Update, Oct. 11, 2012: The rock shop closed Oct. 5 after being open less than a month. Owner Marcia Brown told the North Adams Transcript that a lack of paying customers led her to shut the doors before getting into financial trouble.
Marcia Brown is opening Berkshire Geological Treasures in the Oasis Plaza. The shop features stones, crystals, fossils and related merchandise. Saturday's grand opening features free raffles.
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — For years, Marcia Brown and her husband, Mark, have been bringing interesting bits of the planet back from their vacations.
Now they've turned their hobby into a business — Berkshire Geological Treasures. The shop in the Oasis Plaza on American Legion Drive opens Saturday at 10 a.m. with a ribbon cutting and free raffles.
"There's nothing like this in the area," said Brown on Friday. "It's something my husband and I have thought about for a couple years."
The shop offers treasures such as geodes, fossils and agates, children's items like a dinosaur "dig" kit, and Lucite merchandise from jewelry to staplers with real bugs trapped inside.
Overseeing the little shop is door-greeter Matthew, a mannikin clad in treasure-digging gear. (Her husband's idea, said Brown.)
"We haven't had gone out digging, but every time we're on the beach or walking in the woods we're picking up rocks or looking for crystal," said Brown. That includes trips they make to California a couple times a year. It's become such a tradition that their children and grandchildren are always eager to see what they've brought back.
The shop itself was put together in about two weeks, after Brown learned that T&T Tailors had left the plaza. The store was approved by the Redevelopment Authority on Monday night.
"It was a lot of work but we're excited," said Brown.
The store is open Wednesday-Saturday, 10 to 7; Sunday, noon to 6; and Monday and Tuesday, 10 to 4.
Brown thinks the location is a good one — both Boston Sea Foods and Whitney's Liquors draw a lot of traffic.
"We've had people just walking in curious as to what's going on," said Brown. "I had to tell them we're not open yet."
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