A popular Sacramento gift shop has one location left after closing in midtown
Strapping is down to one remaining gift shop in the city after it shut down its midtown location on Labor Day.
Owner Susan Stewart took to Instagram on Tuesday morning, announcing in an emotional six-minute video that the 1731 L St. Strapping store was closed as of Monday. Stewart said while the midtown Sacramento shop was not experiencing financial difficulties, she and her partner, Darcie Weinberg, who ran the store, were struggling with their mental health after regularly working 80-hour weeks.
“I am tired,” she said. “The two of us basically aren’t seeing each other at all. It’s been you wake up in the morning, give a little smooch, go off to your store, get off at like 8 o’clock, come home, eat food, and then start the day over. That’s kind of been our life.”
Stewart said in the video that there would be no midtown close-out sales, and remaining merchandise in the L Street location would move to the Oak Park store, at 3405 Broadway.
“As much as I’m trying to keep this positive and give it a good spin, it does break my heart,” Stewart said in the social media video. “Midtown was a little fighter.”
The flagship Oak Park gift shop opened in 2017, according to Strapping’s website, eventually expanding to midtown and a third Ice Blocks location, which closed at the end of July for financial reasons. Stewart also owns Licked ice cream shop, down the block from Strapping at 3400 Broadway.
Stewart said in the social media announcement that she hopes to bring the Oak Park store back to its roots, focusing on selling quality Sacramento-centered merchandise and home goods after expanding so quickly amid the rapidly changing economic situation in recent years.
“I just want to get back to a place where I can dream, and I can be happy and I can spend time with people,” she said.
.jpg)