PHOTO BY ANDREW POTTER/MARSHALLTOWN AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE — Rhonda and Lora Braudis are pictured outside their second Oliver Beene Designs location during the grand opening Saturday at the Marshalltown Mall.

Rhonda and Lora Braudis were hoping for good things Saturday morning at the grand opening of the new second location of their Oliver Beene Designs store inside the Marshalltown mall. Their location at Meadow Lane is popular and has a solid set of loyal customers, and the opportunity to help bring back the mall was something the couple couldn’t pass up after “running out of space” at Meadow Lane.

“We absolutely love our store, but it got to the point where it just got so crowded it was really hard to be able to move around and maneuver around,” Rhonda said. “It seemed like a good opportunity because they’re trying to revitalize the mall, and it just seemed like a good opportunity for us to expand.”

But before opening at 10 a.m. Saturday, they were a little surprised to see just how many people showed up. A Facebook Live posted on the business’s page showed a line wrapping around the interior of the mall, filled with folks hoping to check out the new products and new digs for the popular small business.

Rhonda and Lora both said the reception was even better than they hoped.

“We had everyone come out to support us,” Rhonda said. “Our loyal shoppers who have been with us for a while, we saw some new faces, everyone even down to the electrician we used to get the store up and running. Everyone I think understands just how important it is to shop locally.”

“I thought we’d have maybe 15 people, you know, but to see that many people I was like, ‘Wow,'” Lora added.

PHOTO COURTESY OF RHONDA BRAUDIS — Oliver, the mascot and namesake of Rhonda and Lora Braudis’s business Oliver Beene Design, died Saturday morning after getting hit by a car. It left the couple with heavy hearts in losing a family pet hours before the opening of their Marshalltown Mall location.

The opening came under difficult circumstances, as their beloved dog Oliver, for whom the store was named, passed away Saturday morning at six years old after getting hit by a car. They kept it quiet and didn’t tell the public until the store had closed after the grand opening, but it made the day hard to get through.

Lora said Oliver was the mascot of the store and was around since the beginning of the venture.

“It was hard to get through that day,” Lora said. “He’s been our staple and what we built our shop around.”

While privately they were and still are grieving, the couple and their staff put together a very successful first day of business at their new storefront, with Lora saying the total number of customers was likely a record for the business. There was a musical guest in the store halfway through the busy eight-hour day, as Bon Jecci performed for nearly two hours to help celebrate the big day.

Musical performances are something Rhonda and Lora said they would like to incorporate on the first Saturday of every month, along with some of the dips they sell, to keep things fresh and fun in the store and continue to grow their customer base. Having operated Oliver Beene Designs as a business since before they moved to Marshalltown, it’s been heartening to them to see the community support them not just with one store but now as they expand.

It’s especially meaningful after surviving as a store through the COVID-19 pandemic – a scary and uncertain time for many local small businesses.

Now on the other side and thriving, the couple hopes Oliver Beene and its assortment of popular items will help bring a boost to the rejuvenation of the Marshalltown mall as well.

“We’re just very blessed and very happy and we just want to thank everyone yesterday for a great Grand Opening, and we can’t wait to see them bringing the mall back to life.”

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Contact Noah Rohlfing at 641-753-6611 or nrohlfing@timesrepublican.com.