Fischer to celebrate eight years in business in January

By Robert Williams

Editor

Natalie Fischer had a full career going for decades before she assumed her present title of owner of Natalie’s Serendipity in downtown Vergas and it was not without some chance and perfect timing that she made that change.

Fischer was a project manager for Marvin Windows in Warroad for 30 years. 

She and her husband Keith owned land in Vergas in the late 1990s and built a home they planned to retire into when the time came.

Marlette Otto-Anderson operated The Quiet Cricket where Fischer’s store is now and it was Natalie’s favorite Vergas store. It just happened to come up for sale right after the Fischers completed building their retirement home.

“My husband was the one that drove by and said, ‘you’ve always wanted a store like that; why don’t we buy it?” said Fischer. “It was meant to be!”

Marvin Windows played a big part in Fischer’s life. She gave birth to her only son when she was 19-years-old and needed a job right away.

“They’re the best company to work for,” she said.

The company had college training in-house specifically for their employees, which allowed Fischer to get a degree in computer programming and later she extended her training into areas of statistics and data analysis.

“They geared a lot of their classes and degree programs to what they wanted,” said Fischer. “Which was wonderful because you learned what they wanted you to learn to advance. It was perfect for me and it worked out really well.”

Fischer grew along with Marvin Windows and the job eventually began to outgrow her as the company moved from a more family-feel to a full-fledged corporation, despite remaining family-owned. The company’s Owners Council, chaired by Christine Marvin, recently voted to keep the company’s headquarters in Warroad. Marvin Windows has approximately 7,500 employees in 11 states and Canada.

“It got more corporate,” said Fischer. “I still stayed tight with the Marvin family, even the fourth generation. I worked with them a lot. I probably would have bawled my eyes out leaving had it been 10-15 years earlier.”

There is still a family connection to Warroad and Marvin Windows as Keith still works there as a quality manager and plans to stay there until he retires.

“He comes home on the weekends,” Natalie laughed. “It works out good.”

Otto-Anderson’s Quiet Cricket was always a big draw for Fischer when in Vergas.

“Coming from Warroad, there was nothing there, so we would go to Grand Forks or Fargo or Bemidji to go shopping,” she said. “Roseau had some little shops. I came here and I was all, ‘this little gem in this little town!’ I love this town! I took everybody here and told them this is my favorite store in the world.”

The Attic Shoppe, run by Vergas native Bonnie Anderson, was another draw.

“She had a different style,” said Fischer. “I would go over there and get fillers.”

Neither of the Fischers had a direct retail employment history so Natalie accepted an offer to be mentored by Otto-Anderson for three months.

“She didn’t want to go to market with me and I didn’t really want her to, so she just told me what I needed to know to go the first time and I went to Minneapolis with my mom,” said Fischer. “Then I went to the Las Vergas world market! You kind of learn as you go—slowly. Starting out the way she told me to was perfect and she had a lot of established lines and I was able to get those same reps.”

Fischer made plenty of her own changes by adding more inventory and expanding the store’s potential demographics by going from totally upscale like the Quiet Cricket to a more balanced inventory when it came to pricing.

“I wanted to create ranges of prices where everybody in Vergas could shop here but I still wanted that upscale feel,” Fischer said. “It’s got a little of the Quiet Cricket feel but it’s different too.”

Inventory is a constant ebb and flow that changes with the seasons and some holidays.

“I always try to figure out how I’m going to change it for the next year and figure out what I can get rid of and what I can add,” Fischer said. “You get used to the trends and realize when the peak is going to be.”

Much like her Main Street neighbor, Sarah Wacker at The Lavish Loon, the winter months allow for adjustable hours at the store and plenty of time to prepare for the coming tourist season.

“It has changed over time,” Fischer said. “You learn a lot. I love being at home too, doing DIY projects and stuff.”

January will mark eight years in business for Fischer. That timeframe has helped create a few must-haves in her store, like the front room.

“I call it my lake room,” said Fischer. “When people come back from winter and they go to their cabin and want to freshen it up, they love lake stuff. I can hardly keep that in stock. I always stock as much lake stuff in that front room as I can and people will say lake stuff isn’t a trend anymore. Yeah, it is.”

Seasonal changes also offer opportunities.

“People want to decorate in the spring and summer,” Fischer said. “I’ve also learned to fill in with gourmet food. In the wintertime, customers want to eat. If you can’t sell anything, you can sell food in the fall and winter.”

Since becoming a full-time Vergas resident, Fischer has embraced being part of what makes the village so interesting and attractive to both residents and visitors. She is a city council member and serves on the personnel, budget, water and sewer committees, along with being part of the community club.

“We work hard together and I think our community club is really strong,” she said.

How she got into city government is much like how she opened her store. There was an opportunity and she took it.

“There was a position open and I always wanted to learn about how a city runs and works,” she said. “I thought I might as well do it and it’s been four years already. I learned a lot and I learned it’s a lot of work and planning. I think we have a really strong council that has made a lot of changes that were needed.”

Fischer has also managed to find the balance between being on the city council and being a business owner. There are plenty of times when those two pursuits can collide.

“Yeah and I think sometimes that is a struggle,” she said. “But there are a lot of times when I fight for business owners too. I try to fight for what I know and what we deal with.”

Her engagement in running the town has also given her a perspective on how critical the many events that Vergas hosts throughout the year are beneficial to keeping businesses on the upswing, not just hers. She chaired the most recent event, Small Town Christmas.

“Our Small Town Christmas, we chose that day because of other events going on, but it went really well,” she said. “People have their traditions. They come in and get their Christmas ornaments and it’s just a fun, family vibe.”

Not having all those events running year-long would be a big detriment to the village and its businesses.

“I think it would impact us a lot,” she said. “People love the events and we get constant compliments that there is always something going on. Not all of them work for my business, like Hairyman, I don’t get much out of that, but it helps the city, so we’re all so supportive of it. We want to help promote it and pay for it because we know overall it’s going to help our businesses and our city.”

Conversely, the summer Looney Days weekend is not the biggest business pull for places like the hardware store.

“But it’s one of my biggest days,” said Fischer.

Closing in on a decade in business, Fischer also survived the end of Goodmans Supermarket to the grand return of Altona Square, along with Summers Design Center, that completely transformed the ends of Main Street.

“Definitely the grocery store,” Fischer said. “I love having that store. Even our summer people would complain because they want to come to Vergas and stay in Vergas, but then they had to go to DL or Perham to get their groceries. Then they would just decide to shop there too. We have to keep them here.”

Customers local and seasonal can keep up with Natalie’s inventory by visiting nataliesserendipityllc.com or facebook.com/nataliesserendipity/