Teysen's Gift Shop celebrates its centennial

Owners plan to wrap up the Mackinaw Crossing store’s 100th year of business and retire at the end of the season.

A long-time Mackinaw City, Michigan, gift shop is celebrating a major milestone. Teysen’s Gift Shop has been a staple at the entrance of Mackinaw Crossings for many years, and the family-run business recently celebrated its centennial in July.

Mackinaw Crossings is a hot shopping destination for tourists visiting Mackinaw City, a popular Michigan vacation destination known for its rich history and natural beauty, with Lake Michigan and Lake Huron connecting just beyond the city’s shoreline. People walk through the quaint shopping district, browsing dozens of specialty shops for fun.

Greg Teysen, owner of Teysen’s Gift Shop, says the longtime gift shop is known for its homemade fudge and unique, quality gifts for people visiting Mackinaw City.

“We try to deal with and offer products unique to this area — things where people say, ‘This is really cool,’” says Teysen. “We do have some products that you could get anywhere within the radius of your home, but by and large, we try to be unique.”

To celebrate its centennial, Teysen says some local elected officials and community members gathered for a small celebration in mid-July.

“We had a formal cake cutting, a small speech,” he shares. “The city manager came down and read a proclamation for a little fanfare. Beyond that, some local newspapers covered the milestone, but that’s pretty much been it.”

While the milestone is big, Teysen says he wants to keep the fanfare simple. He notes that the work of his grandfather, Harry, and father, Ken, are what have really helped Teysen’s Gift Shop to become what it is today.

A historic store

The 5,000-square-foot store carries everything from home decor and jewelry to apparel, novelty souvenirs and some local photography and artwork. Teysen says Minnetonka moccasins are also big for the store.

Teysen relates that his grandfather started Teysen’s in 1926 as a restaurant-gift shop combination for the town. In the early days, Teysen says the gift shop carried a lot of Native American-themed gifts — baskets, leatherworks and other crafts. After World War II, Teysen’s father Ken stepped in to run the business and expand the gift and souvenir selection closer to what it has today.

Teysen says he and his wife, Vicki, took over the business in 1993 and quickly made a few changes to the family business. They decided to shut down the restaurant side of the business to focus solely on gifts and souvenirs.

“The restaurant business was a very time-consuming enterprise, and at the time, my wife and I were raising two young boys,” Teysen explains.

Owners Greg and Vicki Teysen plan to retire from Teysen's this fall.

Teysen's Gift Shop

He notes that they also decided to move the gift shop into Mackinaw Crossings, which was a growing hub for shopping in town. The move has proven to be a positive one for the business, which is recognizable at the entrance to the Mackinaw Crossings destination.

Over the years running the family business, Teysen says he’s kept a close pulse on what tourists want from his store. Just as Ty’s Beanie Babies were growing in popularity, Teysen says he added them to his store to meet the growing demand.

“That product was like our Babe Ruth product!” he recalls. “That sent our kids through college. We never had a product as desired and well-spoken of as the Beanie Baby. We still scratch our heads about that one.”

In more recent years, Teysen says he leans on insights from his teenage grandkids for what might be a hot seller in the store. He notes that he tries to keep an open mind to new, emerging products.

“We have four grandkids, and we’ve taken some of them to gift shows before,” he shares. “We have really valued their input since I don’t know what a 14-year-old kid likes! We’ve been very successful with the products they recommend.”

Three guiding principles

First and foremost, sales rep relationships have been critical to ensuring the success of Teysen’s Gift Shop. Teysen says the store currently has at least 100 sales reps it works with to find new products. He notes that he has always leaned heavily on their insights to help grow the store.

“These sales reps are the ones that suggest some new up-and-coming gifts,” he says. “If we win, they win. So sales reps have really been instrumental in enabling us to have products that appeal to customers.”

Second, he says his staff members have been critical to growing the store’s legacy. Teysen describes all of his staff, whether part-time or full-time, as family.

“We hire high school kids, college kids, retirees,” he says. “Many of our staff return year after year, and they really become family. We try to reward them as best as we can.”

The regularly recurring staff members are often recognizable to tourists who frequent Mackinaw City every year on vacation. Teysen adds that he also sees some former staff members visit just to share memories.

“We have some Teysen’s alumni come back to share their memories and the good times they had working with us. That’s always meant a lot to us.”

Teysen says serving repeat customers is his third guiding principle. Instead of focusing on quick and easy sales, he notes that he has always focused more on serving customers well and ensuring they will come back in the future.

“For some businesses, they are focused on one-and-done transactions and don’t care too much if you come back,” he describes. “We never wanted to take that attitude. You could even call this the golden rule principle. We want people to come back. Over all these years, we’ve had up to the fifth generation of family members returning. Every spring, we open up and see a repeat customer come in with a smile on their face and ask, ‘What’s new this year?’”

Treating customers well ties perfectly into the store’s long-standing mission statement: To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on other people who we come in contact with. Teysen says seeing these regular customers and hearing their stories year after year has consistently encouraged him.

With Teysen’s closing out its 100th season in business this fall, the Teysen’s name will also be retiring. Teysen says he and Vicki plan to retire at the end of the year and hope to sell the store.

“We never wanted to put pressure on our two boys to take on the business, and there were no family members who expressed interest in taking over,” he explains.

While Teysen envisions that the store will live on with new buyers someday, he notes that the store will take on a new name if new owners come in.

“The Teysen’s name is soon to be in the history books. It’s our plan to run the business until the end of the season in late fall,” he explains, adding that details on a future buyer are still unknown.

He adds that the store can keep success going if it keeps leaning on those guiding principles that helped him.

“If you have experience and have the help I mentioned from those guiding principles, you can probably get through anything,” Teysen says.