Jul 22, 2009

Scentsy pumped out $100,000, and local business owners are breathing a little easierBy Andrea SchillingIdahoStatesman.com

For Amy Turner, who owns Olsen Gallery Gift & Framing in Meridian, the visits were a blessing. For Lori Ambur, owner of Boise’s Newt and Harold’s, a snowboard and skateboard shop, they made for a good day.

For locally-owned businesses feeling the recession, the $100,000 in purchases by employees, suppliers and family members of Scentsy, a Meridian maker of fragrant wickless candles, offered cause for newfound optimism.

Fifty people spending $50 each crowded into 40 stores in the unusual weekend event aimed at boosting locally-owned businesses such as Overland Park Cinemas and Delsa’s Ice Cream Parlour. The Scentsy folk left with their arms full of new treasures.

Some business owners were almost in tears, Scentsy spokesman John Curtis said, saying they had no idea how they would have survived this summer had Scentsy not brought in $2,500 to their stores.

Turner said summer is normally a slow time for the art that makes up most of the sales at her gallery at 2100 E. Fairview Ave. Lately, she said, business has been crawling.

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