GoodThings, a gift shop with stores in White Bear Lake and Maple Grove, will purchase two of the four Bibelot shops that are closing soon, the stores said Monday.
GoodThings is picking up the Bibelot shops on Grand Avenue in St. Paul and Linden Hills in Minneapolis, the top two revenue producers of the four stores. New items will be added in the two stores starting Feb. 1 as the existing items are sold. They will be renamed Bibelot-GoodThings and have grand reopening events in September.
The deal is a dramatic turn for Bibelot after its 86-year-old owner, Roxy Freese, announced in November she would retire after five decades of running her stores. She said she would close the stores after the holidays but hoped someone would buy them.
Monday's deal means two of the stores will go to another longtime Twin Cities retail family, led by Sharon Conrad and her son Tyler.
"We're two family-owned businesses that take good care of their customers and employees," Tyler Conrad said. "Roxy's been at it for 52 years and Sharon 45 years. They're the retail divas of the Twin Cities."
Both entrepreneurs started their businesses with $10,000 bank loans co-signed by their fathers, which was required at the time for women in business.
"It's wonderful news," Freese said. She was unable to tell friends or associates the news until the contracts were finalized, but she was slyly giving hints. "I kept telling them good things are going to happen."
The Bibelot locations in St. Paul's St. Anthony Park neighborhood and on University Av. SE. in Minneapolis are not part of the acquisition, but existing employees can apply for positions in the remaining Bibelot and GoodThings locations.
