Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The Garfield Plaza and In-Convenience Store has sold and re-opened Oct. 31 under a new name, the Schaut Market.
Sonja Hall founded the store in 2015 in a former storage room of Mitz’s Cabinets.
“We were getting successful to the point of incorporation, big loans and needing to hire employees,” Hall said. “My kids, the more successful it got, the more they were pushed to the side.”
Discussions began in mid-October with Connie and John Schaut.
“It happened pretty quick,” said Connie.
“Selling was something in the back of my mind through summer vacation with the kids,” Hall said. “It was a wonderful experience to build. Sometimes I sat there and wondered what the heck I was doing.”
Connie Schaut had been the largest tenant of the Plaza, with her shop-within-a-shop, the Reading Gallery. The Plaza – which opened last October – now has 56 vendors taking spots as small as one short shelf for $5 per month.
Schaut worked at Palouse Market for the past five years, finishing Oct. 29 in order to switch to her own store in Garfield.
Store/hub
Hall started the In-Convenience Store after a two-year search to find a space to rent.
How did it do after expanding to the Plaza?
“The In-Convenience Store blossomed,” Hall said.
She ran it herself with a few contract labor people and more.
“I had a bunch of neighbor kids who would happily trade a soda pop for taking out trash,” Hall said.
Overall did she prove right?
“Garfield does need a place to get trash bags and dishwashing detergent without having to drive 20 minutes,” said Hall. “And a community hub.”
The open space of The Plaza has been used for meetings, classes – from cake decorating to wreath-making – birthday parties and movie screenings.
“We’re getting away from a bedroom community, to just a community, we’re having a knitting back together of community,” said Hall, a Navy veteran who spent six years in active duty, part of which her job was as an ombudsman between Navy families and the command of a ship.
On Halloween this year in Garfield, she put on the fourth “Trunk or Treat,” in which California Street is blocked off, chili dogs are served in The Plaza, and outside, kids trick or treat at parked cars with decorated trunks.
Deal made
The sale agreement between the Schauts and Hall included a fresh re-stock of inventory, existing vendor contracts and the store credit box – in which parents can buy credit for kids, going to the store after swimming at the pool in the summer, for example.
Connie, originally from Colfax (maiden name Day), has a library technician’s associate’s degree from Spokane Falls Community College (2010).
As for her store, she hopes to add ready-made sandwiches and the like.
“On-the-go type stuff,” Schaut said.
What about a kitchen?
“We’re hoping to get that going,” she said.
Store hours will remain 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
“I am hoping for the best,” Schaut said.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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