Montana Woolen Shop nears three decades of business

The Montana Woolen Shop http://www.montanawoolenshop.com opened its doors for the first time on April Fools Day 1975. Owner Peggy Reihman was still unpacking merchandise when her first customer walked in.

By WALT WILLIAMS Bozeman Chronicle Staff Writer

"My first sale I was so proud of," she recalled with a laugh. "I sold a throw (rug) and I got home and told Thomas, who’s my husband, and he said, ‘We can’t do this because you sold it under wholesale.’"

It was sound business advice, for the Montana Woolen Shop has been a fixture on Huffine Lane for nearly three decades now.

As the name suggests, the store, located near the Gallatin Valley Mall at 8703 Huffine Lane, sells wool products. Reihman, 63, guessed that 85 percent of the items in stock are made out of wool.

"We’re not like a department store that does everything," she said in an interview about the store she founded. "We specialize in wools."

Every nook and cranny of the store is filled with something to buy. Rows of gloves and toboggans hang from the ceiling. Wooden shelves are stuffed with folded sweaters, pants, rugs, blankets and whatever just happens to be available.

There are few showy displays, a notable exception being the genuine Navajo rugs hanging in the store’s rear. The occasional stuffed coyote head sticks out from between the merchandise, as do the antlers of the rarest of Western critters, the jackalope.

"Those who have traveled overseas say we look like the stores in Scotland — they use the merchandise to decorate," Reihman said. "If there is an empty spot, I got to get it filled."

The Montana Woolen Shop is family owned and operated. Reihman started it, her husband does the bookkeeping and helps purchase merchandise and her son, Michael, helps run the shop. Her two granddaughters also work there.

Working with wool is a Reihman family tradition dating back to the 1930s. Both Reihman and her husband worked in the Amana Woolen Mill in Amana, Iowa, in the 1950s, where her father-in-law started the first mill sales room.

Reihman moved to Bozeman with her husband in 1974, and she originally planned to find a job as a registered dental assistant. It didn’t work out. Reihman decided she needed to do something, so given her background in wool, she dreamed up a shop that sold wool products.

Convincing bankers to loan her the money to fulfill that dream was another matter.

"When I came in and wanted to start, being a woman was not the thing to be," she said. "I kind of still resent it, because the only way I could do it was to go through my husband. But that’s been 30 years ago."

The Montana Woolen Shop has changed little since its inception in 1975. Once "out in the boonies," the store has slowly been surrounded by developments, including the Gallatin Valley Mall, located where Reihman said her family used to go duck hunting.

"Everybody keeps thinking we’ve moved into town, but actually the town has come out to us," she said.

One of Reihman’s driving philosophies is to sell as many U.S.-made products as possible. Part of her motivation comes from her family’s tie to the Amana Woolen Mill. And part of it comes from her belief that the loss of any business is a detriment to the community.

"About 10 to 15 years ago, I had to make a decision," she said. "Was I going to put in cheap prices, which means cheap merchandise, or was I going to stay with my top-of-the-line and give fair prices? And that’s what I’ve done."

Shoppers can find cheaper items at other retail stores. It’s quality the Montana Woolen Shop sells, from sheepskin slippers from $40 to $50 a pair to tough-as-steel Filson wool pants for more than $140 a pair.

But the store also carries several clothing items made by Woolrich, which Reihman said is priced for the working person.

"It’s like a Ford and a Cadillac," she said of the store’s selection. "They both have four wheels. They both have motors. But now the motors become a little better."

The Montana Woolen Shop underwent one major change in 2000 for it’s 25th anniversary — it added a Web site, http://www.montanawoolenshop.com There are several items for sale on the Web site, although the selection there doesn’t come close to what’s offered at the store itself.

As for the future, Reihman sees her son taking over once she’s gone. The Montana Woolen Shop is a one-of-a-kind store with no other outlets in other cities. For now, it’s going to stay that way.

"We’ve been asked to do other stores in other areas, but we just felt we couldn’t keep the family-comfortable atmosphere which I have folks tell me we have here," she said. "I guess I was very comfortable with what we have."

The Montana Woolen Shop is open seven days a week. Call 587-8903 for store hours.

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2003/12/07/news/shopbzbigs.txt