Carrie Dahlgren Merrill is excited! so excited that she can hardly stand it, but she has a lot of work to do before the Lake Pleasant Grocery becomes the Beaver Grocery Store.
The Lake Pleasant Grocery has been the go-to spot for the Tyee/Beaver community since around 1940. First operated by Eddie Tuttle and then for a long while by the Kennedy family the store had been closed for some time when the Merrills got the idea to re-open it … then COVID hit.
So things are back on track now and Carrie and Jonas Merrill are hoping to be open this spring or at least by Memorial Day. They have lots of plans for the store but first, they had to clean it out. Now they are working through getting permits, licenses, etc and they are working with the Center for Inclusive Entrepreneurship.
Carries said, “I’ve been working with this program to help with my business plan and ideas. Rick Dickinson has been my mentor throughout this whole time. It’s a free service for entrepreneurs and I don’t think I could have gotten this far without them.”
“Rick has been helping us from close to day one when we started this dream and adventure. He’s awesome!”
Carrie reached out to social media for ideas about what people wanted to see at the store; a few things so far…cold beer, maybe some Washington wines, firewood, gas, maybe a coffee bar, ice cream and they plan on offering shipping services like UPS and FedEx. Carries said, “I have worked in shipping so I know what to do there.”
Later plans may include hosting some events, prepaid phones, hunting and fishing license, and maybe even kayak rentals. Carrie is working with her brother John and classmate Fritz Mesenbrink on branding the business and making it a real tourist destination with photo ops with? a beaver maybe? as well as creating an atmosphere that really brings people in and back again.
Carrie is also the mom of two small children and Jonas works at the Bogachiel Clinic, so Carrie said that she has family in the area that will probably help. “We hope to be open seven days a week,” she said and added that the hours will be decided later when they see how it goes.
Stay tuned for more updates!
The former Lake Pleasant Grocery was a community fixture until it closed over a year ago. Since around 1940 the little store served the community.
Carrie Dahlgren Merrill stands outside the future Beaver Grocery Store. Plans include touching up the mural behind her. Photo Christi Baron
The first step was to clean out all the old displays etc.
The first step was to clean out all the old displays etc.
