Building the world's first chain of green general stores was challenging -- starting with our very first physical location.

Renovating a dilapidated 100 year old building (6,000 square feet) into a modern work of art took years of hard work from volunteers, advisors and skilled professionals. 

After successfully completing the task we had a showcase building with 4,000 square feet of retail space to promote products from our mindful suppliers and a 2,000 square feet penthouse suite for our mindful shopkeeper (Sarah) to live rent free (with the only obligation being to please pay her utility bills).  

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For the finishing touch we scored some Sugar Maple -- from a 100 year old tree that Teddy Roosevelt planted at the State Capital which had been cut down to make room for more buildings -- and dovetailed it with some sustainably harvested hardwood as "picture perfect frame" (complete with a photo of Teddy Roosevelt visiting on his Bull Moose tour a century ago -- courtesy of Hallan's Gallery) for gift to the Governor for declaring Priest River the Capital for the Day.   

With the left over scrap wood we built a door handle for the building and made some roundUps (which we provided to various trustworthy contractors as a "thank you" for a job well done).