|
A Love of Lighthouses
Story ran on: September 23, 1993
From the: The Southern Maine Coastal Beacon
Two people's love for lighthouses blossoms into a successful business and a hot tourist attraction.
Tim Harrison and Kathy Finnegan both love lighthouses. Luckily, it is a love over two million tourists who come to Maine each year share, and the result is a business that is growing by leaps and bounds.
The "world's largest lighthouse gift shop" is located in Wells, Maine. Run by Tim and Kathy, it is a mecca for lighthouse fanatics and an emporium that caters to people who love lighthouses and only lighthouses.
Like 'em big? Try six feet tall.
Like 'em small? How about pendants, on coffee mugs, as Christmas ornaments?
You can get a postcard for 25 cents or a six-foot tall monster electric lawn ornament for $700-and just about anything in between.
From lighthouse door stops to lighthouse videos to lighthouse pottery to lighthouse books to lighthouse jams (their own jam label is coming out next year) to lighthouse belt buckles to lighthouse posters to lighthouse paintings to lighthouse…
You've got the picture. These people are simply crazy about lighthouses.
And it looks like, from the business point of view, they have hit one of the hottest products you could ever hope to market - because lighthouses are definitely in for the '90's.
According to Tim "Lighthouses are moving to another stage right now." Up until recently, lighthouses were functional, run by the Coast Guard (of many countries) an dused for essential navigational tools. Now with automation, and satellites, and modern radar, lighthouses are becoming endearing items of history - to be preserved, visited, and protected. And lighthouses, which were once simply part of a varied coastal scenery, are quickly becoming the hottest tourist attraction in the country.
Two million people come to Maine to see lighthouses each year. Often called "the lighthouse state," and boasting one of the most famous lighthouses in the world - Portland Head Light (which sees 30,000 visitors just by itself) - Maine is becoming a major stop for lighthouse lovers everywhere.
And Tim and Kathy just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
The Lighthouse Gift Shop, on Route 1 in Wells, is the final step in a long love affair with lighthouses for the two of them.
Tim Harrison quit his job running a credit bureau in Chicago with over two hundred employees, to come east. With time on his hands, he and Kathy, purely out of their own interest in lighthouses, decided to visit every lighthouse in Maine.
Out of this grew a book. Then gift products. Then more gift products. And now, finally, a store.
They took pictures of each lighthouse, and assembled a history for each one. They put it together in book form, and published it themselves. Their first run was 30,000. They sold 15,000 of those themselves, by traveling all over Maine and selling them to gift stores.
"And then we thought," Tim said "why are we just selling this one item? We should find, and sell, more lighthouse related products."
So they started looking. Soon they were selling pottery lighthouses which they hand painted themselves.
As the product line expanded, they rented warehouse space in South Portland. They quickly found that people were finding them… and coming to the warehouse and buying directly from the box.
That made them decide they needed to open their own store, not just sell to gift shops.
They opened in March of this year, and business has been booming. Every week it seems they have a new product, whether it's a video, or a brass lighthouse door stop. They even have lighthouses made entirely from recycled items!
"Some nights this summer, we couldn't close the store until midnight, people just kept coming in" Tim says.
What are their long term goals?
Well, they want a nice "homey" atmosphere for the store - so that people feel comfortable browsing. They will always ensure that some of the products fit every budget, whether it's a $2.95 coffee mug (which other gift shops might sell for $7) or just a postcard. After all they aren't just serving the general public - they are serving fellow lighthouse lovers.
Out of Tim and Kathy's book, a newspaper evolved, the monthly Lighthouse Digest.
They started the paper by putting an ad into the back of the book, proclaiming they were planning on starting a paper, asking for $25 subscriptions. They got 34 responses.
They sent the money back, explaining that they had decided to hold off on starting the paper.
All 34 of the people sent their checks back again, saying they were willing to wait.
Now, they have over 5500 paid subscribers, and hundreds of their subscribers, from all over the country (and six other countries beyond) have already made it to the store.
The store is quickly becoming a stop on every lighthouse lovers intinerary. So their customers range from the curious to the expert, and they are determined to have something for everyone.
They stock every book on lighthouses in print in the United States. Every video. "People come into the store and think they've died and gone to heaven," Tim says. One man came in and bought every single pottery lighthouse on oneshelf-$1700 worth. They sell on average three of the big electric lawn lighthouses a week.
The demand is clearly there.
Ultimately?
"We want to be the L.L. Bean's of lighthouse stores," said Tim.
Lighthouse Trivia:
The world's most famous lighthouse is the Statute of Liberty.
This year, a 4 million pound lighthouse had to be moved, on steel rails, from its position near a cliff which was undergoing erosion. The lighthouse was the Block Island Lighthouse, Rhode Island.
Lighthouse lenses, called Fresnel lenses, cost millions of dollars and are virtually irreplaceable.
You can get a subscription to the Lighthouse Digest by writing P O Box 1690, Wells, Maine 04090, or by calling 1-800-758-1444. Subscriptions are $24 per year.
Lighthouse Gifts is located in Wells, Maine, ˝ mile north of the Wells Post Office, telephone 1-207-646-0608.
Date Entered into online database: March 26, 2001
Permissions: Check with publication or story author for permission to reprint this story. Lighthouse Depot is not responsible for permissions on any story or article that is not published by Lighthouse Depot or Lighthouse Digest.
|
