People sometimes ask what a "typical day" looks like for us. The honest answer is that there isn't one. This is because Pure Muskoka isn't one shop, it's three, and they're about as different from each other as three shops can be while still sharing a name.
Bala: small, seasonal, and in the heart of the action
Our first shop is still our smallest. It sits right on Bala Falls Rd, on Bala Bay, tucked in next to Jack & Stella's and just down from the Kee to Bala. This means that on a good night, we're closing up to the sound of a concert crowd and a packed patio at the Bala Falls Pub, who we share our building with. We've been friends with the pub team since day one, and not only have we shared staff, we’ve also shared great times and made awesome memories over the years.
Bala is seasonal, open 7 days a week straight through dinner (later on concert nights), and small enough that usually just one person is holding down the fort. We can't fit our whole catalogue in there, so it's a tight edit of our favourites. What Bala lacks in square footage it makes up for in personality. It's the kind of shop where staff keep a swimsuit under the counter, because when you have a quiet 15 minutes, and the lake is right there, you jump in.
It's easy to forget that Bala is home to only around 600 year-round residents…until summer hits, and that number swells many times over with cottagers and day-trippers. The shop's rhythm follows the town: weekends are the busiest by far.
Bracebridge: the engine room
Our Bracebridge location, on Manitoba St, is the opposite in almost every way. It's open all year, it's our biggest space, and it's where all our inventory actually lives. If you've ever ordered from us online, this is where your package was sent from.
Bracebridge is a bigger, busier town, and interestingly, our week runs backwards there compared to Bala: weekdays are our busy stretch, as people come into town to run errands or break up a stretch at the cottage, and weekends actually ease off a little. We usually have two people working…one to help customers on the floor, one keeping up with the online orders going out the door. Around Christmas time is when we are busiest in Bracebridge, and how fitting, considering the town is a picturesque, “Hallmark Movie” town. It’s worth a trip if you haven’t yet paid a visit.
The print shop: where it all actually gets made
Then there's the print shop, set apart from the retail side entirely, on private property on the water in Bala. This is where the actual making happens: screen printing, heat pressing and embroidery on our newest machine.
It's usually just one or two people working there on any given day, and like the Bala shop, when the heat gets to be too much, the lake is right there. A jump off the dock is a completely normal way to spend ten minutes on a hot afternoon. Shore lunches are common. And there's always a third team member on-site keeping morale high: Penny, our shop dog, a chocolate lab with more energy than the rest of us combined.
How it all started
For anyone who doesn't know the backstory, Pure Muskoka started with two brothers, Ben and Andy. Their wives, Kara and me (Cindy), joined not long after, and it's stayed a family business ever since. These days, Ben handles marketing and design, Andy runs the print shop and production, Kara manages inventory and keeps the books straight, and I co-manage the stores and day-to-day operations alongside my longtime friend Shanna. Our team is the absolute best. Every person who has come to work alongside us has become a treasured part of our story and we feel fortunate to have been so lucky!
Three shops, three totally different vibes, one very full summer. If you've visited any of them…swimsuit-clad staff in Bala, the hum of Bracebridge on a Tuesday, or Penny greeting you at the print shop door…now you know why they each feel a little different. But Pure Muskoka through and through.
