broad selection of items. "We'll have housewares, clothes, shoes, all kinds of things," Kitchen says. So how does that help the community?
"We really don't want to compete with other stores in town," Kitchen says, "though there'll be some overlap. But what we want most is to provide things that you just can't get anywhere else in town."
Finally, it seems, one will be able to buy a new shirt in Goldendale. And new jeans. And tennis shoes.
"And we're going to carry other things you can't normally find here," Kitchen adds. "We'll have small kitchen appliances. We'll have some electronics, such as digital cameras and a flat-screen TV. And our prices are really going to be very comparable to what you'd find if you drove down to The Dalles to get them."
Even something as simple as a towel, Kitchen has learned, can be hard to find in town. "I've had people ask where to buy towels in town," she says. "I've answered, 'You can't. You have to go to The Dalles.' And people go, 'You're kidding!'"
But now, if you want new towels, you'll be able to go to The Store.
"Our feeling is, if we can supply what is not supplied in Goldendale, that will keep shoppers here in the community," Kitchen says. "And that helps all our businesses here."
In addition to items one might expect to see in a typical store, Kitchen says they'll also have handmade jewelry and offer the art photographs of local photographer Penny Bailey.
Educated buyers choose good trees, says vendor
Lou Marzeles
News Editor
Unless you're Charlie Brown, you probably want to be a little choosy about your Christmas tree.
"A lot of people don't realize the differences in grades of trees," says Ron Falter, who runs a Christmas tree lot at Holcomb's Sentry Market. "There are basically three grades, ranging from premium down. There's a big difference between them."
Falter says a lot of tree providers will just cut down a whole field of trees, without sorting them by grades first. "That means you can get a big mix of trees from a single batch," he says, "and you might not know that in looking at a variety of trees that have been cut from the same place."
The most critical factor is freshness, Falter says. "What you don't want is to get a tree and then have its needles start falling out as soon as you get it home." What keeps the needles on, he indicates, is how fresh the tree is. "That's why the best way to get a tree is to cut it yourself," he says. "That's as fresh as you can get it."
Then there's the varieties of trees. Different kinds of trees stay fresher longer, Falter says, though sufficient watering of cut trees is important for all of them. The winner of the stay-fresh-the-longest category is a tree called the concolor, or white, fir. "If you put it out now," Falter says, "it'll still be fresh in August."
Falter has a long-standing arrangement with his tree provider that allows him to select a good selection of grades of trees while keeping prices highly competitive, he says. He has trees on his lot, both live and cut, with extraordinarily reasonable prices by any standards, including for his premium concolor trees.
"It's helpful for people to know how to choose a tree," he says. "That information helps them know what they're getting."
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