Around the Corner – Stone Woman Herbals – Pilot Independent
Stone Woman Herbals opened over 25 years ago in Longville. Years later Dan and Kris Kayser bought the store and owned it for over 20 years, eventually selling to a team consisting of a mother and her three daughters.
Mother Julie Rono and daughters Halli Knutson, Kayla Digiovanni and Samantha Rono purchased the store from the Kaysers in 2017. At the time, Stone Woman was located in Pine River where it remained for a year under new ownership until a space opened up in Walker, a town where the newly formed Stone Woman team believed the store would prosper.
Natural living has been an interest of the team at Stone Woman for years. With all of their collective knowledge they have experience in areas that would overlap at a retail store such as office administration, sales and finance.
Stone Woman Herbals is a natural health and wellness retail store selling herbal supplements, Cannabidiol (CBD), teas, essential oils, incense and several other natural products to help people heal and to help foster their wellness. They strive to carry only products that are all-natural with clean ingredients, provide third party testing for all their hemp-based products, and look at the quality and ingredients of every product.
They also consider where the products come from. They have a few local vendors that offer locally sourced, authentically-made products from companies who only sell to small businesses.
Stone Woman Herbals plans to add and grow products and services. They recently brought in a new line of hemp products (a huge, and growing market) to start off the new year. If all goes well they plan to add their own personal branded tea blends. Another addition is personally hand-crafted aromatherapy essential greeting cards.
The Stone Woman family has always cared for the needs of others, which is reflected in the story of how they came to own the store.
One day Julie Rono ran into Kris Kayser and mentioned that she’d heard Stone Woman was for sale. Kris stopped in her tracks, looked at Julie, and said “Yes it is, and you need to buy it!”
Julie talked to her daughters and they all decided that it was something they were interested in. Not only would it open up an opportunity to expand their knowledge of natural health and wellness, it would make it possible for them to help others with their health and wellness.
Since moving the store from Pine River to Walker they have seen exponential growth in sales of up to 22 percent annually. They have added new products in recent months and updated sales and tracking systems to offer the best and most popular products for their customers. They have created a new website (stonewomanherbals.com) to connect to their customers while opening social media accounts on facebook and instagram to keep store customers updated on new products, hours and more.
Stone Woman Herbals now offers Reiki, an intuitive healing class as well as Now brand supplements and essential oils, Yogi Teas, Viva Brand CBD, Miracle Balance CBD and a new line of hemp based products from a company named Aieryl.
As a result of COVID-19, keeping products stocked has been a challenge as some items are temporarily unavailable to order and shipping has slowed. Stone Woman Herbals is closed until Jan. 4 and had to cancel all classes in order to social distance, as business slowed due to the pandemic. However they have implemented contactless curbside pick-up, and delivery to local customers while still offering shipping.
For information about possible upcoming class schedules and new products, contact Stone Woman Herbals at (218) 547-8224. The store is located at 517 Minnesota Ave., Walker, between Main Stream and Christmas Point. They can also be reached at stonewomanherbals@gmail.com, www.stonewomanherbals.com. Or search for Stone Woman Herbals on facebook or instagram.
