Here’s what’s in store after a busy 2024
Our makers market will resume Feb. 16
inside the Hershey History Center.
It’s a line attributed many decades ago to the actor and comedian W.C. Fields, who was born near Philadelphia:
“Never work with animals or children,” he advised.
Yet as we look ahead to the new year, animals and children are part of our plans.
It has been a fun if fleeting 2024, highlighted by the opening of our store in June and the launching of our monthly makers market, Makers at the Museum, in July.
Susquehanna Style magazine put a bow on the year by featuring us in its December issue.
But time waits for no one and we’re eager to keep building a better Stay in 2025. Here’s an outline of what we are planning:
New schedule
Starting Feb. 5, we’ll be open five days a week, adding Wednesday. We’ll operate from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
This will make us even more accessible to shoppers and better align us with the history center museum, which is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
More markets
We created a monthly event — our makers market, Makers at the Museum — in part to draw more people to our store and the Hershey History Center.
With a full year to work with, we’ll increase to 10 makers markets in 2025, all but two of them on the third Sunday of the month. (Because of Easter and Father’s Day, the April and June markets will be on the fourth Sunday.)
We’ll start on Feb. 16 and conclude on Nov. 16. We hope to draw more shoppers and makers alike. Makers can apply to participate here.
New products
We introduced new tee designs in 2024: Pennsylvania Packs a Punch, Keystone State, Hershey Chocolate and Cocoa, Home Sweet Hershey, Joe, The Motorists’ Friend.
We brought back The Chocolate Town and tweaked the Avenues of Hershey and Herpak Franks.
We expect to have new designs in 2025, too, including ones that pay homage to the state dog, the Great Dane, and the state reptile, the Eastern Hellbender.
Children’s tees
A friend with young children often asks when we’re going to have toddler sizes. We’ve only dabbled with a couple of children’s designs since we started in 2017, in part because we could bring only so many products to pop-up events.
But now that we have a permanent home, and more space, it seems like a good time to give children’s sizes a serious look. These could incorporate existing or new designs or both.
More local goods
Among the curated products in our store, you’ll find some from Chocolate Avenue Candle, which started in Hershey, and Story Supply of York. We recently collaborated on wooden magnets with Quittie Hollow of Lebanon County.
We’d like to tap the talents of more of our maker friends and feature their products, too. These could include everything from photography and art to pottery and leather goods.
No doubt, other opportunities will present themselves through the course of another year. The one thing that will remain constant is our commitment to Made in the USA.
As the sign on our checkout reads, “If it isn’t Made in the USA, then we won’t sell it.”