Bauman and Company in Mount Vernon has a few changes they are finishing in store this spring.
Last fall, they received $28,000 in challenge Open 4 Business grants from the Iowa Economic Development Authority competition.
This winter, the store completed the purchase of their new point of sale system for the store utilizing grant funds.
“Starting in early January, we have added the more than 1000 items in the store to our point-of-sale system,” said Olivia Randall, owner. “This will help us know when we have sold an item and what needs to be replaced in our inventories.”
Randall also noted that the system will be able to help current customers find items for future purchases as well.
“If you give us your email and name, we’ll be able to track the sizes of items you purchased in the past, which can help when you’re shopping next,” Randall said.
The other big change to the store has come with an expansion of the shoes and accessory department for the store.
“Shoes and accessories have been a very well performing item for our store that we’ve been looking to expand,” Randall said. “We have a basement that we haven’t been able to fully realize, and with some repurposing and new shelving, we’re being able to expand space for the new department.”
Randall also noted with no one else selling shoes in the Mount Vernon and Lisbon community, it gave the retailer a market to continue expanding.
Randall said that work will be finishing in the next few weeks for the new shoes and accessories department located in the basement of the store, but due to the supply chain disruptions that have plagued many businesses, their inventory for accessories and shoes won’t arrive in total until summer.
“We still don’t know when we’ll have all the inventory for our shoes and accessory department,” Randall said. “We’re working with our suppliers, but the delays everyone has experienced have hit them at the moment.”
Randall said that the Open 4 Business grant application process was a good experience.
“We were highly involved in that contest for roughly six months last year,” Randall said. “We applied back in January 2021, then presented locally at a competition via Zoom and then in person at Iowa City for the finals. It really made us look into our business and what our goals with the funds would be.”
Bauman and Company is open Mondays through Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.