Growing Destinations
Your go-to source for insightful discussions on destination development. The Growing Destinations podcast delves into the strategies, challenges, and successes that drive community growth. Each episode features in-depth conversations with local and national experts, uncovering universal themes and innovative practices that can be applied to any city or region.
Growing Destinations
The legacy of the Nordic Shop in Rochester, Minnesota
The Nordic Shop in Rochester, Minnesota, has thrived for 50 years. Join us for an engaging conversation with Walter and Louise Hanson, the duo behind the Nordic Shop’s success. Their journey began with a simple passion for Scandinavian design and blossomed into a community treasure. Discover how the retail landscape has evolved and how the Nordic Shop has stood the test of time.
The Growing Destinations podcast is brought to you by Experience Rochester. Learn more about Minnesota's third largest city, which is home to Mayo Clinic and features wonderful recreational and entertainment opportunities, by visiting experiencerochestermncom.
Speaker 2:We wanted to have a place that we thought would have a kind of a Scandinavian base of interest, because some of the designs we were going to bring in were Scandinavian and we thought that that base of lifestyle and appreciation for the goods might be a good starting point.
Speaker 3:The store is an extension of Louise and Walter. It's what Louise and Walter believe as their core values. That whole Scandinavian lifestyle mantra has always been deeply rooted in our lives.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Growing Destinations podcast, where we take a deep dive into destination development and focus on a wide range of topics, from tourism and entertainment to economic development and entrepreneurism and much more. I'm your host, Bill Von Bank. 50 years ago, Walter and Louise Hansen opened a Nordic shop in Rochester, Minnesota, on what they thought would be a one-year experiment. Instead, that leap of faith turned into a lifelong journey of bringing unique Scandinavian clothing and design to Rochester. Over the decades, their passion for quality, design and customer service has made the Nordic Shop a cornerstone of the community and even the largest independent Dale of Norway retailer in the world. Get ready for an engaging conversation with Walter and Louise Hansen as we celebrate their incredible journey and the lasting impact of the Nordic Shop. Walter and Louise, welcome to the Growing Destinations podcast. Thank you, it's great to have you here.
Speaker 3:I've been an admirer of your store. Walter and Louise, welcome to the.
Speaker 1:Growing Destinations podcast. Well, thank you, it's great to have you here. I've been an admirer of your store, I've been a customer of your store, so we've got 50 years worth of stories to talk about in this podcast. But first can you take us back to the beginning of the Nordic shop and why you chose Rochester?
Speaker 3:of the Nordic shop and why you chose Rochester. It basically was that we each had a love for design, and specifically Scandinavian design. Louise spent a year of college in Denmark studying design and was fortunate enough to, during that time period, to actually spend time in each of the workshops that existed at that time. Places like Royal Copenhagen, george Jensen, a Michaelson Jewelers, places like that, which would all go on to become large names in the design world.
Speaker 1:And Louise. Why did you choose Rochester?
Speaker 2:We wanted to have a place that we thought would have a kind of a Scandinavian base of interest, because some of the designs we were going to bring in were Scandinavian and we thought that that base of lifestyle and appreciation for the goods might be a good starting point. We also thought that having something like Mayo Clinic and some of the small industries in town nearby would bring out-of-town guests that might be interested in what we were ready to sell and bring to the public.
Speaker 1:You chose Rochester, but it was for an experiment. Tell me more about that.
Speaker 2:It was an experiment. We thought that we should try it and just see if it were something that we were right that the people would respond to our goods and services, our knowledge of the products and we wanted to hopefully grow it but we were realists, as many people were back in that day. And we thought well, if it's not working, one of us might have to go and get other employment or we would just move on to something else.
Speaker 1:What convinced you to stay Walter for 50 years?
Speaker 3:And I ask myself that question every day.
Speaker 3:It soon became very apparent that the concept that we had for an early store, something that was not your average Scandinavian shop, of which back in that era there was a Scandinavian shop in every strip mall in the upper Midwest and sometimes two, but they mostly carried things which were more of a tourist variety things that said Ufta, things that said Kiss the Cook, she's Norwegian, swedish, whatever, and things like that, and we both had more the design aspect in mind for products.
Speaker 3:Louise had finished school before I did, I was working on my master's and so she opened up a small shop that sold sort of Scandinavian things and a few other different things and that opened actually two years before we opened the Nordic shop, and so we got a little bit of a chance to try out things and we actually were doing quite well in a small market setting. Was that before Rochester? Yeah, that was actually in a town called St Charles, missouri, and we were down in the historic Main Street area, actually right in the middle of it, right across from, at the time, the restaurant on the street which was called the Mother-in-Law House. It gave us two years to kind of get an idea about retail, and Louise had this concept of more of a design concept as opposed to just objects, but curated objects from Scandinavia, and so that's really how all of that came to be.
Speaker 2:And I think, because that was kind of a tourist area. We were familiar with a tourist area but we also thought that we needed a place to go where there was also a core customer a customer from a region or a city that would come more regularly than just the occasional tourist.
Speaker 1:How has the Nordic shop evolved since its inception 50 years ago?
Speaker 3:Way back, when we started, we were much heavier into kitchenwares and housewares in general and gifts from Scandinavia, and less into wearables, and both the market changed and our vendors evolved differently. So all of a sudden it seemed like 10 years, 15 years ago, maybe 20, we started noticing more a move towards you know, wearables, consumables, things such as that, as opposed to hard goods, and at that point, several of our vendors were doing what everyone else was back in the era going into globalization and moving production from here to there to wherever, and we wanted to have products that were genuine and authentic to Scandinavia.
Speaker 1:And Louise, I understand that, because of your design background, some of your wearables had your input included.
Speaker 2:That is absolutely true. We started submitting designs to, specifically, Dale of Norway. We had tried to submit designs to some of the Harkins people had tried to submit designs to some of the Harkins people but they were not as interested as people like our sweater manufacturers. And we thought, well, that's probably because the sweater people are moving forward and growing their companies and wanting to bring new products, new designs to the marketplace. So that told us that that's a good thing to follow and a good thing to collaborate with.
Speaker 1:How have customer preferences in the retail landscape changed over the decades?
Speaker 2:They've changed a lot.
Speaker 2:If you look back into the 70s, people were entertaining at home and you know everything was new back then Fondue and different types of wines and things like that were becoming available and people were wanting all of these home goods and over time, things have evolved home goods and, over time, things have evolved Now people are wanting things to maybe add to their experiences less than they're entertaining at home, so something like soft goods will help them if they are taking a cruise or going skiing or having a party or just needing something for every day, where that is good design and wearable and I think the Scandinavians have known that and the people we buy from have products that will last and will serve these customers well 50 years in retail is a remarkable milestone, Walter.
Speaker 1:what do you believe are the key factors that have contributed to your longevity and success?
Speaker 3:Well, you know, there's an old saying that if you do what you enjoy, you'll never work a day in your life, and I think that's been true with us. The store is an extension of louise and walter. Um, it's what louise and walter believe as their core values. Uh, that whole scandinavian lifestyle mantra has always been, you know, deeply rooted in our lives. So we actually live the product, we live the life, the lifestyle that our products represent.
Speaker 1:One of those products we chatted about earlier are Dale of Norway sweaters and, as I mentioned, you're the largest independent retailer of these sweaters, which are fantastic, and I'm currently wearing one. Yes, you are. How did you achieve this status, and what makes this brand such a great fit for your store?
Speaker 3:You know they're a heritage brand and we look at our store as being a heritage brand also. They are a small company. I know we in the upper Midwest look at them and go, oh, dale of Norway, oh yeah, they're a big company. Well, in global terms they're small. In US terms they're very small.
Speaker 3:We were kind of a natural fit from the beginning. We were kind of a natural fit from the beginning and we actually got them to make the first lightweight sweaters, and that was way back in the early 80s and we had them made just for us because there was no way they were going to do anything that lightweight. You know, everything they had was either a four-ply yarn or a six-ply yarn or even an eight-ply hand-knit yarn. So, you know, if it was 20 below and you wanted to go on out and ice skate on the pond, you were set. But this little thing called central heating kind of all of a sudden you didn't have to worry about how close you were getting to the cook stove or how far away you were getting.
Speaker 3:The rooms all stayed the same temperature. So there was not a need for that heavy weight. Of was true. And very next year that was a large part of the new collection and it was successful. And ever since then they've looked to us to help shape what the collection's going to look like, what's going to move forward, what's not what people are asking for. And you know it's been a natural kind of mutual growth, if you will, for both of us.
Speaker 2:I think so. I think it is a great partnership because the Scandinavians have a real eye for design and they've brought new designs and even a little bit of trend into their collection. But the American customers have different needs and wants and we are able to kind of find out that when we talk to our customers and from our sales and we can work with them to tell them what might work and what minor changes they might want to make in their line to continue to make it successful for both of us.
Speaker 1:And you have some other great brands there too, like Helly Hansen is another popular brand Helly Hansen is great Helly.
Speaker 3:Hansen. We are one of their premier stores. We carry the line 12 months out of the year. I have a jacket.
Speaker 2:Yes, I have been a Viking ambassador for them, which they choose several ambassadors across the United States for them, and we are able to try out products and give them feedback, and that is really helpful to them. It's helpful to us, too, because we find things that will work for our store and for our customers.
Speaker 1:One of the biggest challenges recently to retail was the COVID-19 pandemic. How did the pandemic affect your business and what changes did you make to adapt?
Speaker 3:You know it was very apparent that we were probably going to get shut down. You know, you could see it happening in Europe and all of our friends in Scandinavia were saying you know, are you closed yet and where they're going? No, I think they they're pretty much sure that it's just a flu bug and and it's not going to bother us and they're going.
Speaker 1:oh yeah, yeah right.
Speaker 3:And uh, you know, we were smart enough to realize that that was probably not the case, and so we knew that we had already budgeted a fairly good part of our advertising dollars into the Rochester market and the expansion of the Rochester market. So with the idea that you were going to lose that, we decided that we would move the all of our resources almost over into the website and where that had been an adjunct to the store and kind of just an extra arm and a resource, we were going to push that as becoming a standalone pillar. And actually during just one year we went from it being an adjunct to the store to it being a standalone pillar in our corporate structure. Keeping you successful.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:Although we were closed in the retail store, we kept all of our staff fully working during COVID, just on fulfilling orders out of the website. So we were able to keep staff, keep morale up. We did do the social distancing thing with wearing protection and things like that. We did everything correct, but we still managed to stay open. We ended the year. Even with COVID. We ended up above the year before that. So it's just how we got there changed.
Speaker 2:And it was a bonus to have the website and to curate the website for us because we found out, once we were able to reopen as a store, people wanted to limit their amount of time they would spend in a store. Even though we stood by the rules and we were only able to have a certain number of people in the store at the time, people were able to pre-shop on the website and even maybe email us questions and such. So when they did come in, they were able to get the products and their questions and taken care of, and it was a win-win for the customer as well as for us.
Speaker 1:Let's fast forward to today and let's talk a little bit more about the state of retail, particularly for independent stores like the Nordic Shop.
Speaker 3:I think that you can see it in the malls and in the stores that have closed Places, that are more generic in nature are are losing ground, whereas the newer and the more specific stores kind of like the nordic shop and we have a very small niche that we we work towards and with.
Speaker 3:So we're finding that and the numbers speak to it, that this is the trend is to find the more authentic retail, something that's sustainable and has quality to it, and our Scandinavian products have always been that. The concept of less is more and you know the thought of recycling, and that was always a main part of Scandinavian design Plus the quality yeah.
Speaker 3:So we see that new customer and they're younger and they want to learn about the brand. They want to learn what it stands for, they want to learn how it functions, what it does, etc. And how that aligns with what they believe. And we're fortunate in that we've been able to grow our business with that new segment.
Speaker 1:Louise. Are there any memorable moments or customer stories that stand out from 50 years in business?
Speaker 2:We have many memorable moments, so many that we were talking about this just the other day that it's hard to remember any specific one, because there's just groups of things that have happened over time that make it really make it very fun to be in this business People that have come in and commented on the designs or the appreciation for what we do, and it's been very very fun just to hear about that and to renew those stories.
Speaker 1:You both were newlyweds when you opened the shop.
Speaker 3:We were Actually, we opened the store and set up the Nordic shop before we were married.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think we did yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, february 21st versus.
Speaker 2:August 4th.
Speaker 3:In my book. That's a little bit before.
Speaker 1:Well, you've done great. And what's next for the Nordic shop? Have you thought about that?
Speaker 2:We have Every year we look at the year and the next 18 to 24 months and what is next? And in 2026, there will be the Olympics in Cortina, italy. There will be a Cortina sweater and we have already started planning the marketing and the story behind that particular sweater.
Speaker 3:Everybody, especially with us hitting the 50 mark, kind of goes okay, so what's next? And it's like well, there's not going to be anything monumentous.
Speaker 1:Ground breaking right. You've already done that for 50 years.
Speaker 3:We are working out on 2026 for marketing, just like two years before this. We started planning for this January, february. Dl Norway, as we've talked before, has always been a strong supporter of the Norwegian ski team and the Norwegian sporting effort and, as a result, they've always done the ski team sweater and, as a result, they've always done the ski team sweater. So in non-Olympic years, they always name it after the final event of the World Cup. Well, for this year 2025, the final event of the World Cup is in Trondheim, norway. Now, the last time that there was anything of this caliber was 1994 with the Lillehammer Olympics. So this is kind of a big deal in Norway and for.
Speaker 3:Norwegian Americans and Scandinavian Americans. So we had a hand in the design of the Trondheim sweater and we are going to be the launch place for the sweater in the north americas fantastic congratulations yeah, thank you great.
Speaker 1:well, what a great way to end this conversation on such big news, the great work that you both have done for the community. With 50 years of the Nordic shop, congratulations, and I just want to say thank you for being our guests on the Growing Destinations podcast.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:It's fun.
Speaker 1:Thank you for tuning in to the Growing Destinations podcast and don't forget to subscribe. This podcast is brought to you by Experience Rochester. Find out more about Rochester, Minnesota, and its growing arts and culture scene, its international culinary flavors and award-winning craft beer by visiting experiencerochestermncom.
