Rooted in purpose: ReBloom designed for community

A year ago, Holli Naatz was looking forward to a trip to Alaska, never imagining that it would be the second-biggest thing she did this year.

In April, “this wasn’t even … well, I wanted it, but I knew it was not an option.”

In September, she held a grand opening for ReBloom Consignment and More, Blooming Prairie’s newest business at 236 E. Main St., the former site of U.S. Bank.

It’s a consignment store with a bigger purpose: The ability to support local non-profits by donating, consigning or shopping.

All proceeds from donations benefit the non-profit of the donor’s choice.

Missing retail

Naatz worked for Linda Klemmenson at SportStitch for 20 years, until a fire destroyed the building in January 2020.

“I loved the retail part of it; I loved meeting the customers and helping them create and design stuff,” Naatz said. “When that came to an end, it was … I missed the people; I missed the interactions.”

She mulled the idea of opening her own retail store, but learned about two of the biggest challenges: inventory and overhead.

“You get too much inventory or you don’t order the right inventory or the right sizes,” so she landed on the idea of a consignment store, where there are no hard and fast expectations.

“In the back of my mind, I’ve had this idea, but just didn’t really have the right facility,” she said.

A conversation with building owner Jim O’Connor, though, changed things.

“He said, ‘well, I have a building, if you can make it work.’ And I’m like, ‘I’ll sure give it a try.’ Jim is very big into helping the community, too,” Naatz said. “I told him my business plan,” and O’Connor thought it could work.

Asking the expert

Osage, Iowa, features a consignment and specialty retail shop called Maxine’s on Main, owned by a mother-daughter team, neither named Maxine.

“I’d go shopping at Maxine’s a lot, and the whole time I was thinking, ‘if I ever got to do this, I want my place to look like this,’ because she’s really got a neat building,” Naatz said.

After her conversations with O’Connor, “I walked in (Maxine’s) and I said, ‘I’m going to make it happen.’ And she was so excited for me, wanted to help me with it and just gave me all the tips.”

Naatz took much of co-owner Stacy Valasek’s advice – but rejected one idea immediately.

“She thought I should go to a bigger town, and I’m like, ‘no, I love Main Street.’ Our Main Street, we have something to be proud of here,” Naatz said. “You go to some of these other small towns and they have beautiful buildings, but they’re not kept up like ours are. Our curb appeal – I just knew I wanted to be in Blooming.”

By design

She also knew she did not want her name on the business.

“I just wanted it to be unique and catchy – and it’s perfect,” Naatz said of the name conceived by her daughter, Kalyn Kalis. “She came up with that and she did my logo.”

Kalis, of Wells, does her mother’s marketing. Naatz’s other daughter, Kelli Jacobson of Hartland, helped with the store set-up, displays and marking items.

Both daughters played a big role in the interior design.

“In July, I was gone on my trip to Alaska; when I came back my daughters had done all of this,” Naatz said of the donation sorting and marking area, as well as a little room for her grandchildren to play.

Kalis repurposed part of the granary on the family property, sanding it down and adding the store name and logo to greet shoppers.

Naatz put in long hours, often working until four in the morning as she prepared her new business.

“I’d come home, sleep for a few hours and go to work” cleaning homes for her clients.

She was “worried sick about shelving, because I didn’t want to have mismatched pieces. I wanted everything to match, but didn’t want to spend the money buying new.”

Within days, she saw that Sterling Drug Main Street in Austin had been sold and was liquidating all of its fixtures.

“That was a Friday,” Naatz said. “Monday morning, I headed down there to be there by 8:30 in the morning, and five truckloads later…”

Not the norm

On paper, the former bank is not an ideal building. Most consignment stores are long, narrow and wide-open, not compact with multiple rooms.

Still, Naatz said, “it’s worked out better than I thought it would. I was hesitant about the separate rooms, but now I like how I can have it separated,” with different items in their own areas.

One room features children’s items, including quality clothing, toys and books.

“I really try to encourage anybody that’s bringing books in to donate the books – because I give a percentage of all books sales to the (Blooming Prairie) Education Foundation,” she said.

Another room is dedicated to craft items. There is also a dedicated area for vendors, who rent shelves to display and sell their own items, from crafts to collectables.

Several of the shelves are rented by a woman from Albert Lea who runs a dog rescue. She sells dishes – antiques and otherwise – after scouring estate sales and other markets.

“All the money she earns pays for her dog food and vet bills,” Naatz said, “and I thought it kind of fit into my whole giving back, you know?”

ReBloom also offers home décor, men’s, women’s and children’s clothing, handcrafted items, bags, shoes and more.

Anyone who donates may pick a nonprofit to which they donate their commission, “so there’s been a lot of stuff that has come in through donation. Once they find that out, they’re like, here, just … donate the commission.”

Naatz admits to being “kind of more picky” about the household items, looking for things that are “basically almost new.”

Finding a purpose

Naatz accepts items on consignment by appointment; small donations can be dropped off during business hours, which are currently 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.

“I want people to know that when they shop here, they’re helping out the community in another way, too, with a lot of things, and hopefully the more I sell, the more I can add to that,” she said.

“I’m not here to get rich; I just want to enjoy life, have a purpose and give back. We’ve always lived a pretty simple life, and don’t need a lot,” Naatz said. “Sometimes I’m like, ‘I can’t believe this. After all these years, I’m doing this.’

“I’ve been very fortunate to know some people in Blooming that have been very helpful,” she said, “and I couldn’t have done it without family.”

Naatz is counting on her decision to stay in town to pay off for everyone.

“I hope people come into town – because thrifting is kind of the thing, and going to consignments, then they’ll see that we have a Prairie Home (Floral Decor); they’ll see that we have a pretty cool hardware store …” she said.

“I would love to see everybody down this Main Street gain something. If a little boutique came in, I’d be happy; we can all work together.”