Tracy’s Treasures warmly welcomed to community

WASILLA — Tracy Lorentz opened the doors to her first brick and mortar business, Tracy’s Treasures to the public Friday, Dec. 11.

Lorentz said that she’s encouraged by the well attended grand opening and steady stream of customers visiting her new rustic home decor shop since then.

“So many people supported small business this weekend. It was awesome,” Lorentz said.

According to Lorentz, word spread to the point that people from Anchorage came to check out the store during the grand opening. She said that someone from Talkeetna saw a post on Facebook and made the trip to Wasilla.

“We’ve had tons of support. Oh my gosh. You would never know COVID was here. It was packed,” Lorentz said.

Lorentz noted that having the influx of visitors likely helped their neighboring restaurants and other businesses since Anchorage has stricter COVID-19 mandates.

“People have no problem spending their money right now… Thank goodness for the Valley being open,” Lorentz said.

Lorentz said that she signed the lease for the space in November, then she drove to the Lower 48 with her husband, acquiring various goods from wholesalers across the country. They brought everything back, driving through Canada on the Alcan Highway back home to the Mat-Su Valley.

“We did this in 2 weeks… We threw it together as fast as we could,” Lotentz said.

Lorentz’s best friend Karen Fitch has been helping out with the store since the inception. The two women raised their kids in the Valley together.

“This is our home, our community,” Fitch said.

Lorentz and Fitch worked local craft fairs together so they bounce ideas off each other all the time. Fitch even has her own section of the store called Karen’s Corner.

“Our kids are gone and grown and we did craft fairs; and it was literally like, ‘alright, let’s do this.’ So we did,” Lorentz said.

Lorentz said that she has a background in construction and ultimately found herself on the craft fair scene two years ago. She said that she started small out of her garage. She went to every craft fair she could, eventually working with a co-op before saving enough money to open her store.

“I literally saved every penny,” Lorentz said.

Lorentz said this is her first time running a small business and she sees a bright future for the store.

“It’s more than we could have ever imagined... I get to do something that’s for me this time… It’s like the best thing since my kids,” Lorentz said with a laugh.

Lorentz has big aspirations for the future. She said that she wants to keep expanding when she can, always changing the store layout and thinking of ways to offer something different. She’s planning to unroll community craft classes in January.

“I just think it’s fun and it’s different. I just want to be different than all the other stores around… I want to stick out,” Lorentz said. “We’re gonna do the classes in the winter so women can just get out at night… Literally women helping women.”

Fitch said that she’s excited that Lorentz will be hosting local artisans and crafters to help them teach classes out of the store, offering a spectrum of subjects ranging from ceramics to candle making.

“We have so many talented people in the Valley who are willing to teach these classes,” Fitch said.

Tracy’s Treasures is located within the Hunter Plaza, near Sakura Sushi and Lowe’s. For more information, call 907-715-4181 or visit their Facebook page.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Jacob Mann at jacob.mann@frontiersman.com