River's Mouth Trading Co. owner Kelly Ellis, left, stands with employee Amber Wade among the myriad of items the shop offers, such as wax melts, crystals, jams, soaps and jewelry.
River's Mouth Trading Co. produces its own popular line of syrups and jams, which are available at the shop on Front Street.
Ellis creates hand soaps such as the wool rope-wrapped lavender and lemon honey sea sponges.
Word of River's Mouth is spreading, just like one of their locally made jams.
It's only been a little over a month since River's Mouth Trading Co. opened in the former GCI storefront on Front Street, but customers have already taken advantage of the permanent space.
The company has existed since 2017 and has found success through selling at the monthly community market, but as the product line increased, the once-a-month market became harder to sustain.
"I started making too many things to pack in and out of there," said owner Kelly Ellis. Adding a full line of 18 different teas to the handmade soaps, lotions, jams, syrups and many other items she creates, "it gets ridiculous, there's a limit."
Ellis' other business, River's Mouth Resale, which opened in April, relocated in May to the Churchill Building, the same building as GCI. When GCI closed its Wrangell store in October, Ellis saw it as an opportunity to open a shop to showcase all the items she sold at the community market, especially since it has a kitchen.
"I can do all my manufacturing here instead of at my house," she said. "That's part of the reason I was able to do the expansion. There's only so much you can do out of your kitchen, especially when you have kids."
Ellis had opened the shop in the summer of 2019 in the space now occupied by Prism Optical but closed it not long after. "I looked like a genius because I shut it down right before COVID, but it was because I had a baby. She's old enough that I can do this again."
Having that space taught Ellis some valuable lessons when it comes to running a business in Wrangell, she said. One being that she couldn't rely on tourism season to sustain the business, and another being there isn't enough local foot traffic. That led to her opening an online store in 2019, riversmouth.com. That has helped her increase her inventory and bolster sales.
Since opening the physical location in November, Ellis has seen a lot of support.
"December is exceptional, so I don't really know (what foot traffic is going to be like)," she said. "This is a better location than my last one, and I'm right next to (The Compass Line Gift Shop), which helps a lot. We have reciprocal displays. ... Having two destinations in this section of town helps both of us."
River's Mouth Trading carries at least 500 items, Ellis estimated, from her well-known jams, syrups, candles and wax melts to the 16 different bath bombs, possibly the most popular items, she said. Inspiration for the bombs has been with Ellis since her teenage years.
"There was a guy in the Dimond (Center) mall up in Anchorage and he just did homemade bath bombs. It smelled amazing," she said. "I went there in high school, and it made such an impression that I was like, 'One of these days.' He was there a long time, and he did a great job."
The shop also carries a limited selection of consignment items such as crystals and other minerals by Gemma Stones, locally made jewelry and hand-crafted coffee mugs made by her mother, Christi Slaven. Ellis' favorite mug is the angry octopus. "This is how we all feel before we have coffee," she laughed. Slaven, an author, also has her various books for sale in the shop. "I carry her books and her pottery. I keep trying to get her to send me more."
One of the shop's more unique items are hand soaps, one of which is wrapped in wool felt and the other is a sea sponge with honey lemon soap.
"You take a bar of homemade organic soap and you do felt-wool roping around it, so it has like a built-in washcloth," Ellis said. "Then it shrinks down as you use the soap because wool does that. ... It lasts like a year. They're great for handwashing."
Employee Amber Wade is continually rearranging items in the shop to help customers discover something they might not have seen the last time they visited, so stickers, yarn gnome ornaments and tea infusers can get as much exposure as body butters or tumblers. It's a place she likes working at, not just because of the environment but because of Ellis.
"I accidentally overslept today after taking my friend's dogs out," Wade said. "I texted and I was like, 'I'm sorry, I'm running late.' And Kelly was like, 'It's OK, it's all good,' with a very non-sarcastic smiley face. That doesn't happen often with bosses."
River's Mouth Trading is at 321 Front St. and is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. They can be reached at 907-874-4095 or riversmouth.com.
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