New store opens on Bennett’s Creek
Published 10:36 pm Thursday, October 1, 2015
You may have noticed the bicycle located just on the edge of the bridge going over Bennett’s Creek.
The little path it’s on will lead you to a new, privately owned shop, called Fireflies on Bennett’s Creek. The store, located at 3300 Bridge Road, is set to open on Saturday and is run by two sisters.
Because the new owners love shopping, particularly at small, privately owned shops, they have some ideas of their own on what a shop should sell and how it should look.
“I don’t remember the last time I’ve been in a mall,” said Beth Morrison.
“It’ll never be the same place twice,” Morrison said. “We’re not going to be constantly re-ordering the same stuff.”
The shop’s merchandise is unique and ever changing. Some of the products are even made by local vendors, and 70 percent of their products are made in America. They select rare items and talk to each and every vendor about what they do and how they got started, the owners said.
Fireflies has a variety of stock, such as photographs, cigars, candles, ties, pottery and much more. Along with this wide selection of goods, the shop contains certain rooms that are designated for particular types of items.
Their baby room is filled with children’s books, bibs, pillows and more. Another room is decorated with soaps, ornaments made from leaves and scarves, and other things. “Beth has dubbed this the ‘estro-den,’” Susan D’Haem said playfully.
A third room consists of merchandise men might like. They hope to have a reputation for being the place to go when you need a gift for your father, brother or son, the businesswomen said.
Rather than placing their products on shelves, their items are beautifully arranged on top of furniture, and many of them are antiques, they said. What’s more, these can be purchased too. The owners said they would consider selling these pieces if someone wanted them badly enough.
While the shop may be new, the building is quite old. It was actually built in the 1930s, operating as a gas station and convenience store, the business owners said. In order to get their store ready for operation, they had to pull the sheetrock off of the ceiling, pull up the carpet, replace the roof, redo the floors, put in lights and more, they said.
The two sisters picked this location because they thought it was quaint and unique, they said. With its on-the-water view and quaintness, the site was a must-have, they said: they decided they would put the store completely on the backburner if this location didn’t work out.
Along with the other renovations, the shop has a recently re-dug a ditch to prepare for flooding, the sisters said. Based on the fact that the building has never before flooded, they don’t expect there to be any issues. So, despite the storm, they are still planning to open on Saturday.