The adorable red barn, highly visible on State Hwy. 34 in Park Rapids, is getting a fresh name, products and mission statement.
Laura Morger purchased the store in mid-December 2022. She’s rebranding it RedBarn-MN.
“Our focus really is to go back to local, handmade and fresh,” she said, adding the business will continue its relationship with Carter’s Farm, selling their fresh strawberries and vegetables.
“We’re really sticking to that locally made, locally produced,” Morger continued.
RedBarn-MN’s motto is “local goods by good people.”
Popular packaged staples – Watkins products, jams and jellies – will remain, but Morger is introducing more handmade items, like apparel, toffee nuts, mocktails, wood-burned art, leather wallets and purses, Minnesota books and wooden board games.
“We’re trying to do local goods for a truly unique gift for yourself or someone else,” she said.
Morger has a strong background in marketing. She is a marketing director/consultant for consumer businesses and banking.
She also owns an online business, called Mae’d, where she creates hand-drawn stickers and calendars. She sells those products on Etsy and her website as well as wholesale around the country.
“I started that in the middle of COVID and ended up building that out to be pretty successful, so this felt like the next great marketing challenge,” Morger said of RedBarn-MN.
She’s formed relationships with other artists like herself across Minnesota, North Dakota and the country.
RedBarn-MN will have space for consignments “or to just sell their goods wholesale.”
“We’re trying to give space to people’s work and crafts,” Morger said.
The shop will host fair and flea markets during the summer. Four are scheduled for 2023: May 19-20, June 16-17, July 14-15 and Aug. 18-19. She’s looking for crafters and vendors.
Crafty summer classes are on the docket as well.
Morger currently lives in Minnetonka, but she and husband Andrew are looking for property in the Heartland Lakes area. Her parents live in Detroit Lakes, his in Duluth.
“We’ve been here a lot. We grew up basically on the weekends in lake country,” Morger said.
A grand re-opening is planned for the first week of May.
The store is currently open Thursdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Learn more at RedBarn-MN.com or on its Facebook page.
Shannon Geisen is editor of the Park Rapids Enterprise.
