umor has it
that granny
came to
Silver Dollar City in
1827 to get supplies
from the general store. Outraged that
she had to wait a month for a wagon
train to get them there from out east
and the cost of things like lye soap
because of it, she decided then and
there to make it herself. She joined
other locals, and set up shop to sell
homemade wares at Silver Dollar City.
That is the story posted outside of
Granny’s Lye Soap specialty shop in
Branson, Mo., Silver Dollar City
(SDC) and don’t you believe a word of
it. The true story is that SDC is a replicated
old time mining town-themed
amusement park built in the 1960s at
the mouth of Marvel Cave to entertain
waiting spelunkers for the day.
And Granny’s real name is Martha,
who grew up in Ozark Mountain
country and made the soap with her
grandmother and great-grandmother. After living in
California for a time she and her husband returned to the
region, and she really does demonstrate daily at SDC how
she makes a mild modern day soap, in some 13 scented varieties.
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Martha “Granny” Sudweeks, photographed
in early May 2009, with a table of Kerusso
patriotic T-shirts at Silver Dollar City in
Branson, Mo. Sudweeks is a popular character
icon at the park, which counts Kerusso
Christian apparel, jewelry, accessories, toys
and gift products among its souvenir inventory.
Photo by Christina Courtright.
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What Martha likes most about Silver Dollar City is, “Just
like in the 1890s, it’s a caring community where neighbors
help take care of neighbors, just like a
big family.”
Her “community” is set up within
the 70-acre park, which has grown
now to encompass 30 rides, 150 to
4,000 seat theaters showing 40 performances
daily, 12 restaurants and
more than 50 specialty shops.
Current time slips away from visitor
perception as they meander from
one shop to another where the
demonstration of handicrafts in-themaking
so realistically recreates the
bygone era. Bladesmith Ray Johnson
makes knives in front of Mountain
Outfitters shop, often recounting
knife-making history in poetic verse.
Down the road apiece, the Brown
family performs a humorously entertaining,
interactive demonstration at
Brown’s Candy Factory as they whip
up a wide assortment of confections.
Spice scents emanate from Carrie’s
Candles, where following an enjoyable,
educational, history-rich demonstration,
guests can dip their own candles
in dipping tanks. Fans can pick up a hand-carved, personalized
baseball bat at Casey’s Baseball Bat Cart and then
work their way down the road to be blown away by the
handblown glass demonstration at Hazel’s Blown & Cut
Glass Factory. Here and at Heartland Home Furnishings
factory and showroom, set in an old house where furniture
pieces are made on antique equipment and displayed in the
various rooms, as well as within view
of Sarah Gamble's potter’s wheel at
Hillcreek Pottery, foot traffic jams up.
“Each is entertaining and unique
in character,” said SDC Senior
Merchandise Manager, Rick Bilyeu.
“We call ourselves the home of
America craftsmanship because people
can see one-of-a-kind products
made, while craftsman walk them
through the crafting history of the
item and demonstrate its production
from raw materials through to finished
product, each unique in color
and style. Visitors can special order
what they want, too. Seeing it done
inspires their purchase.”
The souvenir trade is also strong,
said Bilyeu. “A wide variety meets demand and when it’s
high in any area we step up production for the next season.”
Most changes are addressed at annual between-season meetings
where the merchandise team discusses product mix
changes in existing shops and the opening of new ones,
based on market trends and adding
intrigue for the strong returning season
pass holder base.
Which handicrafts are in
demand depend on the marketplace
and the SDC souvenir sales fluctuate
too.
“Across the board we sell a great
deal of pottery, blown glass, and souvenirs
associated with rides.” The
park-logoed T-shirt is the best selling
souvenir item in the park, followed
closely by fleece hoodies and the pin
trading program that provides a
wearable pin to represent each of the
events such as the Blue Grass and
Barbeque Festival or the summerlong
Kids Fest.
Other specialty shops sell items within a particular
theme and in the old time style. Love My Country holds a
patriotic red, white and blue theme in merchandise and
décor. Cowboy Jepp’s is a western themed store and The
Greatest Gift sells collectibles to wall hangings in a spiritual
theme that offers inspiration and encouragement. The
store carries Kerusso Christian apparel and gifts, which has
become SDC’s top-selling vendor and has been recognized
for the second year on the Inc.’s 5,000 list as one of the
fastest growing companies in the United States.
The park first started stocking the shirts to cater to the
Christian audience in attendance at two of SDC’s popular
annual events, Young Christian's Weekend and Gospel
Week.
On either given full day of the Young Christian's
Weekend, said Buyer Rhonda Ruzzo, 17,000 teens flood
into the park. “Those customers are the ones buying
Kerusso product. They're the big focus, along with parents.
During the event, we sell about 1,800 Christian themed Tshirts.”
Sell-out event size crowds, record T-shirt sales, and the
annual American Religious Identification Survey findings
of an averaged 80 percent Christian United States households
spoke loud enough to pave the way to the 500-squarefoot,
inspirational store within Ozark Market Place to tap
into the full-time spending potential of the family, rather
than just the teens at special events.
“The benefit of placement within the Market Place is
that it’s an exit shopping area, where everything is pulled
together and presented with several mini shops within it,”
said Ruzzo, who buys product for a third of the shops.
“The best selling T-shirts are designed so that young people
can relate to the shirt theme,” according to Ruzzo. “God
is My Hero” is a takeoff on the video game Guitar Hero and
“Jesus Died For MySpace in Heaven” is big with young people
because everybody that knows about the website
MySpace can relate.”
Another Kerusso T-shirt line incorporates the latest hip
graffiti style artwork, hot in the mainstream market and
appealing to young people. The “Christ is the Cure” print
is a new design to the SDC store this year.
Ruzzo makes full use of the display opportunities provided
by Kerusso. The Lighthouse Apparel Center holds 20
designs folded onto the tower fixture, which when it spins,
allows customers to view the graphic on each face-out folded
design to know what's inside the cube beside it. Product is
also folded on nesting tables,
hanging face out on the wall,
and represented on two
posters depicting models wearing
the various shirts and on a
large banner that surrounds
the entire top level of the
store. It’s message, “Change
Your Shirt! Change the
World™” grabs attention.
The banner is part of a campaign
Kerusso launched in
response to a study reviewed
in Impressions magazine that
said, “The average T-shirt may
be read as many as 3,000 times
before it’s thrown away.”
“The retail experience is all
about creating lasting memories,
from the handcrafted specialties
down to the parklogoed
souvenir key chain,”
said Bilyeu. As SDC enters its
fifth decade, 2 million visitors
per year take something home
that says the park and the past
is unforgettable.
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