Family Matters celebrates 20 years

"We are so excited to announce our 20 year anniversary! Especially with the past six months that we have had, we couldn't wait to celebrate something positive!" said Avery Sorensen. Sorensen has been the manager for the store the past eight years, with each year presenting a new challenge. One consistent thing was that she could see the direction of online shopping headed in an upward trend and knew she had to jump in with both feet and hire an Assistant Manager to help manage the social media side of things! In 2019 Avery promoted Tessa Handley to Assistant Manager. Together, they have been able to create a website and maintain an online presence on Facebook and Instagram. They have also started traveling with "pop-up shops", a new unique trend in the fashion world. They have gone to both Glasgow and Havre with "pop-up shops" per customer's requests. These have proven to be a big hit with amazing turnouts. Customers in surrounding communities express that they have no "better" shopping options other than Family Matters.

Sorensen said "It has been a wild ride and it comes down to our amazing customers" and expressed great gratitude to the community and the Board of Directors. She is looking forward to seeing what the future holds for Family Matters. "Online orders are increasing weekly, and since re-opening after COVID-19 we have had some really amazing days!". Sorensen expressed the stressful situation the business was put in during the mandated shutdown. "I knew we were so fully stocked for the season we couldn't just sit around and watch this thing pass by. I knew every day we were closed would compile into more stressful days once we were allowed to re-open." She decided to try and think outside of the box and do weekly online sales for people to tune into from home. These Facebook Live shows had allowed them to move the product while staying within the guidelines to keep everyone safe. "It was a fun new thing that we were trying, and it just so happened that it worked! I was super nervous we wouldn't have any viewers the first show, but we ended up with around 150 people tuned in during the show, and then the video was viewed by 1.5K people within a few days, according to Facebook Statistics.

Sorensen stated she will be running a Storewide 20% OFF sale on June 18th, 19th, and 20th and will be serving sugar cookies and lemonade to celebrate the store's success!