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Washington Evening Journal
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Rosie Witherspoon never tires of seeing happy faces in her store
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD – Rosie Witherspoon opened At Home Store on the west side of the Fairfield square in 2002.
She was inspired to try something new because her kids were grown, and her father had passed away, leaving her a cabin he had built. Witherspoon liked the idea of turning the structure into a shop and marketing it as a “cabin in the woods,” where customers would come to purchase beeswax candles, Irish pottery and things that other stores wouldn’t have.
But the cabin was 6 miles from Fairfield, and Witherspoon began to doubt that many people would make the drive to visit her store. Just as Witherspoon was having second thoughts about the idea, the building on the west side of the square that housed the former Kurka Jewelry became available.
Witherspoon saw that the inside would need a makeover, but she loved the location, and decided the spot was right for her. She decided to call her new shop At Home Store because it’s “for people who love their home and to be home,” she explained. The store offers nice foods, cooking equipment, fabrics, children’s toys and much more. Witherspoon said she wanted to have merchandise that was both practical and beautiful, and something in an average person’s price range.
“This is all the stuff I like to do, like knit and cook,” she said. “I love to travel and see different things, and see how things are made.”
The building was completely gutted, Witherspoon said, and everything was taken down to the brick. She said the jewelry store had small windows, probably for security reasons, but she wanted large windows to let in more natural light. She remembers that the building was so dark that she needed a flashlight to explore it.
Witherspoon grew up in Westchester, Illinois, and later moved to California, where she started her family and lived from 1978 until the end of 1984 when she moved to Fairfield. She wanted a slower pace of life for her children, and she liked the idea of owning land in the countryside. She’s very happy to have discovered this passion for running a store and to have fulfilled her vision of owning a “cabin in the woods.”
Today, the At Home Store has become a destination for people who share hobbies such as knitting. In fact, there’s a knitting club that meets every Thursday from 2-4 p.m., and Witherspoon said they are resuming Saturday knitting classes, too.
The At Home Store gets really busy during the holidays because its merchandise makes such great gifts. Witherspoon said sales rise dramatically during this time, and her employees need to work a few more hours than usual to open more boxes, there more packages to wrap and so on.
“Another retail owner told me that 50 percent of your sales are in the fourth quarter, and 50 percent of the fourth quarter’s are in December,” Witherspoon recalled. “And I’ve found that to be the same here. Even now [late September] we’re getting things in for the holidays.”
Witherspoon said she’s happy how the business has turned out and that it has fulfilled the dream she had 22 years ago.
“It’s home for me,” she said. “It’s beautiful to come to work every day. I never tire of walking in the store and seeing all the colors, and seeing all the happy faces.”
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
