When Kim Chambers and Stefanie Willis received the assignment last year to redesign the gift shop at Rivers Health in Point Pleasant, they felt like painters with a blank canvas. And to say their resulting creation succeeded would be an understatement: in its first three months of operations, The Nook on Valley Drive saw nearly $80,000 in sales.
“It’s like Christmas to go in there with a blank slate, envisioning it in your head and thinking about fixturing and merchandising to make it come together,” said Chambers, the Director of Gift Shops for Marshall Health Network. “To see what we envisioned come to life was fun.”
Nora Loomis, who used to oversee the volunteers and operated the shop, said The Nook on Valley Drive has made a big difference by upscaling the main lobby’s appearance. To fashion a larger shop, Rivers Health “borrowed” just over 250 square feet of lobby space.
“It makes such a great first impression,” said Loomis, the hospital’s Director of Volunteer Services and Patient Experience. “Visitors talk about how nice it looks, and it made a big difference with the employees too. They like the merchandise with more designs to choose from and the snacks and convenience items that have been added.”
While it has one full-time employee, volunteers are still an integral part of The Nook. There are a dozen employees across the three shops at Cabell Huntington Hospital and St. Mary’s Medical Center, and volunteers play a vital role in Huntington as well.
Their service helps create a groundswell of revenues for improvements at the three hospitals: during fiscal year 2024, the shops’ combined sales surpassed $4.5 million.
Chambers, who is the buyer and manager for the Added Touch and Children’s Depot at CHH, brings a fine eye to her position. In the past, she was a children’s buyer at the Stone & Thomas department store before taking some time off to raise her kids.
Ironically, the shop’s biggest customers already work in the hospital—employees account for 70% of sales. Knowing the revenues generated will be reinvested in improvements like the parking garage at CHH or acquisitions of major equipment is what gets Chambers up every morning.
“When the parking garage was built, people came in and didn’t have to be out in the rain because of it,” she said. “Knowing that monies we made last year went to a big piece of equipment for the hospital that is state-of-the-art and not many places have. It makes us very proud that we’re a part of that.”
