FOOTPRINTS ON MUSKOKA OPENING SHOE & CLOTHING STORE IN GRAVENHURST

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

GRAVENHURST — A Bracebridge store is expanding into Gravenhurst.

After putting her Footprint on Bracacebridge, Footprints on Muskoka owner Krista Mansour is putting her Footprint on Gravenhurst.

She is opening a Footprints on Muskoka shoe and women’s clothing store next to the Gravenhurst Opera House and Chamber of Commerce, at 265 Muskoka Rd. S.

Mansour, who was at the former Muskoka Carpet and Drapery on Sunday, said she expects a soft opening this Saturday, June 8, and an official opening the weekend after.

So, why open in Gravenhurst?

“Because Gravenhurst needs a shoe store, and so many of our customers are from Gravenhurst.”

And the opportunity sort of presented itself fast when the building came on the market this spring.

Eighty-two per cent of her customers are women.

She said that while she will carry some men’s shoes, “they usually just come in and head straight for the Crocs and then go to the cash register.”

Most of the footwear will be geared to females, working women and girls of all ages.

Mansour will also have her own line of Muskokawear as well, including the nice blue top she had on yesterday.

Renovations are now complete and she’ll be moving in new products this week and putting up a new sign out front.

She said will have a lot of dress shoes for women and can bring in items from her Bracebridge shop.

She is also keeping the apartment behind and above, where haberdasher Noah Zanichis once had his men’s shop more than 40 years ago.

It’s all part of some big retail changes in Gravenhurst this summer, including the Brick, which opened two weeks ago just up the main street.

And right across the street from the new Footprints, the Farmer’s Daughter will soon open. Renovations there are underway, including a groovy new purple paint job on the former building that housed the Gypsy Mews and

Meanwhile, Emily Dursley’s Relish sandwich shop is moving north into the old Salvation Army Citadel, and it, too, is to be open for the summer soon.

And across from it, Home Hardware is moving uptown from the its southend plaza and into Stedmans’s, which is closing and also looking for a new downtown location.

Footprints on Muskoka is located at 9 Manitoba Street in Bracebridge.