BUSINESS PERSPECTIVES: BerkShares Business of the Month is The Shop in Egremont

Oskar Hallig and Mike Zippel’s sign for The Shop on Main Street in Egremont declares “Unique Gifts, Local and Fun,” and many of us could use a little more fun these days. Their invitation to local makers is both generous and simple: If you can find a spot for your product on our shelves, we’ll sell it! KATY SPARKS What inspired you both to launch this business? OSKAR HALLIG We started our event-planning business, Only in My Dreams, in January 2014, and then when COVID happened in 2020, booking for events was completely gone. I quickly got a little bored by doing nothing and thought it would be a fun idea to help small local makers have a place to sell their products, and that was how The Shop came about. I really expected this business just to be a placeholder until the pandemic was over, but here we are six years later. MIKE ZIPPEL In 2020, I thought it was an awful idea to open a retail location, but Oskar proved me wrong.

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