Owning Shop A Love-Hate Career
The shoplifters get to Lynne Hutton. Once, she chased two boys through Coeur d’Alene’s Silver Lake Mall to confront them about stealing from her.
She hears the noise level rise among a group of girls in a corner of her store, Gateway Gardens, and swoops in to stop them as one girl slips a pack of tarot cards into her purse. The girl admits she doesn’t intend to pay.
“I have to go up and physically take an item out of their hands to keep them from stealing,” Lynne says with a sigh. So far, she’s handled shoplifters on her own.
That’s life as a business owner, and not what Lynne expected when she and her husband, Rick, bought Gateway Gardens seven months ago.
“I had no idea such a mellow little store could be so stressful,” she says.
She’d never owned a business before. Until all three of her children reached double digits, Lynne was a soccer mom and professional volunteer.
She was hunting for satisfying work when the opportunity to buy her favorite hippie-era store arose. Gateway Gardens came with five employees and a lifetime of lessons.
“I went in thinking I would have spare moments,” she says. “I haven’t even had time to read the paper.”
Visions of part-time work evaporated into 15-hour days as Lynne expanded the inventory from New Age to multicultural. She added books on women’s wisdom and the Jewish faith, African history and Chinese medicine. She played the music of South America, Jamaica, Ireland, Africa and Native Americans.
“I even have loggers stand in the doorway, then inch in and say, ‘What are you playing?”’ says sales clerk Sheila Holm. “They love the drums.”
Lynne brought in Oaxacan wood carvings, Nigerian belts and industrialized hemp products that intrigue all ages as completely as her music. Watching gray-haired women dance to pounding African rhythms almost makes her forget the tough side of the business.
“I’ve turned into a vulture. I hate that side of me,” she says. She cried when she had to fire an irresponsible sales clerk. She’s posting yearbook pictures near the cash register of kids not allowed in her store because she caught them stealing.
“I’m a little more cynical than I was, but it’s OK. Everything is so stimulating and I’m learning so much about different cultures. If I can’t travel, I might as well bring the countries here.”
Bear hugs
Lest you forget that banks have a heart, here are how two in Coeur d’Alene spent Christmas.
Washington Trust Bank bought 45 teddy bears to give to the children of Idaho Child Abuse Response and Education. ICARE helps teach parents to raise children without abuse.
Mountain West Bank turned regular dolls donated to the Women’s Shelter into fashion plates. Bank employees went crazy outfitting the dolls in fancy theme costumes. They exhibited their work, then gave the dolls to the shelter.
Looking for a bank? Ask potential candidates what they’ve done for the community lately.
Open wide
Finally, a reason for a kid to show up at medicine time. No more yucky taste. Amoxicillin, with which every parent is familiar, could taste like bubble gum or root beer.
Sure, you’ve flavored medicines for your kids, but now pharmacists can do it without inadvertently changing the formula. There are 42 flavors - a taste for every tongue.
The flavors started back east and trickled across the country until they reached Tim Brown at Interlake Pharmacy in Coeur d’Alene. Want to know more? Call Tim at 664-6664.
What medication nightmares plague you? Shooting pink liquid down your daughter’s throat with a syringe only to have it shot right back in your face? OK, that’s mine. Pour out your unpleasant memories to Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd. Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene 83814; fax to 765-7149; call 765-7128; or e-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo