Rozier’s to drop Hallmark at end of year

It will be the end of an era for Rozier’s Mercantile at the end of 2021. Beginning Jan. 1, 2022, Rozier’s will no longer be associated with the Hallmark franchise. The change will come after 22 years with the company best known for greeting cards.
“We are just getting rid of the brand,” Vice President Karen Lundy said. “We are going to remodel and it’s going to become Rozier’s Mercantile just like it has always been.”
With the change to the digital age and other factors, Lundy felt like now was the right time to make the move.
“The cost of cards and the way that people send greetings anymore, it was just not feasible,” Lundy said. “We will still have a greeting card line, once I get to that point. It will be a greeting card line for this area that is price compatible. I want it to be a better card, not Hallmark quality, but will be better than your common card.”
Lundy has been contemplating the move for several years, as she noted that Hallmark has several standards that need to be upheld when a business has a Hallmark franchise.
“It was a hard decision to make,” Lundy said. “There are several things like a three to five year lease on the cash registers, and frankly in the retail space and the times we are in now, we don’t know where we will be in that time frame. If I really think about it I think I got three Christmas cards this year. Times are changing, so we are going to try to change with them.”
Lundy stressed that Rozier’s Mercantile is not closing its doors. It is only the Hallmark brand that will no longer be in use.

“I explain myself every time, but rumors get around a small town like Perryville pretty quickly,” Lundy said. “There was a sign up on the door that I finally took down, but I want to stress that Rozier’s is not closing. The store is still open.”
The store will undergo a remodel of sorts, but the details are still under wraps as the process is still ongoing as to what will be changed.
“This building is from 1903 or before and once we got into doing a few things there were some things that we could not do,” Lundy said. “We were going to try to take it down to the bare bones, but we ran into a few things. I don’t know what will get into once we get started. The contractor is hired and we plan to start in January.”
The hope is to have the remodel finished by Mother’s Day.
“I’m not sure about that exact date, because I don’t know what the material supply chain will allow,” Lundy said. “We are not going to shut our doors at all, unless we would have to do that to deal with the floor. That would only be about 24 hours and nothing too substantial.”
Lundy is excited for the change and hopes the public will be as well.
“This is a new time for Rozier’s, and I’m going to rebrand it as ‘revisiting’ Rozier’s,” Lundy said. “I think it will be exciting.”