Business feature: Businesses head to Texas

CLOVIS — Owners of the Crafters Mall and Brick Street Warehouse in Clovis are opening a new store in Farwell after facing difficulties running their businesses in New Mexico during the pandemic.

Ernie Kos, executive director of the Curry County/Clovis Chamber of Commerce, was not aware of businesses that have closed permanently due to Covid-related issues. But many if not all, she said, have been forced to adapt.

While introducing online sales or curbside shopping have been more common changes businesses have made, this move across state lines reflects the lengths businesses are having to go to continue operation.

Anna Powell, owner of the Crafters Mall, and Karen McDaniel, co-owner of Brick Street Warehouse and daughter-in-law of Powell, expressed their frustration with the state’s mandates that closed down small businesses like theirs for long periods this past year. By opening a location in Texas they hope to be able to operate their business more reliably.

“Because she closes us down all the time we needed a place where we can still stay open and work out of,” McDaniel said. “It’s just very sad that everybody’s having to struggle and find a way to keep making a living.”

McDaniel said that the new venture will be housed in the building in front of Farwell’s old grain elevator and will aptly be called The Scale House.

The location for the new store might remind visitors of Magnolia Market of Waco, Texas where HGTV couple Chip and Joanna Gaines famously turned silos into a store.

“We have a great location,” McDaniel said, with hopes to provide business to Farwell and revitalize an important building to the town’s agricultural roots.

Though the Scale House building was not originally up for leasing, Powell said she found out who owned it and asked if they could rent it. The owners obliged and now plans are underway for the storefront to be open either the first or second weeks of February.

The Scale House will not be an expansion of the Crafters Mall but instead feature a variety of new home goods and farm house decor.

McDaniel said that people have been coming into the Crafters Mall thinking that the store will be moving, but she and Powell wanted to emphasize that the Crafters Mall will still be open on Main Street and that this store is a separate venture from that.

“We’re going to try to get it open the first of February, but I don’t know if we’re going to make that date or not. So it may be the second week of February,” Powell said.

McDaniel and Kos both mentioned other Clovis businesses were looking into expanding across the border, but declined to mention specific businesses.