May 21, 2014 at 4:12 p.m.
Owners of Nosser's Stamp and Scrap say goodbye, thank you to community
Owners of Nosser's Stamp and Scrap say goodbye, thank you to community
"I'm going to turn 68 in October and I've really been thinking about it since I turned 65," Nosser said. "I really like what I do and everything's going great, and I love working as a mother and daughter team, but I think, really, this winter pushed me over the edge. The time just seemed to be perfect, and we're ready to move on. It's the right time for us. I'm ready for some time off."
Johnson is in a different, but similar, situation. She said her kids are out of the house and it just feels like it's time to try something different.
"My kids are all gone and done with school, so we felt now was the right time," Johnson said. "Everything's is going really smoothly so we really feel like it was the right time."
Both ladies said it's tough to say goodbye to all of the customers who have become good friends over the years.
"It's so hard because we've been here a long time and this is the kind of business where you really get to know your customers. They're like family," Johnson said. "No matter where they live - Chicago or Minneapolis or Neenah or Madison or wherever - they always tell us what a joy it is to come in here and look around and chat with us about crafts and projects and things."
"It's the kind of business where you make good, lasting friendships, where you get to help a lot of people. We have a lot of people come in just to see us sometimes when they're traveling through," Nosser added.
Often when making a big move like this people have an idea of what they're going to do next, but both ladies said they don't have a specific path charted out. They are simply looking forward to whatever is waiting for them in the future.
"I don't have any big plans yet because my husband is not retiring yet. I do have a lot of little plans. I want go out to Boston to visit my son and I have a few other travel plans, but nothing really big yet," Nosser said. "My husband's in construction so we'll have our winters to do some traveling and things like that. I'm just going to enjoy whatever comes my way. We've never done this before so we'll see what happens."
"This is my first time retiring so it's all brand new to me," she added with a laugh.
Johnson isn't set to retire just yet and is still weighing her options moving forward.
"We've been talking about this for three years, but we really put this together pretty quickly. There hasn't been a lot of time to think about down the road. We're still figuring out what we're going to do next week," Johnson said.
"I've had a couple of job offers from different companies we've done work for. I'm definitely going to do something else, I just don't know what yet. I'll see once we get done here."
Wherever they end up, one thing they will miss is being able to work alongside family.
"What was really cool, my kids, especially my daughter who is going to be 21 this year, she started coming in when she was 10 days old, but actually had a price gun in her hand helping out at eight," Johnson said.
"She was a huge part of the store and that was fun because we all got to work with each other, and, of course, people loved it. It's fun to be able to work with your family."
Nosser agreed.
"It's always been a family thing. It's all hands on deck. Our husbands have always helped out, the kids, it's been great," she said.
"We've had a great time together, working together all of these years."
Looking back through the years, it can sometimes be tough to pinpoint a favorite memory, but the ladies of Nosser's have the same favorite moment - the time they were able to gather truckload after truckload of food for the food pantry.
"We did conventions here in town and I think it was our third convention where we had over 800 people attend. We thought it would be fun to add a charity event to it so we held a drawing where people would be entered to win prizes if they brought in something for the food pantry, and it ended up taking over three truckloads to get everything over to the pantry," Johnson said.
"We had people actually bring in dollies, they actually rolled in food on a dolley. It was an amazing sight. I always wished we could have gotten a picture of all of the food, but there was just so much of it, the pantry had to keep trucking it over to keep up, they were so overwhelmed. It was amazing."
"To have 800 people come to our convention was great itself, but then to see all of the food donated, it was amazing, simply amazing," she added.
Nosser agreed that seeing all of that food for the pantry was definitely a highlight that stood out above the rest.
"That was an excellent event, it really was an amazing sight. Ever since then, we've worked quietly with the food pantry because they really need it and we figured if we could help out like that, then why not do it? It was a thrill to see all of that food go to help out those that really need it," she said.
"I think that moment was the most satisfying, being able to help out like that. Crafting people really have great hearts."
And now is the time to say goodbye and thank you to those great hearts.
"We've really enjoyed servicing the whole community and the whole state of Wisconsin and beyond. We're really going to miss our wonderful customers. We've just had a wonderful time and we've made so many good friendships and there's been so many things we'll never forget, so many things that will last with us forever. We've had a great run, a great time of it. It's been a wonderful community to live and work in," Nosser said.
"We're so thankful to the community for our years here. We've had a great time. Lots of fond memories."
"We've had a lot of wonderful, very loyal customers and we've been trying to thank them as much as we can as they come in one last time," Johnson added.
The store is running a retirement sale but the ladies aren't sure when they will close up for good. They want to sell as much merchandise as possible before they close the doors.
"Again, we haven't done this before so we don't know what's going to happen, but we do want to get rid of most of our inventory," Nosser said.
For more information on updated store hours and sales, visit www.nossersstampandscrap.com.
Marcus Nesemann may be reached at [email protected].
Comments:
You must login to comment.