Because many people in the world are gift-challenged there is State Street Stuff.
The novelty store quietly opened its doors May 1 -- its grand opening is May 5 -- but that may be the last quiet thing about the 1,200-square-foot retail business at 314 State Street in St. Joseph.
Owner Cindy Barinholtz, a serial entrepreneur who most recently has run a gift basket business from home, has launched her second retail operation and she hopes it is as successful as her first, which she sold when she decided to stay home with her three children and which continues to be in operation 26 years later.
Barinholtz has always loved novelty stores. When her family travels, they often go miles out of their way to visit a good novelty shop. The ideas for the store have been growing ever since they moved to St. Joseph 10 years ago and realized the alliterative potential of a store for stuff on State Street. Now the store is a reality, with jobs for three part-time employees and Barinholtz.
"What we sell is the hardest thing to describe," Barinholtz says. She does it with adjectives: the eclectic, whimsical, fun and awesome. It also will make you laugh.
The store has a number of departments -- candy, kitchen ware, office, toys jewelry, and clothing among them.
St. Joe, a cartoon character Barinholtz created for the shop's candy department, sets the tone with his long white robe, halo and catch phrase: Peace, love and chocolate. The chocolates are made for the store by a Midwest chocolatier, Barinholtz says. There's also a wall of gummy candy and Uncle Oinker's Bacon Mints.
In the kitchenware department there's a spatula shaped like a guitar and a knife sharpener that evokes the damsel being cut in half in the magic act. There's a stapler shaped like a dog in the office department and a poodle shaped USB drive with ports in its four feet in the tech department.
Characters like Elvis and Marilyn have their own space in the store and Barinholtz has what she believes is the finest collection of pirate stuff to be found in the area. Magnets, bumper stickers and buttons with sayings from the clever to the hysterical are also found in the shop.
As a gift basket business owner, Barinholtz came to realize just how difficult it is for most people to give gifts and she hopes the store will help in that regard. Ninety percent of the merchandise in the shop can be purchased for under $20 and 50 percent costs less than $10.
For the grand opening, Barinholtz invites people in for free samples all day and to listen to rock music on the sidewalk out front. With so much more to describe, people are invited to check it out for themselves.
Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave
Source: Cindy Barinholtz, State Street Stuff
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