pandora’s box page 10 · unemployment rate for wasco county hovering around 4 percent, according...

Columbia RiveR GoRGe business Review | June 2019 1

June 2019 Volume 11, No. 6 ‘Great Race’ coming to WAAAM Page 4

Pandora’s Box 0

2 Columbia RiveR GoRGe business Review | June 2019

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On The Cover:Cameron Larsen grew his side job making hand-tied flies into a full-time, thriving business that has international reach. Read more about it on page 6

Page 4‘Great Race’ coming to WAAAM

Page 5Toyota, Honda dealerships in new hands

Page 7MCEDD Spotlight

How to make a business successful

By ROSE MAYS

Starting a small business is easy, but owning a successful small business can be chal-lenging.

There may be a few areas that require professional ex-pertise that you should con-sider, such as having an ac-countant to help with taxes, a lawyer to help with your legal concerns and an insurance agent to protect your business. Once these professional issues are addressed, it is up to the owner to make the business a successful endeavor.

How? There are eight basic things that can help make a business successful. Each of the eight issues are important but I feel the first and last items may be the most important of all.

1. Create a business plan.

A good business plan is your road map to success regardless of whether you need a business loan or not. It is essential to complete the business plan during the planning stage of your business before you get too emotionally involved. After you start your business, read-dress your plan or do a SWOT analysis every three months to keep on course.

2. Get organizedIf you’re in business already,

you are probably experiencing the mountain of receipts and boxes of inventory that need to

be organized. Receipts and in-voices should be organized ei-ther electronically or manually by each month. Your accoun-tant — or the IRS! — should be able to confirm monthly expenses by your receipts and invoices. All inventory should organized so oldest inventory is used first and easily found when needed.

3. Keep detailed records

Again, keeping detailed re-cords is as important as being able to quickly locate doc-uments. It will be helpful to write yourself reminders about how or why a business trans-action occurred. Sometimes, what we think we will remem-ber in January is quickly forgot-ten by July.

4. Continue to analyze the competition

Your competition can change very quickly. Be vigi-lant of your competitors and try not to underestimate the impact they may have on your business.

5. Be creative with your marketing

The process of marketing your business has changed dramatically over the last ten years. Learn how to market your business using social media and other electronic media effectively. Most im-portantly, identify your target customer and market to them

directly as much as possible.

6. Stay focusedIt is very easy for a business

owner to become distracted. As a business leader, you may be asked to serve on com-munity boards or other local business organizations. While it is important to support the community who supports you, there is only a certain amount of time and energy in a day, so budget it wisely.

7. Prepare to make sacrifices

Owning a successful busi-ness means you will be wear-ing a lot more hats than when you were an employee. For most business owners, their business day starts several hours before the business is open and ends several hours after everyone else leaves. A business owner often must sacrifice family activities or social events in order to devote more time towards making the business a success.

8. Provide great serviceThe best product or service

you can provide to your cus-tomer is the gift of outstanding customer service. It is vital to treat every person who comes to your shop or calls your business as if they are the most important person you have seen that day. Greet them like they are family and let them know how much you appreci-ate them.

STAFF

Publisher Chelsea Marr

EditorialMark Gibson

Kirby Neumann-ReaNeita Cecil

Trisha WalkerEmily Fitzgerald

Tom Peterson

Contributing ArticlesMid-Columbia Economic

Development District (MCEDD)Jim Drake

ContentHood River

541-386-1234The Dalles

541-506-4613

Advertising ManagerJody Thompson,

541-386-1234 ext. 101jthompson@

hoodrivernews.com

Find extra copies of the Columbia RiverGorge Business

Review at:

Hood River News419 State St. Hood River

The Dalles Chronicle315 Federal St.

The Dalles

The Columbia River Gorge

Business Review is a monthly

publication of the Hood River News

and The Dalles Chronicle.

All rights reservedCopyright 2018

Eight ways to make a business successful


Grocery section to grows in major store remodel

By TOM PETERSONThe Dalles Chronicle

Shoppers will see major changes at The Dalles Fred Meyer in the next six months as the company reconfigures the store to maximize grocery space to meet demand.

The remodel also creates dozens of new jobs in our area, which is already experiencing a tight labor market, with the unemployment rate for Wasco County hovering around 4 percent, according to the state employment department.

The remodel is just the latest sign of local economic growth due to increased commerce and regional population gains during the past several years.

“It was always busy on the weekends, but it would slow down during the week. But now it’s busy every day,” said Fred Meyer Store Manager Vera Emesiochl, pointing out that she was unable to get a parking spot at the store on Thursday while doing her own personal shopping.

The store, in volume sales, is on par with Fred Meyers in the more densely populated Port-land market, she said.

What’s different, however, is The Dalles store is like those in Alaska, where customers will come in to stockpile groceries, and instead of buying one or two cans, they buy 20.

Currently, employees must stock grocery shelves during the night and the day to meet demand, said Emesiochl. “The population has grown so much we have surpassed the neces-sary volume on the shelf,” she said referring to growth of the entire Mid-Columbia region.

Currently, customers stuggle to reach groceries when the isles are congested with stock-ers and personal shoppers filling takeout orders.

Emesiochl said there will be no additions to the building

space, so changes will occur within the current building foot print. That means the company had to make some tough decisions.

They chose to eliminate both the furniture and seasonal sec-tions of the store and reduced the size of home and apparel goods.

But that makes it possible to add some 18,000 square feet to the grocery section on the east side of the building. That means bigger isles and bigger shelves. Also, produce, deli, bakery, meat and seafood centers will be expanded, as the pharmacy will be doubled in size and moved to the west end of the building where toys are currently located. The floral section will also be expanded

and located near the entrance to the grocery section.

Other major changes on the first floor include an expanded cosmetics, health and beauty section next to electronics, the addition of 12 to 18 new self-checkout lanes, and a reduction to 10 staffed check-out lanes. A new elevator will be added east of the current stairway to the mezzanine. Electronics will remain in its current location at the north-west corner of the building.

Several departments are headed upstairs as apparel space is being reduced. Toys, sporting goods, and auto sec-tions will be moved to the west end of the second floor.

Incoming supplies for the renovation will be staged at

the former armory location at Sixth and Weber streets. That said, Emesiochl said they were going to lose about 10 parking spots to construction next to McDonalds during the remodel. No new additional parking is planned for the store, she said.

Maps for the store remodel are located at both entrances to the store for those wanting a more details. Emesiochl said the work will occur in stages while the store is in full operation. Customer service employees with bright green shirts are in the store to help customers find items that have changed locations.

“Our goal for the remodel is to make it seamless for the customer,” she said.

Photo by Tom Peterson

FRED Meyer Customer Service Specialist Natalia Silva and Fred Meyer Manager Vera Emesiochl stand next to a store map showing remodel plans for Fred Meyer in The Dalles. The store is elim-inating furniture but adding 18,000 square feet of grocery space.

Fred Meyer retools to meet demand

The Western Antique Aero-plane & Automobile Museum (WAAAM) has been selected as a stop for the 2019 Great Race, announced a WAAAM press re-lease. This year’s race runs from Riverside, Calif., to Tacoma, Wash., in the race’s first all-West Coast journey in 36 years.

“Among all the possible stop choices to travel through Ore-gon, Hood River was chosen for its small-town charm, scenery, and WAAAM,” said the press release.

“The Great Race is an an-tique, vintage and collector car competitive controlled-speed endurance road rally on pub-lic highways,” continued the release.

“It is a test of a driver and navigator team’s ability to fol-low precise course instructions that indicate every turn, speed

change, stop, and start that the team must make throughout the day (usually 250-plus a day) and the car’s ability to endure on a cross-country trip.

“It is not a test of top speed — instead, the objective is to arrive at each checkpoint at the correct time, not the fastest. Devices like GPS or computers are not per-mitted, and odometers are taped over to ensure that instructions are being followed to the letter.”

This year’s race will have 120 cars. Racers will arrive in waves at WAAAM between noon and 3 p.m. on Friday, June 28. There will be time to chat with the driv-ers during this stop and check out all the fun cars, said the press release.

More information on the Great Race can be found at www.gre-atrace.com.

Submitted photos

WAAAM will be a stop during this summer’s “2019 Great Race,” a controlled-speed endurance race starting in Riverside, Calif.

‘Great Race’ coming to WAAAM


By NEITA CECILThe Dalles Chronicle

Aaron Carter first came to The Dalles years ago on a visiting high school football team. Now he’s moving his family here for his new post as managing part-ner at the new Columbia Gorge Toyota and Columbia Gorge Honda dealerships, formerly Griffith Motors.

Mario Hernandez of Idaho Falls purchased the dealerships from David Griffith in March, ex-panding his portfolio of dealer-ships to four locations. He is also in Idaho Falls and Pocatello in Idaho and in Winnemucca, Nev.

“We specialize in these small-er hometown markets where we feel like we can establish a long-term relationship with our employees and our customers,” Carter said.

Winnemucca has just 7,000 people, while Pocatello has 40,000 and Idaho Falls has 50,000. “So we’re not big city people,” he said.

The dealerships have ex-panded their hours, and are now open until 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday. They previ-ously were open until 6 p.m. They also significantly expanded their offerings of used cars, from about 20 to about 80. They have Toyota certified and Honda certified used vehicles, meaning they have been through a rigor-ous inspection and come with a warranty, he said.

The two dealerships employ about 50 people. “We’ve re-tained all the staff that wanted to stay,” Carter said. “We have a really good staff, which is why we kept them.”

When Griffith was ready to sell, he reached out to Hernan-dez, who he knew from previous gatherings of fellow top sales performers for Toyota. “I think we were his first draft pick,” Carter said.

“David’s community involve-ment and care for employees was really a draw to Mario,” he added, saying the two men shared business philosophies.

“We’ve already sponsored the Easter Egg hunt, we continued

that tradition. That went off real-ly well, I thought. Got to meet a lot of people there,” he said. “We are very involved in city events.”

He said, “We’re really excited to get to know everybody, we’re going to get really involved in the chamber of commerce. We intend to be really involved in the community. We plan to be here for a long time.”

In Idaho Falls, the dealership donated two new cars to the local school district to be raf-fled off, with proceeds going to after-school programs, he said.

“Education and schools could always use more funding, es-pecially after-school events,” he said. Locally, the Columbia Gorge dealerships have also sponsored a middle school play, “Mulan Jr.”

He also has a cause the deal-erships support that is personal to him. “I’m a veteran, I know there’s a lot of people who served in the area, so we will be involved in that stuff,” he said.

Carter grew up in Veneta, a small town outside Eugene. He remembers coming here with the JV football team when he was a freshman in high school. “We were down by one with no time left and we went for two and we didn’t get it, so we lost,” he recounted.

He joined the Army, where he was in air defense artillery. Shortly after leaving the service,

Carter began working as a sales-man for Hernandez, and worked his way up.

“I’ve really enjoyed it,” he said. “Being able to help customers and people in an industry and an area where people haven’t had the best experiences in the past is a good feeling.”

He sees working sales as more of a problem solving position. “I think you have to be willing to put away your own personal no-tion of what you want and what you think.”

He said, “You can do a bunch of research online but until you drive in it and sit in it it’s hard to make a decision.”

Carter’s wife, Rachel, has worked as a paid and volunteer art teacher and is also a Girl Scout troop leader, so she will be looking for a local troop to be involved in, he said.

He also treats the dealerships equally when it comes to cars for his own household. “I drive a Toyota and my wife drives a Honda,” he said.

Their children are Noah, 12, and Molly, who is 8.

Carter grew up fishing and hunting and is looking forward to backpacking in the Gorge. “My son’s really excited about trying kiteboarding. He’s 12, he’s kind of our adventurer.”

Carter said this was a perma-nent move for his family. “I plan to retire here.”

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Toyota, Honda dealerships in new hands

Photo by Mark B. Gibson

AARON Carter sits with his yellow lab, Lucy, on the tailgate of a new pickup. He is a managing partner at the new Columbia Gorge Toyota and Columbia Gorge Honda dealerships in The Dalles, formerly Griffith Motors.


By MARK GIBSONThe Dalles Chronicle

Teri Hownslow has been busy the past few months. Not only has she pulled together all the paperwork and train-ing she needed to license her new daycare facility—she has named it Adventure Academy LLC—she has been remod-eling her historic home to accommodate the children she hopes to care for.

It’s a 1915 Craftsman home, one of the original homes in The Dalles, old enough to have been built with big, wide doors to accommodate a lady’s hoop skirts all the fashion a hundred years ago.

The entire electrical system has been replaced, rooms upgrad-ed to provide a safe and usable daycare space.

The dining and living rooms are combined into one large room, with a variety of areas. There is a new kitchenette, where she and the children can fix meals; a table for art, with plenty of supplies on hand; a play kitchen, a dress up corner.

There is space for meals, places to relax, to play, all care-fully decorated with furnish-ings and fresh paint.

“I’ll be able to move the kids around so they are always occupied,” Hownslow, a grand-mother of four, said of the multi-functional space.

“It’s beautiful, it’s like a tem-ple of childcare,” she said of the colorful, large, airy front room. “I invested everything I could into this.”

She is certified to take 10 children, 18 months to kin-dergarten, but plans to take only six.

She has worked in childcare for many years, and raised children of her own, she said. “I was inspired by my grand-children,” she added. “I love hanging around with them. They are all ‘littles,’ those are my favorite people.”

Nevertheless, this is her first real business venture and for 2 1/2 months she has been busy with the details of starting a childcare business, working with Noemi Ochoa of Colum-bia Gorge Community Col-lege’s Child Care Partners, which provides training and professional development for the early learning workforce in Gilliam, Hood River, Sherman, Wasco and Wheeler counties.

“I have a wall filled with cer-tificates,” Hownslow said with a smile.

Adventure Academy is going to be an educational, hands-on, nature based daycare, with whole foods and no videos or television, she said. They will play with musical instruments, cook together and explore the environment.

“We’ll be learning things every day,” she said.

Everything is set up and ready, said Hownslow, the only thing missing, among the toys and little furniture, are the children.

She is excited to be open-ing her doors and filling that void—and the house is as well. “It’s like the house is waiting with bated breath for the chil-dren to arrive,” she explained.

The Adventure Academy LLC is located at 1116 E. 10th St. in The Dalles. Information can be found on Facebook and by calling 509-296-1400 or 425-249-1421.

Submitted Photo

TERI Hownslow is eager to see her new daycare, Adventure Academy LLC, fill up with children. She plans a hands-on, nature based daycare.

Daycare offers adventure for young kids

By TRISHA WALKERNews staff writer

“It takes an hour and a half out of your day.” Toni Sheppard, who provides per-son-to-person services for dis-abled persons with Eastern Oregon Support Services Bro-kerage and runs the nonprofit Diversity Studio, has delivered meals for Meals on Wheels two to three times a week for four and a half years — and is one of the few drivers who are not retired. “You go, you pick up food and deliver for an hour and a half,” she said. “They even give you a free meal if you want it. The food is fantastic — Sophia (Homan) is a great cook, and it takes an hour and a half out of your morning to make someone’s day.”

The program, run by the Hood River Valley Adult Cen-ter, brings hot meals to home-bound and disabled seniors in the area and is always looking for reliable drivers, as well as substitute drivers who could be available with only a couple of hours’ notice, said HRVAC Executive Director Amy Mallet.

“(Substitute drivers) are so valuable when a regular driv-er calls in sick,” Mallet said. Sheppard and her husband, Benjamin, both work fulltime for EOSSB and deliver meals each week as well as serve as substitute drivers.

“My husband and I, we’re the snow kids,” Sheppard said. “Most elderly drivers don’t want to drive in the snow. We’ll do two routes if we have to.”

She said that her average route is 15-17 stops, and that the routes have changed a lot in the last two years because of increased need. What was pre-

viously a three-route schedule is now five. One overlooked aspect of the Meals on Wheels program is that drivers serve an additional role as check-in person.

“Sometimes, you’re the only person who checks on (the meal recipient),” said Shep-pard. “I have literally called the cops and done a welfare check, and that person had died. You serve as a safety net for them — one of our drivers found one of our clients on the floor. They’d been on the floor for 24 hours and (the driver) saved her life — she went to the hos-pital because he found her.”

While potentially a scary

aspect of the volunteer po-sition, Sheppard sees it as another form of service. “To be able to knock on the door and call for them, that’s saved people’s lives many times,” she said.

And even though each stop is two minutes, drivers really connect with meals recipients.

“One lady baked me muf-fins. One lady gave us all Val-entine’s cards with $1 scratch tickets in them,” she said.

“… One person is blind and she doesn’t know what I look like, but she can hear me and she asks about my husband and son,” she said. “She knows everything about me — and you’re only with them for two minutes, or if they need help, you can help them … but she knows me. She asks if I know the hand-some young man who deliv-ers on Thursdays and I’m like, ‘That’s my husband.’” Besides meals, drivers also deliver holiday gifts such as flowers for the women on Mother’s Day, treats for the men on Father’s Day and Christmas gift bags for everyone. The program also delivers one hot meal and two frozen meals each Friday. “If you only have one hot meal a day, that would mean a lot,” Sheppard said.

Becoming a driver is as simple as calling the adult center and asking to speak to Sophia Homan or Eric Gonzales (see infobox). Driv-ers undergo a background check and provide a copy of their driver’s license; training is also available, Sheppard said — experienced drivers will take new drivers out to show them the routes. “It’s not scary,” she said. “It’s not, ‘Here’s a map, good luck.’

“It’s an amazing program,” she added. “In terms of things I’ve done in Hood River as far as volunteering, this is one of the most rewarding.”

Photo courtesy of Amy Mallet, HRVAC

BROTHER AND SISTER team of Eric Gonzales, cook and Meals on Wheels contact, and Sophia Homan, kitchen man-ager, prepare meals for Hood River Valley Adult Center pa-trons and its Meals on Wheels program. The center is seeking new and substitute route driv-ers for Meals on Wheels.

DRIVERS NEEDED

To volunteerThe Hood River Valley Adult Center is seeking new and substitute

drivers for its Meals on Wheels program. Call 541-386-2060 and ask for Sophia Homan or Eric Gonzales.

Meals on Wheels delivers more than lunch


Written for the Gorge Busi-ness Review by Mid-Columbia Economic Development District

Longstanding and well-known builders of homes in the City of Hood River, Mike Kitts and Doug Beveridge, are continuing to build their rep-utation for completing afford-able and workforce housing projects. Over the last 20 years, Kitts and Beveridge have built over 450 homes in Hood River. They are adding more units to that roster with the develop-ment of a housing project on Belmont Drive. This project leverages their track record for addressing the “missing middle” market by construct-ing and selling homes below market rate.

For this project, Kitts and Beveridge partnered with a local land owner to develop an 18 unit single-family housing project. Obtaining financing through the North Central Oregon Attainable Housing

Development Revolving Loan Funds, the project is address-ing a segment of the market that has been under served.

The fund is designed to spur development of housing at rates affordable to those who live and work in the region (generally 60 to 120 percent of median family income). While

Kitts and Beveridge would have been able to proceed with the project without the support from the Attainable Housing fund, financing helped them accelerate the phases of devel-opment.

The homes had a huge de-mand even prior to construc-tion, with new homeowners encompassing individuals core to the heart of the Hood River community. “Thanks to the Re-gional Solutions/MCEDD loan program, we were able to get 18 homes built in just under 11 months which simply wouldn’t have been possible without [that] funding,” said Beveridge. “With the help of Attainable Housing Loan program, we now have teachers, firemen, nurses, an electrician, and a host of other people who now are able to live in the commu-nity they work in.”

Through the North Cen-tral Oregon Attainable Hous-ing Development Revolving Loan Program, MCEDD offers

flexible financing for hous-ing development and housing rehabilitation in Hood River, Wasco, and Sherman coun-ties. The fund is designed to spur development of housing at rates affordable to those who live and work in the re-

gion (generally 60-120 percent of median family income). MCEDD also has a Business Loan Program that is avail-able to entrepreneurs, start-up businesses, and existing businesses doing business in the five county Mid-Columbia

area. Both of these loan pro-grams are part of MCEDD’s ef-forts to strengthen and support the region’s economy.

Contact MCEDD at 541-296-2266 or [email protected] for more information on these MCEDD loan program.

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MCEDD Spotlight: Housing for the ‘missing middle’ market

Submitted photo

NEW HOOD RIVER development on Belmont Drive.

“With the help of Attainable Housing Loan program, we

now have teachers, firemen, nurses,

an electrician, and a host of other

people who now are able to live in

the community they work in.


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By TOM PETERSONThe Dalles Chronicle

There are some 45 restau-rants operating in The Dalles and that does not include all the food trucks operating in the area.

But we still look to be hun-gry.

Two more eateries are com-ing online in months to come

as Hot Point Chinese Restau-rant has leased the former Skipper’s building at 1465 West Sixth St., between Taco Bell and Subway.

And you don’t have to go very far west of Cousin’s to find another culinary offering in the process of tooling up for restaurant service. Momiji Jap-anese and Chinese cuisine has taken up space next to Coastal

Farm and Ranch Supply. No word yet on the timing of either opening.

There seems to be no bottom in the industry, yet.

The average household spends an average of $3,008 per year on dining out, the Bureau of Labor Statistics re-ports in 2015. And according to Nielsen, a data analytics company, the total amount of

money spent on food “away from home” has risen 94 per-cent since 2003.

That second statistic is likely driving a good portion of the growth in food, as contractors for multiple building sites, including Google and the Hol-iday Inn Express, are bringing skilled workers to town who need a bite to eat.

Power Breakfast

Get wheeling this Friday with Rick Leibowitz at 7 a.m. at Cousin’s. Leibowitz, who is the Small Business Center Direc-tor at Columbia Gorge Com-munity College will present “Make Decisions, Take Action,” a visual toolkit for dialogue and decision-making.

This visual toolkit works

for many aspects of business: GrowthWheel helps the entre-preneurs build their business-es through a simple action-fo-cused process that stays true to the way most entrepreneurs think and work.

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Adding some flavor to the restaurant mix


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Real estate driving the drive?By TOM PETERSONThe Dalles Chronicle

It’s 20 minutes to drive from the new 7.53-acre Park Place subdivision near Sorosis Park in The Dalles to Hood River, said Dick Smith with Legacy Development Group, Inc.

Smith, 74, is a property part-ner in the new 33-lot subdi-

vision. They broke ground on May 15 as some 30 people looked on under a light sprin-kle of rain.

Smith is the former owner of BCI Group, an insurance agency in Hood River, now called Hub International, 302 Oak St. And his point about the relatively short commute is important.

It tells you something about the mindset of buyers.

“You know a 20-minute drive in Portland is a trip to the store,” he said. His point being that people moving in from the west look at the Gorge as a region in which to live, not a town. That makes The Dalles tasty.

Why? Median home prices

are about $200,000 below those of Hood River, according to real estate estimates. And the commute does not stall a deal, because it looks like a cake walk compared to the time that transplants have been grinding it out on the Portland freeways.

Smith also made another in-teresting point. He has worked with Cameron and Emily Cur-

tis for a decade, including a 22-lot subdivision in Hood River and a four-lot home build in White Salmon. And he has not seen demand for housing wane.

Before digging in with his golden shovel, Cameron Cur-tis, 31, said they have already presold three homes in the subdivision. The first phase has

13 lots that abut 20th St. and Radio Way.

With high prices to the west and a combination of a bulg-ing population in the Port-land-Metro area, telecommut-ing, and homes being a great hedge against inflation, this is likely just the beginning for major housing expansion in The Dalles.


By JIM DRAKE

Pandora’s Box may be a name familiar to eastern Ore-gon folks, as Umatilla has been home to one of the stores for 22 years. Now, store owner Deb-bie McConnell has brought her brand to The Dalles, and she says she’s happy with how things are going.

“This is actually my fifth store, and I’ve been in business a long time,” McConnell said.

Pandora’s Box has two Tri Cities locations, as well as lo-cations in Umatilla and Pend-leton.

McConnell said she’s happy to have moved to the Gorge, and is excited to be a part of historic downtown The Dalles, with its charm of older build-ings.

“The Dalles is not too far away from Hermiston, where we started out. I felt like people would still know us, and prob-ably catch on to who we were, really quickly, and they did,” McConnell said.

She noted that local custom-ers have been supportive of the new glass shop, which sells a large selection of water pipes, vape products, CBD products, adult novelties, and specialty items in the realm of magic, Wicca culture and more.

“Years ago when I started out, I brought books into thrift stores to sell and I was reading Tarot Cards. And all of that grew into Pandora’s Box, and now I have five stores. I did have a store in Seaside as well, on the Oregon coast, but it re-ally didn’t do well there. That’s

the inventory I brought to The Dalles,” McConnell said.

McConnell said she could tell the store was going to do well when she opened last July.

“The local crowds have been really supportive. When you open a store, you can always tell how it’s gonna be by just the first day. I think people knew who we were,” McCon-nell said.

Geared for adults 21 and over and 18 and over for the adult novelties, Pandora’s Box mixes up the merchandise for interesting shopping.

“We carry quite a few CBD products, lotions, sublingual, candies, and vape products. The CBD products are doing quite well, and I think they’re doing well in the marijuana dispensaries, too. There’s a big difference in the CBD products that we carry, as compared to a dispensary: We can only have the CBD made from hemp, and the dispensaries have it made from the marijuana plant,” Mc-Connell said.

McConnell said that just as she opened The Dalles store, Oregon laws changed and the age-requirements for purchas-ing CBD products, and she had to instruct all of her employees to strictly adhere to I.D. check-ing procedures.

“We’ve got notices on the windows about checking I.D’s, and it’s important to comply with all of that. I instruct my employees to carefully check everything, so we don’t have any issues, and we haven’t had any problems yet,” McConnell said.

“Some people may not know that we are not selling mari-juana or tobacco products, just the pipes and all the things that go with them. But we do

advertise for the dispensaries and they advertise for us, so it’s been a good working re-lationship with everyone. It’s a group effort, really. We sell

vape products, which can help people quit smoking tobacco products. I think there’s some responsibility there to try and help in that aspect,” McConnell

said. The store is featuring the new Vape Pod systems. “I’ve seen more people buying the nicotine salt liquids for vaping systems. That seems to be the

Photos by Jim Drake

A MIX of glassware, vape products, adult novelties and more await shoppers at Pandora’s Box.

Opening Pandora’s Box in TD


By KIRBY NEUMANN-REANews editor

Like a sofa and table that complement each other, a realtor and home furnishings business are co-locating in a downtown Hood River an-chor space.

The Dwelling Station moved in April from Mosier to Fourth and Oak, inside one of Windermere Realty’s two downtown offices.

Christina LeFever of The Dwelling Space, and Kim Salveson-Pauly of Winder-mere, poured wine and hand-ed out chilled water for First Friday visitors on May 3 in the former Paris Fair building.

“It’s a natural synergistic relationship,” said LeFever, who sells reused furnishings, collectibles and home goods, having opened seven years ago in a former service station on Highway 30 in Mosier.

“We’ve always been look-ing for someone to be the co-housing with, someone who accentuated both busi-nesses,” Salveson-Pauly said. “We’re super excited we’re able to do that now.”

Windermere has at least one real estate person on premises from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sat-urday, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.

Dwelling Station’s official hours are Friday through Sun-day, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

LeFever stated she planned

to complete her transition to Hood River by early June.

“This is definitely a different business approach, and we haven’t ironed all of it out,” LeFever said. “Because realtors are here seven days a week, people can still stroll through and look around, but I hope to have another person hired for additional hours. “

She added, “‘I’ve had the sta-tion for seven years, and have been working with (real estate) clients, and naturally because I am service-oriented and I like to help people bring their visions to life. I have done stag-ings, and with Windermere, it’s just a natural fit.”

Salveson-Pauly calls it “a whole concierge service.

“When we sell a home, it really helps people to under-stand the relationship of what it could look like, and how we can help them at a whole dif-ferent level, and help people find all these other services and the right person to help them. By having Christina in this space, they can walk into a comfort zone and talk about what they can do with their space.”

Over time, she considered pairings with other businesses, including wineries, but The Dwelling Station felt like the right fit and a way to make use

of a large retail space Wind-ermere has occupied for four years.

“We have agents are here, but they are not locked at a desk. Now, people can look at all sorts of things here,” Salves-on-Pauly said.

LeFever said she strives for a “warm, welcoming environ-ment, one that is constantly changing.

“This may not be everyone’s preference, but our staging doesn’t look like it’s stocked from a furniture store. Every-one’s house has its own per-sonality, and I’m going to work with that in a very personal way.”

Cabinetry / Des ign / Countertops

(541) 354-1800

www.a l lensfinewoodwork ing .com

216 Cascade Avenue, Hood R iver

OREGON CCB #129075 WASHINGTON #ALLENFW997JQ

trend, away from smoking tra-ditional cigarettes,” McConnell said.

The store keeps McConnell and three employees busy, and is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mon-day through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. The store annually celebrates April 20, a nod to marijuana culture, with a day-long raffle event with free gifts and grand prizes.

Pandora’s Box is unique in some of the merchandise it carries, as the store’s namesake evokes Greek mythology and Pagan celebrations. “We have a lot of magic stuff, Ouija Boards, books about magic and Wicca culture, and things like that. And we’ve got adult novelties, and I’ve got them all mixed together, which may be kind of strange,” she said. “I guess that makes for a great Pandora’s

Box.”“It was Zeus who gave Pan-

dora the box, and told her not to open it, and she did, and it let out all the evil into the world. Luckily she slammed it shut just in time to save Hope. That really resonated with me and that’s what I named the store,” McConnell said.

Although her glass inven-tory doesn’t include any local glassblowers, McConnell says she would like to meet people to discuss the possibility of carrying their work.

Pandora’s Box413 East Second St., The

Dalles10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday

through Saturday and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday

541-769-1222

PANDORA’S Box in The Dalles sells a variety of water pipes and other paraphernalia related to smoking marijuana, displayed here in front of a colorful wall mural.

Photo by Kirby Neumann-Rea

SHARING space at Fourth and Oak are Windermere, with broker Kim Salveson-Pauly, left, and The Dwelling Station, owned by Christina LeFever, right, moving from Mosier.

Windermere, Dwelling Station share space, living room style


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