WORCESTERMAGAZINE.COM | JULY 9 - 15, 2021 | 31
LAST CALL
Debbie Cottam – owner of Shrewsbury Country Shoppe Veer Mudambi Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK
As a local small business, the Shrewsbury Country Shoppe has two reasons to celebrate. Not only did the gift store mark its third year on Sunday, June 27, it is stronger than ever post-pandemic. Owner Debbie Cottam sat down with Last Call to talk about using the pandemic as an opportunity to further her goals of promoting unique local products. With a great deal of optimism and some innovative practices, she has come out on the other side with her business intact. Many of the items are made in Shrewsbury, but Cottam accepts products from other cities and towns across Central Massachusetts. So is everything back to normal now? When did you reopen? Yes, thank goodness, things are normal again. And I actually never closed — I off ered curbside pickup, delivery and Facebook videos the whole time. What kind of videos? When everything shut down completely, I just walked into the store and walked around showing all the products, pricing and order information. I fi gured that everyone was home on Facebook so it was a great way to show what’s available. I hated it though — [laughs] I hate my voice on video, I hate myself on video but I think everybody does. What other ways did you adapt? So I used to do a Wine and Shopping Night on Thursday evenings during the holiday season. I’d stay open late and put out some wine and snacks. When COVID hit, I changed it to private shopping nights, where customers would book a time in advance for at least fi ve people to come in for about 45 minutes
Debbie Cottam, owner of Shrewsbury Country Shoppe. DEBBIE COTTAM
to an hour. When it turned out to be so popular that I was booked solid, I expanded that year round. Any remaining guidelines? Not a guideline per se, but if you want the employee who is helping you to wear a mask, they will. No one’s asked us to put a mask on yet but I’m still cleaning the door and the register every few hours. Are there things that you picked up during the pandemic that you kept?
I’m keeping the private shopping nights — those are fun. Shopping with your friends and having the place to yourself. Had a bunch of couples too, interestingly. Was there ever a point during 2020 that you were worried about the future of the store? Honestly no, I’m a very positive person and didn’t let myself go there. I was already established and had a great support system and was part of the
Shrewsbury Town Center Association. That’s what really helped — nobody does this alone, you have to have other people. How does this support system work? How do you help each other? For example, if I use Froze Zone Gelato in an event, I would spotlight them. I advertise for them, they advertise for me. The little guys, we all try to cross promote, especially when we use each other’s products. I
have a lot of followers on Instagram so I tag them and try to drive attention to them. How has your inventory of local products increased over the years? My store started out with probably 10% local products that I really had to search for. Now people are coming to me with products and it’s about 35%. I want to get it up to 50%. I have a number of, not just local but custom made products that no one else has — eventually I want to be at least 70% local and custom. I recently got Shrewsbury Honey. This man just walked in the door and asked if I wanted to sell Shrewsbury honey and I said of course I do. What defi nes local? Made in Massachusetts is what I consider local. Most are Worcester County with about three products from outside, like Concord. What sort of items are you looking for? I’m very particular — it has to be high quality. Packaging is a big deal for me. But if I can’t sell it I try to point them in the right direction like a farmers market. Now everyone knows I’m looking so I’m always getting off ers. It’s a collaborative process though — I love to help people refi ne their product. Like the Shrewsbury Honey guy, the honey itself was great and the bottle was beautiful but the label was missing something, so I have some suggestions. I also spoke to his granddaughter about setting up a Facebook page I could link to and help get the word out. What did you do before this? I’ve had 43 diff erent jobs in my life but I specialize in business and this is what I’ve always wanted to do. This is my fi rst solo project and I love it. This is my dream job.
