Lundrigans Clothing closed their Dorset store on August 15th. While many businesses have had to close due to loss of revenue during COVID-19, the closing of the Lundrigans locations is actually unrelated to the pandemic. The four Lundrigans Clothing locations are owned and operated by Nancy Freeman who also owns The Walker General Store and is part owner of the bookstore in Dorset.
“We have actually exceeded our sales records for The Walker General Store and the Walker and Nisswa locations of Lundrigans Clothing this past summer,” Freeman comments. She believes it is due to the increase of tourists in the area over the summer, as well as her regular summer customers sticking around and continuing to shop into the fall.
Freeman said: “After the stay at home order was lifted, our customers were just happy to get out and about and feel some normalcy in their lives. Fortunately, people started shopping right away when the doors opened and have continued to visit!” Lundrigans Clothing locations and Walker General Store were closed from March 16th through May 22nd. They hosted two live Facebook shopping shows during that time from the Walker location, but like many other businesses, it just wasn’t enough to make up for the time they were closed.
So why the closing of the Dorset store? “We have a tight-knit small group of management staff that oversees 6 stores. We chose this particular location for two different reasons. The Dorset location is a very small store only open for 3 months and is difficult when it doesn’t follow the same footprint as the other Lundrigan stores. In addition to that, many of our staff members have family and grandchildren they would like to spend more time with during the summer. With managing 6 stores during the busy months of summer, it was cutting into much-deserved family time,” Freeman explained.
The Crosslake location will close next month on October 20th, but will reopen in the spring as our dedicated outlet, The staff that manages and works at the Crosslake store, as well as the inventory, will move to the Nisswa location.
Lundrigans Clothing has been in business in the same location in Walker for 83 years and Freeman is the 3rd owner, having owned it since 1999. In addition to Nisswa, Crosslake and
Dorset, there was a Bemidji location in the 1980s. “In 80 years, Lundrigans has seen its communities go through war, depression, fire, and flu epidemics,” Freeman recalls. “We can survive COVID-19.”
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