Picking Up Where I Left Off (And Asking for Your Help)

Hello friends,

One of the greatest joys in returning to Reno after a glorious six weeks in Kenya was not having to deal with a dumb shop.

If you own or manage a brick-and-mortar store, you know exactly what I’m talking about. If you don’t, you likely think I’m an asshole, which is true but also get in line.

The fantasy: You get into it thinking your space will become a hub where you connect with your community. You’ll engage in the most inspiring conversations with people who love what you’ve created. There will be early evening toasts, hugs and high fives, and a general sense of accomplishment made possible only by the magic you’ve created within your four walls.

How much are your doors? Sir, those are ski displays, and you can find our skis in retailers like REI and even Olympians have skied on them! OK, so how much are the doors?

The reality: While all of that may be true, what you don’t think about is the shoplifting, the endless reconciliation of inventory, the children breaking expensive things and parents telling you not to sell nice things, the people asking you if you sell your doors, the huffs and puffs about your prices, the merry-go-round of employees, the quick pop in that turns into hours, the swollen feet from standing all day, the foolish developers who don’t deliver on their promises but expect you to pay rent…

I faced a unique set of circumstances that I wouldn’t wish upon any other business owner. With that said, there are things I miss, most notably how we invested in so many other small businesses. I absolutely loved curating these collections and I took great pride in stocking our shelves with their goods. It felt like an extension of our values, as if our shop could somehow be a microcosm of a more perfect world where businesses that did good would be supported and celebrated in a way that helped them keep their doors open. What a gift and privilege to have a retail space to showcase the work and share the goods of small businesses, in particular women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ owned businesses.

I did offer to sell said doors, but no one took me up on the $2,500 price tag (skis and snowboards included) because Amazon has warped their understanding of the true cost of things.

Coming to terms with the fact that I would no longer be able to do this the way I wanted to was difficult. Everything was difficult. It was painful and embarrassing to close our shop. I felt like I was letting a lot of people down. I had let myself down. I was so focused on building a thriving unicorn trifecta of e-commerce, wholesale, and retail that the other parts of the business took a back seat and we all had far too much work on our plates. Closing it was the right decision, and I feel at peace with it.

I’m 11 years into this journey of running Coalition, and this year feels like we’re traveling back in time—our team, our tasks, and our revenue look more like they did in 2019. That was a hard pill to swallow over the summer. But sometimes it takes space to gain the perspective you need to keep moving forward. There’s less stress and fewer tasks and team members to manage. And who knows, we may end up more financially stable. Certainly, our revenue has taken a big hit with closing the shop, but with so many fewer expenses, will we be better off financially? Will we be happier because our workload is more sustainable?

With this extra breathing room, I find myself sitting in my home office in a house dress, wearing slippers and drinking tea, clickety-clacking away on a new project: Building a marketplace of rad, revolutionary brands.

We did a good job, didn’t we?

And this is where you come in: Who are the brands and what are the products I should include in our online shop? I obviously have some faves from Far Out that I’m excited to continue supporting, but there’s so much out there.

I want to know who and what gets you to open up that precious pocketbook. Let’s get wild and beyond the outdoors—think vibey, sustainable, unique, necessary, artistic, and joyful, with a focus on women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ owned brands.

Did I mention there will be prizes? For every suggestion I move forward with, I will send you a $25 gift card to Coalition as a little way of saying thank you.

I’m really excited to be working on this project and to have the bandwidth to see it through. I can’t wait to read your suggestions and connect with other businesses. Please feel free to share this post with anyone who you think could contribute to our conversation and/or would be a good fit for our new marketplace. There’s a button at the bottom to make it easy :)

Until next week…

Jen Gurecki, she/her, CEO of Coalition Snow