RETAILERSPOTLIGHT BY DAN BROWNELL
“We celebrated 40 years in business on April 1, 2022, and not only are we still standing, we’re thriving!”
Three Generations of Sisters Build a Legacy Store
W
hen sisters Karen Ganz and Darlene Feser Owner K opened Sentimental ris Hast Journey in Washington, Illinois, in and Kris’s daug en (center) holding Sentimen hters, Lau tal Journ ren (left) April 1982, they had no idea that ey ’s 202 and Kate 2 Outsta lyn (right) nding Bu . their store would become such an siness Aw ard important landmark in the town and still be booming nearly 40 Washington Square, did some renoone set of sisters to the next generayears later. It all began when the vations, and named the new shop tion of sisters. two women wanted to open a retail in honor of their deceased parents, “I attended the first gift show store to help revitalize their dying whose favorite song was “Sentimenwith my mom and aunt in Chicago downtown square and decided on a tal Journey.” and began working for them when specialty boutique. They purchased Karen and Darlene were novices I graduated from college in May the old Cilco Electric building on in the retail business, though, as 1982 right after we opened,” Kris both had been nurses. Realizing said. “I fell in love with it from the their inexperience, they thought it beginning. I just couldn’t give it up. would be appropriate to open April I loved retail. I loved the people, I 1. “It was kind of an inside joke,” loved going to markets, and I loved said current owner Kris Hasten. the challenge of finding new prod“My mother and aunt were still ucts. My sister and I reinvented the stocking the store with the windows covered up when my mom thought that, since they really had no idea what they were doing, it would be fitting to open on April Fool’s Day. So they tore down the window paper and opened the door.”
Creating a Family Legacy
By 1995, both Karen and Darlene, had retired and moved to California. Karen’s daughter, Kris Hasten, who had worked at the store since its opening in 1982, talked her sister, Shelly Hines, a teacher and a stay-at-home mom at the time, into buying the store from their mom and aunt. So, in September 1995, Sentimental Journey passed from 56 Smart Retailer MAY/JUNE 2022
