Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamie Eising.
Hi Jamie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My husband was a mechanic and I was a teacher. We have four grown children. Sassafrass went up for sale in 2019 and it perked our interest but wr still had three kids at home and clearly we already had jobs. We like exploring different small towns in Michigan and we would get back from a drive and pull up to the fence at Sassafrass and have these in depth discussions about what we would do if we owned Sassafrass.
Sassafrass didn’t sell so she took it off the market. The following summer my daughter wanted to go to Sassafrass. I wasn’t interested because I didn’t want to start dreaming about owning the place again. We still stopped and I was chatting with the owner. I asked her why she took it off the market and she said “Why, do you want to buy it?” I asked her the price, she thought for a minute and through out a lower price than what she had listed. When I got home I told my husband and he said “Wow, how do we not try to buy it?” A few short weeks later we were owners! I would work there during the summer and one of our daughters had just graduated from college with a bachelors in business, she would work with me and then my husband and her in the fall until Christmas. Sassafrass was seasonal at the time. My husband had a repair shop at our house so we had a little bit of experience. We had a beautiful yard with lots of perennial gardens that we planted over the years, The only other things we had going for us is that we are pretty creative people and my husband is very handy. So when I get crazy ideas he either helps bring it to fruition or shuts me down and then we go back to the drawing board and usually come up with something better.. We have added a kitchen where we make our famous decorated sugar cookies.. in the fall we make caramel apples and then switch to caramel corn. The cookies used to be available for people to place orders. Now we just try to have them in the store on the weekends. We have replaced every cover on the greenhouses, there are six. In the spring we fill all of the greenhouses with beautiful annual baskets, pots, and individual plants for people to buy and put in there own pots. We also have an area behind the store where we sell perennials, trees, and shrubs. Our selection is huge and the quality of our plants is awesome! We watch our plants very closely and whether it’s running down to the store to turn on the heat so they don’t freeze in the spring we are constantly watering, fertilizing, and deadheading, Our youngest daughter has also been a lot of help throughout the years. She has helped us out around going to college and has been a huge part of our success! At Christmas another one of our daughters comes and helps us decorate for Christmas. All of our kids help out during Mother’s Day. A few of them are mothers now too so that’s not as feasible anymore. They all stop in a lot and when they leave they usually have a jar of honey, a candle, and some plants. My husband always stocks them up. Up until July of 2024 we were a seasonal business and then along came Arletta’s. Arletta’s is a floral shop that was in Lake City since 1962. It has six owners and six different locations. It went up for sale and then I heard it sold. My husband was going to be somewhere where the owner was and I told him to find out who bought He found out that the new owners were interested in the building, not the business. After multiple discussions “We would be open all year, it sounds like a lot of work, do I have the skills, do we have the space, etc.” We got ahold of the previous owner and a few weeks and many truckloads later we were in business! We’ve redone so many areas and added so many things. This was the best addition! We are so grateful and it brings in a different clientele. There is a lot of happy and a lot of sad, many extra hours and we have put sooo many miles on our car since we started, but very well worth it! Some of the people that come in are from the area, many are seasonal, and then there’s word of mouth that has gotten people to travel quite a distance to get there. We just had a lady stop that comes through every few months and she said “I love this place! You guys are always reinventing yourselves.” I didn’t realize it until she said it. We are always planning. We consider our car our creative creator. We get in, go for a ride, and one of us will bring something up and the next thing you know we’ve driven through 5 counties and back just chatting about plans. We have over 50 consigners so we have unique clothing, wood art, metal art, Amish furniture, cute hand made bags, jewelry, Petoskey stone everything, we have beautiful house plants, local honey, local syrup, local peanut butter that you just want to eat with a spoon! We have birdhouses and feeders that are way too reasonable and even more so unique. a large area full of antiques and vintage items. We have two different buildings so there is a lot to see. The main building has a stocked pantry with dips, jams, salsas, teas, etc. We have a lot of unique gifts, heirloom quality gifts. If anyone ever says we’re expensive I instantly start showing them how many items are marked $4.99, $5.99. The next person walking realizes how inexpensive everything is and they start shopping like they’ve got 15 minutes to spend $100. It’s so entertaining at times. We hardly ever have unhappy customers. People are always so excited to be there. There are so many treasures to hunt through they have the best time. Accept for sisters. Sisters can be scary! They will gouge each others eyes out over who’s turn it is to pay for something. I’ve had to let people know many times there is no fighting in Sassafrass. LOL! Lost wives? Seen a lot of them! People get out of their car like moths to a flame. One goes to the antiques and the other to the “man cave.” I have so many people where one is going in a building and the other is going out. People need a special whistle to find their spouse in places like this. I had a guy come to the counter in complete panic to ask me if I’d seen his wife. I tried so hard to keep a straight face because he was honestly worried. I kindly said “sir, I e never seen you before so I definitely don’t know who your wife is.” Like I said, it’s a fun place to explore. Our latest endeavor? There was a little garden space between the antique barn and a greenhouse that we redid and dubbed it the “inspiration garden.” My husband thought I was goofy but it caught on so fast he said “I think we should redo the area behind the antique (I call it the picker barn) and put gardens back there. I’m all about gardens so I was in. You’d have to see it to understand the amount of time he put into it. He went and picked every single stone out of a farmer’s field and made beds in a fenced in area. We added paver walkways, a pond, flower beds, a few sitting areas, etc. it is amazing!!! People that can’t understand why he quit working on small engines always say “so this all you do now?” That always puts a bee in his bonnet. He does soo much! We just finished the back inspiration garden. In the spring the plan is to have stakes in front of each plant to tell you what it is and then you can go purchase it from our perennial section. Anyone who has seen it says “oh, are you going to rent it out for events?” The answer is is no. There’s too many plants to set up chairs big enough for seating for very many people. Thank goodness! We really can’t add anything else to our days. The flower shop let us add an employee, the daughters and son are off living their best lives so my husband, myself, and a part time employee run the place. I when I say run, I mean run. That place has really taken off and we are so flattered by the response of people. We really had little experience to do something like this. I laugh because one thing is for sure I know how to shop and my husband has been a good sport over our 35 years, taking me to different stores over the years. I’m not a big spender but I love to look at things and I love the feel you get from all the different uniqueness people have. . It’s always filled my soul! Now we have grandbabies and our soul are so very, very full! I did this way too early in the morning and I literally had one eye open and one eye closed LOL. I didn’t even go back and reread it.. I hope it’s not too much of a mess!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Money! We have really recycled soo many things!!!Thats part of what made it unique as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://arlettasflowers.com
- Instagram: Eising’s Sassafrass
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/19gUqru2Ss/?mibextid=wwXIfr
