In order to combat the demand of the fast-approaching holidays with limited occupants allowed in the store due to COVID -19 restrictions, the owners of Dana’s Showhouse on Winslow Way have decided to open a holiday shop across the street.
As a result, they will double their service through an additional holiday-themed store on Winslow Way.
“Our main motivation was that we are limited to ten customers,” co-owner Terri Bryant said. “We are always very busy at Christmas… We’re very happy with the way it turned out,” co-owner Terri Bryant said, adding they spent that last couple of weeks painting and getting it ready.
Bryant and the other co-owner, Mary Terry, occupy the space where Churchmouse Yarns and Teas used to be. They closed their retail space due to the pandemic.
“We knew how fabulous that spot is,” Bryant said. “It’s also right across…from us. We actually literally look at that front door. It felt like something that could work because we had such close access.”
The shop, The Holiday’s by Dana, recently opened and has already seen much community interest, Bryant said, adding people were waiting at the door on opening day.
“I’m thinking it’s going to be quite busy in the coming weeks,” Bryant said.
Available items for purchase at The Holiday’s By Dana’s include advent calendars, German nutcrackers and pyramids, locally handmade tables, Christmas gnomes, candles, holiday pillows and local art. Items are also available for purchase at danasonbainbridge.com.
The shop is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays, the same schedule that Dana’s Showhouse offers. The roughly 10 staff members will be overlapped between the two stores.
COVID protocols at both shops include mandatory masks and social distancing. They also provide a sign to let people know when the shops are at capacity.
Dana’s Showhouse initially was forced to close due to the pandemic around mid-March and opened back up at the beginning of June. During the shutdown, customers could order off their website, which was launched to keep the business afloat.
“When we first had to close when the governor’s orders came down, being such an old business, we had no website,” Bryant said. “We hadn’t caught up with the times. In one week’s time, our manager put together a website, and we put puzzles on it. All of the local people ordered puzzles from us for three months, I mean hundreds and hundreds of puzzles.”
Dana’s Showhouse originally was opened about 42 years by Dana Berg.
“Mary knew Dana really well,” Bryant said. “When Dana was about to go to Europe one year, she needed somebody to run the shop, and I was getting ready to open a card shop. Mary, being the connector, said Dana and I should just combine stores, and we did.”
When Berg retired in 2006, Bryant and Terry bought out her portion of the business. They both have worked for the shop since the early 1990s. The pair decided to alter the business to attract the increasing demand from tourists. About a decade ago, they opened a furniture store, Furnish Bainbridge.
“Bainbridge now has a much higher tourist trade than we used to, and we found that there are more and more things the public demanded from Dana’s, meaning they wanted ornaments and all these things,” Bryant said. “We found the furniture was getting pushed a little aside. Ten years ago we decided to take this furniture into a different location and make it simpler for us.”
