Apr 22, 2009

Museum wants gift shop to bolster downtown Lake CityBy Charles TomlinsonSCNow.com

Lake City — The directors of the National Bean Market Museum hope their new gift shop will complement other downtown Lake City stores and attract more businesses to the area.

“We go to great pains to make sure we bring in items that won’t take away from the other shops,” museum Associate Director Sherri Moore said.

Earlier this year, the museum purchased the inventory of Holt’s Gifts and China on Main Street. It opened its own gift shop there in early March.

The museum leaders had asked Mary Jean Holt, who still has a Kingstree store, to talk to them if she was considering selling her Lake City location, museum Director Briley Altman said.

“She’s been very supportive of the museum,” he said.

The community also has been highly supportive of the new gift shop, whose profits benefit the museum, he said.

“We’ve been very, very pleased,” Altman said. “Bridal registry, at this particular point in our business cycle, … is very important, and the local people have been very supportive of us from that perspective.”

Connie Roberts, who serves on the museum’s staff, is now working at the shop, but she has a background of at least six years as a volunteer at the Lake City Community Hospital’s gift shop, she said.

“We’ve been delighted with the response and look forward to helping brides in the future,” she said.

The museum and gift shop have three employees as well as a “smattering” of volunteers, Altman said.

The shop also features educational puzzles; train whistles; maps; items for traditional children’s games such as jacks and jumping rope; and rulers that are quite literal, with historical information on the leaders of nations and empires.

“I think people are finding it neat that they can come into downtown Lake City and find some things that they hadn’t been able to find until this point,” Altman said.

The gift shop also has sold customized Easter baskets for children and even adults.

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