Selling In The East
Founder's Blog – 2 October 2025
Dark Horse Mercantile store in Saratoga Springs, New York.
This weekend I made a trip up to Vermont to see a friend and the farm he was working at. Apart from spending time with the "farmily," I used the drive up and my time there to try selling cards in New York and Vermont. This was the first sales trip on the East Coast, and for documentation's sake I feel the need to describe how the cards were received, and how sales might be going forward.
The recap: I had one day's drive plus one Saturday to sell, and I talked with 18 shops, with sales in our first 3 East Coast stores!
I expected less enthusiasm toward the cards due to the Western focus, but was surprised at how little difference it made. Part of it was me intentionally stressing the location less, but people were just as excited to simply hear "preservation" than where the specific focus was. Only one person mentioned that the cards might not do as well outside the Rockies, but she wasn't the decision maker, and the owner ended up declining the cards simply because he only orders from Liberty Mountain (I should contact them again...)
I was lucky to have a friend who lived in Saratoga Springs, New York, a touristy town on the drive up. Off her recommendation, I visited Dark Horse Mercantile, and after a chat with the owner they became the first store on the East Coast to carry our cards!
West Addison General Store in Vermont, now sells our
Other places I visited were Glens Falls, New York; Burlington, Vermont;and Stowe, Vermont. Truly I had impeccable timing as I rolled into these stores at the busiest time of the year, with maximum leaf peepers milling about. Not ideal, and I mostly collected business cards, but still, the reaction was very similar to those resort towns out West.
As a result, it was very sad to leave. Just like in Wyoming, I think I could have spent a whole summer there selling cards and experienced just as much success. This is fantastic news, since it has effectively doubled the reach of WLP (or at least confirmed that we have double the reach).
Does this mean I will spend weekends traveling to the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains to sell? Probably not. Selling in stores is our foundation, but with such reception, I feel that we're only so efficient visiting shops one by one, and the way forward is to expand our reach to many stores at once. I'll be adding our products to Faire, and contacting distributors like Liberty Mountain, like I said, but due to schoolwork and travel time, I doubt that sales trips will be a staple of my time out East.
Now you know all about the company's endeavors so far of this year at Cornell. Do keep in touch as more updates come out, and our Biannual Report as well in a couple months!
– Steven Whitney
Stowe Mountain Resort pictured here is actually owned by Vail Resorts, so couldn't sell there.
| Summer Summary 3 September 2025 | Annual Christmas Dinner 10 December 2025 |