The Quimper Mercantile Company celebrated its fourth anniversary last month, driven financially by optimistic profit numbers and the notion that the store has carved out an important niche in the downtown Port Townsend business landscape.

“We now have a better understanding of what people want,” said Holly Mayshark, assistant manager of the downtown Port Townsend business. “We are maxing out the space and are trying to be creative in building inventory. We are always getting new stuff. We have the basic things people need along with some interesting twists.”

The continuing challenge, according to Sheldon Spencer, manager, is to offer items that cater both to locals and tourists.

“We want to carry basic things so people won’t have to drive out of town to get them, while the tourists are looking for things that are snazzy, unique and ‘boutique-y,’” he said.

Spencer said the store’s busiest month is December, followed by July and August. The store tracks its customers, finding that about 70 percent of off-

season shoppers are local. This reverses in the summer, when the number of local customers drops to about 20 percent.

NET PROFIT

The community-owned general store showed a net profit of $2,171 in 2014, according to the annual report presented to stockholders, up from an $87,817 loss in 2013.

The profits for 2015, the most recent year available, were $119,188.

Spencer said the store expects to pay dividends in the future; at present, it intends to plow any profits into store improvements. This goes down well with the stockholders, as most of them purchased shares to support the venture rather than making money.

Stocks are not actively traded. The store acts as a broker between buyers and sellers, who, once matched, can negotiate their own terms.

The store opened in October 2012 at 1121 Water St. after Swain’s Outdoor, which operated in Port Townsend since 1996, closed in early 2011.

It took about 18 months to establish a board, begin stock sales and determine inventory.

Initial sales were slower than expected. The store sought to raise at least $900,000 but fell short, pulling in $750,000 during the first offering.

This changed its mission, according to Spencer.

“At first we didn’t have enough inventory,” he said. “There were some negative reactions, with the customers saying that we didn’t have a whole lot of stuff and the price points were higher than expected.”

A subsequent turning point was reached with the store’s 2013 affiliation with Worldwide Distributors in Kent, an aggregate buyer that allows the stores to share orders, inventory and credit with a network of 250 stores around the country.

“We don’t have to deal with dozens of individual companies,” he said. “We have established credit with the buying group, so we have the ability to buy into a onetime deal.”

COMPETITION

When the store opened, it promised to sell items then unavailable in Port Townsend, such as socks and underwear. It also had to walk a thin line in order to not compete with existing local businesses.

“We can’t be a general store and not sell things that are available in other places around town,” Spencer said. “We carry a lot of these items, but make an effort to not carry the same brands.”

An example, he said, is the popular Smartwool socks, which are sold exclusively by Sport Townsend. If someone requests the brand, the store sends them to Sport Townsend, located across the street. It also refers shoppers to many downtown stores. Spencer said it goes both ways, as other local merchants make referrals to Quimper Mercantile.

“We are able to draw people downtown and create a shopping environment, which benefits everybody,” he said.

NO COFFEE SHOP

At its opening, the store sought to rent out a 1,200-square-foot portion with waterside windows to a restaurant or independent business, but decided to use that space itself for kitchen supply products.

“That idea went away,” Spencer said of the coffee shop proposal. “It would have created a separate list of problems, like who’s got the key, who’s responsible for cleaning the bathrooms and who’s spilling coffee. It has a fantastic view that looks out over Better Living Through Coffee. We decided that the town did not need another coffee shop.”

There is a portion of the Port Townsend Plaza next to the mercantile that had been part of Swains and remains unoccupied. It could be leased to Quimper Mercantile in the future, Spencer said, but not anytime soon.

Quimper Mercantile employs 14 people, split between full- and part-time positions, with salaries beginning at $10 per hour. Profit sharing, in which part-timers can participate, brings the hourly rate to about $13, Spencer said.

Spencer said the mercantile customers, and Port Townsend residents in general, have a “higher moral character” than in other regions.

“We’ve only had three or four returned checks in four years, and they all made good on it except one: the guy who was stealing checks out of people’s mailboxes a few years ago,” he said.

“Do we have shoplifting here? Yes. How does it compare to California? It’s like night and day.”