We are located just 4 km south of Highway 16 in the historic and picturesque hamlet of Carvel. Established in 1918, the Carvel General Store is a 91 year old building that has been lovingly restored to retain its vintage charm and heritage.
We specialize in nostalgia-inspired April Cornell clothing and linens, Barefoot Venus bath and body, Nellie's All Natural laundry products and many locally crafted goods including Old Goat Soap, furniture, bird feeders, florals, signs, artwork and more. We host a charity street sale every July with 30+ vendors of treats and treasures.
LIVING OUR DREAM
In October 2003 my mother and I found ourselves feeling scared, excited, and naive. We were also secretly bold and persistent in our belief of certain success. We had just reopened/repurposed an old landmark general store in the tiny Hamlet of Carvel, Alberta where we both live.
Except for a 12 week online business course, neither of us had any prior business experience - I was a psychiatric nurse and mom was a retired supervisor with the federal government. Our retail experience consisted of being discriminating shoppers, both of us conservatively frivolous with a taste for the finer things in life.
Inundated with "neighbourly interest", questioning the sanity of our decision by family and friends, and an initial financial sacrifice, we pushed forward. Turns out we had all the right ingredients to turn our PEI-esque (cedar shake roofed porch on a green and white building) meets Whyte Ave (Old Strathcona, Edmonton) into a vintage specialty shop. We became partners in the Carvel General Store in July 2003 and have since become a destination in several rural tours including "Your Town" - a Global Edmonton/Travel Alberta initiative.
We continue to grow in our mother/daughter relationship as partners and as a business. We are able to successfully combine our rural lifestyle with our love of beautiful things and working for ourselves. We truly are LIVING THE DREAM...
written by Kristine Olson, Partner