Check Out Steven Hartman’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Hartman. 

Hi Steven, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
We have always liked the idea of opening a store in our downtown community. We often travel to Plymouth and Milford and really like shopping at the family-owned stores and hoped Wixom would one day have one. 

During the summer of 2020, Steve was out for a walk and passed by the downtown Wixom area. There was one spot that had never been occupied. He thought, “They really should open up a store here.” Then he thought, “We should open a store.” We started by contacting the Downtown Development Authority who recommended getting in touch with Oakland County for more information. We knew that if any point we realized this wasn’t going to work out, we would pull back. 

As we researched, we discovered that this could be a successful place – plus, we would be involved in our own community, help local artists, and give back to organizations. 

We came up with the name because Steve randomly recalled that colors/animals made for ideal business names: “Green Goat Gifts” worked because goats are one of our favorite animals and green is our favorite color, plus we liked the alliteration. 

We’ve been open for less than a year (opened July 2021) and we already feel like we have had a positive impact on the community. We hold fundraising events for elementary school PTAs, pop-up shops, our store is filled with lots of local artists and vendors, and we’ve become the go-to spot for gifts and home decor to make people’s lives more special. We have customers who come from Auburn Hills on a regular basis to shop in our store and others who constantly pop in to see the latest in our constantly changing product options. 

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?
It has been relatively smooth. Funny enough, we were hoping to be opening the store as COVID was becoming a memory – obviously that’s not the case. Then there is inflation and a shaky economic outlook. 

To be honest, the first four months of this year have underperformed our expectations, but things have picked up since Mother’s Day. We also continue to figure out what our customers want and try to give them events they would enjoy coming to. Our Sip & Shop events generally bring in a lot of people, we’ve had a local vendor who makes self-care products do a Make & Take Sugar Scrub and we had a pop-up shop with a local baker sell Easter-themed cookies the weekend before the holiday. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Green Goat Gifts is known for unique gifts and home decor for everyone. We have a variety of gift options for all occasions, such as birthdays, Mother’s/Father’s Day, Christmas, Halloween, and more. We’ve often been compared to stores you see in the small towns up north and we offer a combination of Michigan-made items including those from local artists and vendors, as well as vendors across the state. 

We are most proud of what our customers say about us. We had someone come in around Christmastime determined to buy all her gifts in our store and not have to go to the mall (she did), another shopper came in with friends and said to them, “This is where I shop now instead of Target.” We frequently hear that someone’s friend told them to visit our store. 

We’re proud that we are part of the community we live in. We’ve met, and continue to meet, a lot of great people, we give back when we can and hope to inspire Wixom to continue to grow with new shops, restaurants, and events. 

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
I believe things have been a bit slow this year because of the culmination of crises going on. We are fortunate to have loyal customers though spreading positive word-of-mouth. An important lesson we learned is to always try to find new ways to reach more people as you never know what might work or not. Regardless, our goal is to provide a good customer experience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://greengoatgifts.com/
• Instagram: @WixomGreenGoatGifts
• Facebook: @WixomGreenGoatGifts

Image Credits
Steve Hartman