Ridgefield store owner follows in her grandfather’s footsteps

Although several generations removed, Ridgefield’s Barbara Blystone is carrying on a legacy started by her grandfather who opened the first hardware store in Vancouver in 1905, selling tools, gardening materials and other necessities of the day from his small store on Main Street.

Four years later, he wanted to move five blocks farther north despite being told that it was way too far from the downtown for his customers. He moved anyway and operated the store for five decades.

While not operating a hardware store, granddaughter Barbara’s small gift shop in Ridgefield recently moved as well. For several years, the shop then known as The Dancing Rabbit, was on Ridgefield’s Main Avenue. But, last October, Blystone moved down the street to Pioneer Street, and changed the shop name to The Mercantile.

Blystone actually opened her business as Circuit Fitness, using a small part of her shop to sell fitness supplies, clothing, lotions and such, but the merchandise part of her business took off and she found that she enjoyed selling things much more than helping people get fit, so she brought in various gifts and started The Dancing Rabbit.

The tiny Main Avenue location, a mere 300 square feet of space, was supposed to be temporary as Barbara and her husband had purchased a small piece of land at the corner of North 5th Avenue and Pioneer and were in the process of building a much larger and more spacious shop.

“I can’t say enough about the people of Ridgefield, and how they help us,” she said. “Almost every weekend people would show up with hammers, shovels, ladders, whatever was needed to help us remodel the store. They were fantastic. But I’ve learned that’s the way people are here.”

Before she went into retail, Blystone has worked as a grant writer for a local nonprofit organization and in community relations, in the personnel department of Meier and Frank, and as the director of the local Parade of Homes for three years.

Despite some mild opposition from her loyal customers, she changed the name because people who called the shop thought it was either a pet store and they wanted to buy supplies for their rabbits, or a dance studio or store selling tutus, ballet slippers and other dancing supplies.

The Mercantile opened in October and Blystone has been selling everything from chocolates (Frans chocolates are the most popular) to children’s toys, women’s purses and scarves, jewelry, stuffed animals, cookbooks and books about local history and attractions, lotions and creams, candles, seasonal decorations (right now they are clearing out their Christmas items at a 50 percent discount), gift wrapping and cards.

The store also features a rack of “Swing Cards,” what some might have used to call pop-up cards, that are ingeniously designed cut outs that form a brightly-colored, artistic multi-dimensional card when unfolded.

Blystone’s staff at The Mercantile includes Sharon Morris, who works part-time, and Heather Maul, who specializes in creating displays for merchandise in the store.

Blystone proudly confesses that 75 percent of the people who shop in her store are repeat customers, and she credits the nearby Myrtle’s Tea House for sending quite a few folks her way as well.

“Ladies drive here from Salem and Sandy and other places across the river to have tea and many of them see my shop and stop in,’’ she said. “We have a nice relationship with Elizabeth, the owner, we work together.”

The Mercantile is located at 419 Pioneer St., in Ridgefield and is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tues.-Sat., but Blystone confesses that if someone wants to come to the store and can’t be there before they close she will wait and keep the store open for them. To reach the store, call (360) 887-3990.