All Chalked Up
Text by Sara Wright Covington Photos by Olivia Reed
When Decatur retail business owners Lindsey Faulkner and Ashley Ashwander found themselves at the mercy of the pandemic in the spring of 2020, it took some ingenuity and inspiration to make the best of a bad situation. Sharing retail space since 2019, Faulkner, who owns Old River Antiques, and Ashwander who owns The Paper Chase, suddenly found themselves at a loss for how to continue their usually thriving businesses.
Ashwander, who also ran event venue The Albany in addition to The Paper Chase,
recalls what those early days of pandemic shutdown looked like for small business owners. “It was supposed to be just two weeks to flatten the curve,” reflects Ashwander. “I had this retail space for my store and another space for events, and then all of my events practically canceled overnight and everything just shut down. I was suddenly left wondering ‘what am I going to do with this space?’”
Faulkner was feeling the same pandemic pains as she also began to acknowledge that adjustments would need to be made in order for their businesses to make it. “We began to realize that this wasn’t just going to be a two-week shutdown,” says Faulkner. “The two of us began to brainstorm about what we could reasonably market to survive.”
With their wheels turning trying to figure out how to continue to conduct business, they busied themselves taking pickup orders and running them out to clients’ cars, wrapping Easter baskets, and trying to determine possible shopping needs they could fulfill. “Over Easter weekend exactly two years ago, I went to Lindsey and we planned a brainstorming meeting to come up with a product we could create,” says Ashwander.
Faulkner and Ashwander began to do research on where they could use their retail talent to fill in gaps and survive as business owners when the entire world seemed to be closed. And something as simple as sidewalk chalk stood out to them both. “Kids were out of school,” says Faulkner, “and sidewalk chalk was on both of our brainstorming lists. It was in high demand and out of stock everywhere.”
The ladies turned to the kitchen, researching recipes and ingredients, experimenting and ultimately perfecting their own perfect formula--calling their product Hopscotch.
“We asked a lot of questions from our retail contacts and really asked our reps to take a look at it,” says Ashwander. “We knew we couldn’t short cut this. We took product pictures, put together a catalog and began selling some in stores.”
When Hopscotch was featured in The Decatur Daily and the article was picked up by the Associated Press, what began as a pandemic project became an overnight sensation. “Overnight it went from AL.com to The Miami Herald,” says Faulkner. “We would always know when the story about our chalk reran in another paper, because the orders would skyrocket almost immediately.”
Hopscotch now employs 17 people in their Decatur facility and continues to grow. Their whimsical designs include a variety of shapes and colors ranging from farm animals to flowers and rockets to rainbows, and their list of retailers now includes hundreds of small businesses all across the United States. They were most recently featured in Southern Living’s 2021 Holiday Gift Guide, and their loyal product following continues to grow.
“This was really a Hail Mary for both of us,” says Ashwander. “But it’s a great price point, it’s fun to give and receive, and then you use it and it goes away. It’s the perfect fun and creative gift.”
Visit hopscotchchalk.com to learn more about it and see a list of local retailers.