Today we’d like to introduce you to Waler Hanson.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Both Louise and I share a love of good design and especially Scandinavian Design. Louise spent a semester in Denmark while in college. She studied most of the leading Danish Design Firms at the time. At the same time I was working on getting my Masters degrees in Architecture and Architectural Engineering. Louise got out of college before I did and she opened a small Scandinavian Inspired Store in a historic town outside of St Louis. Over summer and breaks I helped out in the store and got to appreciate more the ethos of Scandinavian Design in homegoods, jewelry, and clothing. When I was getting close to graduating with my masters Louise wanted to try a concept she had for a Scandinavian Shop in a more appropriate location somewhere in the Upper Midwest. After some research work we settled on Rochester, MN. This was to be a One Year Experiment and after that we would move to Chicago and a job that I had lined up as a design architect.
We spent my Christmas break finding a location that was in the middle of downtown Rochester and in the Kahler Hotel block. The Kahler was at that time “The Hotel” in Rochester for the higher end customers that were spending a week for their annual checkups. We had the literal Who’s Who of colebritiies as well as Fortune 500 company execs that came to the Mayo Clinic and a traditional stay was Sunday through Saturday. We found a store that had exactly a year left on its lease and we worked out a deal to buy it and take over the lease. Louise then moved her store up to Rochester, MN and our first day of business as The Nordic Shop was February 21st, 1974. I still had to complete my Masters work and a project that I was doing for my long term employer Lindenwook College (1958-1974). That work wrapped up the end of July and Louise and I got Married Aug 4th and our Honeymoon was to Chicago to attend the International Gift Show.
We met so many wonderful customers and learned so much from them that it was like a Graduate Course in Business for both of us. Soon it was apparent that we wanted to keep in contact with our customers and back then that meant learning how to do our own mailers, catalogs, and ads. Neither of us had much experience in any of that so it took a lot of learning. Back then “Cut and Paste” was an actual action that you performed in putting together a printed piece. We even taught ourselves photography and darkroom work. We moved all the way from Black and White to 4 Color Work all of which we did the photography, darkroom work and layout. We also wrote our own Database program to manage our Mailing List. Back in those days there were no computers. It was all done by hand.
As technology evolved we also moved with it and are now a fully computerized production facility for all of our print ads, TV Commercials and various Digital Ads. During that time also we realized that we both really loved working on the store and mailorder. We never left at the end of that first year.
Louise’s concept for a Scandinavian Shop that focused on Good Design, Construction and Quality in stead of the popular at the time Folksy Scandinavian Store with more Ethnic based tourist products was a Huge Success. That Success has kept us going strong for more than 50 years. Over that time we have become the largest Dale of Norway Retailer in the world and a front line retailer for many of the other brands that we carry.
Customers today, just like back in 1974 are interested in the Brand. What does it stand for, etc. We are fortunate that our Scandinavian Brands have always had quality, sustainability, and ecology a strong part of thier focus. They all follow the same Scandinavian adage, You should surround yourself with fewer but nicer things that are founded in good design and will be around for ever. Even in our Clothing, There is no such thing as Bad Weather, Only Bad Clothing. Those things have kept us relevant even with today’s shoppers.
Last year was our 50th Anniversary and it was gratifying that so many of our companies recognized us as well as our customers. It really was heart warming. The team at Dale of Norway even developed a special sweater design and logo that showed the strong bond between our two companies. Not only did Louise and I get Special Edition Sweaters with Logo, but our dog Haakon whom the design and sales teams have gotten to know on their annual visits to Rochester to go over the Colleciton for the next year got his own sweater and included in the logo. For the past at least 40+ years we have contributed designs, concepts and collection direction that has helped Dale grow along with us.
Looking back it has been a wonderful first 50 years and we have grown a lot and evolved a lot. This next 50 years is something we are looking forward to as we continue to evolve and become the single source for customers who are looking for our products. Not only do we and our staff know the products, but we all live them and the lifestyle. That goes a long way and explains what makes us different.
Back in 1976 we began a process of visiting our suppliers and getting ot know them and how their products are made, what their history is and what were their goals. Every year we continued this process. when we first started the process the person we usually got assigned to was the youngest person in the company because they spoke English. Now those people are the CEO’s and owners of those same companies and we have all grown up together. That has also added to our success. We know the product from raw material all the way to finished product. Many of them love to come over and spend time with us on our deck and talk with our customers in the store.
We are our Brand. We are Genuine.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Definitely it has not been a smooth road. We have made it through all the economic ups and downs over 50+ years. Our first home mortgage was 12.5% and we were lucky to get that. There have been numerous wars, economic disasters, banking crisis, etc that all affected our customers and us. The taste of the customer has changed and will continue to change.
We have always had to be looking ahead and not behind or even at what was happening now. We had to learn how to use the information that we were gathering from our customers both in store and in mail order, now web to help us chart a course forward for our Brand.
So many trends, brands, styles have come and gone over our 50+ yrs, but we have always stayed true to our Brand and its Lifestyle and tied it into today’s needs. Scandinavian Design has ever since the end of WWII been both design based, but also lifestyle that seems to keep echoing with each new generation. Fewer, but Nicer Things. There is no such thing as Bad Weather, Only Bad Clothing. Those two things have carried us to this point and given us a strong base to grow from.
On a local level for the Store we had to live through the Redevelopment of all of the Downtown Area when Mayo added on the Gonda Building onto the Mayo Building as well as added several other new Clinic buildings. For a period of 4 years customers had to WANT to get to our store. It was during that time that we decided to take the money we would be spending on advertising to Clinic patientes and locals and focus that on building our fledgling mail order division. Through a series of well planned and well placed national ads we were replacing store sales with Mail Order Sales all aroudn the US. We even added our own Toll Free 800 Number. That was something that small businesses like ours just didnt’ have. That tipped the scale in our favor and it was easier to pick up a phone and place a Toll Free Call than to write out an order and send it in. That helped us come out of Redevelopment strong and with 2 sources of income.
Our next major issue was COVID. However, our suppliers in Scandinavia were warning us that this was something more than the Flu. We knew we were going to be closed down for a period of time and that it might take a bit for things to pick back up. We fell back on our experience from Redevelopment and took all of our local marketing dollars into Digital Marketing for our Website. Even if people were at home they could shop our website. Instead of of print ads that had lead time digital ads were more of the moment and we were able to pivot quickly. None of our staff got layed off and we set up things so people could fill orders and ship them and be Socially Distanced. We again made a quantum leap into a larger and much more diverse market that we have kept up. We came out of COVID with our full staff and strong sales.
We and Mayo are both still adjusting to the post COVID world. For them that has meant shorter patient stays and for us that has been both good and bad. We see more customers in our store, but they have much less free time. Now we are again looking at a major reshaking of our local world. Mayo has just launched a $5.8 Billion new expansion program that will totally change all of the Clinic Campus as we knew it and also increase the size of the Campus. The end result of this by 2030 will be an increase from 1.25M patients in 2024 to 4.5M in 2030.
Needless to say we are gearing up to put more emphasis on our Web growth over that time as well as make sure that our Store is ready for that type of increase in growth. As you can see we are ever evolving and never see a negative, but always find a way to turn it into a positive.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
We have always been very independent and had an appreciation for hard work and proper planning. For me one of my biggest idols as I was growing up was my Grandfather. He owned his own butcher shop until he passed away. He taught me to be honest and to treat everyone the way I wanted to be treated. He only had an 8th grade education and both his parents died shortly after he finished school. He and his brothers each took the money they got from selling their farm and went into business for themselves. My Grandfather worked and through good planning and working with his customers became the largest Butcher Shop in my county. He got each of his kids to go to school and my uncle even got his engineering degree. He wanted them to realize the value of a dollar so he had them work for him doing odd jobs until they moved off on their own..
Over the depression he would barter with customers and even set up his own credit business to help carry the town. That ability to do something out of the box to come up with a solution. helped him stay in business and grow.
One of his ideas was to work with the Church that he belonged to and on Friday Night they would have people bring in what they had made and trade that with the other people so everyone helped one another. He would donate several nice cuts of beef and they would raffle them off. The Church got half of whatever they raised and Grandpa got the rest. He could not sell a lot of more expensive cuts and this way it earned some money.
He also noticed that there were getting to be a large number of Jewish families moving to town and they went into St Louis to get their groceries and meats. He looked up the Rabi and got him to work with both him and the local grocer so they would not have to go into St Louis. Instant success and he and the Rabi became life long friends at a time when Catholics and Jews weren’t as friendly.
My Grandfather cared more for the character of a man than he did if they were black or white, rich or poor , etc. He taught me to respect everyone. He also showed me that many things can be solved by simple logic and creative problem solving. Look and listen to your customers and they will be your best guides.
What’s next?
Ever since we moved to Rochester and quickly realized that we weren’t moving Louise and I have been highly involved with Downtown Rochester and its development. We actually formed the first cooperative marketing and political voice for Downtown Rochester. We still after 50yrs have the same group active in Downtown Rochester. Where it was totally volunteer when we started it now it is professionally run but with a strong board of downtown business members.
That has always been a fun and rewarding side hustle for us. It is our way of giving back to downtown and helping it grow. With this new “Bold Forward Plan” from Mayo starting this Spring and going into 2030 and the entire scope of the work we are looking at developing ideas to make it easier for Clinic Guests to get around even with a large segment of the downtown torn up. We learned from the last redevelopment of downtown and the Gonda Addition that we need to do something to keep things open and somewhat normal.
To accomplish that we are working to instead of traditional construciion fencing to create some more interactive instalations for Way Finding and enticing graphics of what is happening behind the wall. We are also developing a new Way Finding System that can change as construction opens and closes areas. It will be digital and will be updated as work evolves. Since we have subterranian walkways, sidewalks and skyways we need to have the first of its kind 3D Mapping program for public space.
We will also bump up the activities downtown that we offer and make it to where you want to come down to see what is happening next and to be in the KNOW.
In addition to giving our Website more growth potential during this construction phase I an working hard to minimize the the mess and create a place that people want to come to if only to see what is happening next.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.TheNordicShop.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nordicshoprochester/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nordicshoprochester
- Twitter: https://x.com/TheNordicShop
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/thenordicshop/
