By Caleb Wortz
Sapulpa’s Christmas Chute has seen bustling activity since its grand opening but there are a few newer locations you may not have seen. Some of these locations include Route 66 Comics and Collectibles, Little Bit of Country, and Sugar Llamas.
“We’ve seen people from all over the world, not just from the US but people from Australia, London, Guam,” owner Chad O’Roark said. “People that are all being pulled in because of the Chute that didn’t necessarily know that we were there.”
Sugar Llamas is a new downtown store specializing in hand-decorated mini gourmet doughnuts located at 119 E Hobson Avenue. They also sell a variety of iced and hot coffees, premium ice creams from Michigan, and milkshakes.
“For us, it’s all about people,” O’Roark said. “When I say that I truly believe it’s about people, it’s about serving our community.”
Mr. O’Roark said that they’ve experienced three record-breaking days since the Chute began after being open nine months. He also noted how he’s been able to integrate into the downtown business community.”
“We support one another when I can say we don’t have that flavor but the store across the street does,” O’Roark said. “We’re working as a community and not just trying to take business from one another, and I believe that helps everybody.”
Little Bit of Country is a store previously located on Route 66 but is now in a new location at 7 N. Park Street.
“The Chute has been great for tourism and the business is icing on the cake,” owner Diane Gloden said. “Everybody has just been really nice and a lot of people who didn’t know about our move are finding me now.”
Little Bit of Country specializes in western home decor and Oklahoma-made products like pottery, as well as a variety of gift baskets. She says that their newer and smaller location has been easier to manage which allows her to enjoy the chute without managing a large building.
Route 66 Comics and Collectibles, located at 17 S. Park Street, is another entirely new location specializing in all things comic books as well as toys and action figures. The store’s general manager, Aaron Witten, says that despite some advertising issues they’re happy with how things are going in their first year and are starting to develop steady regulars.
“We’ve had people call us from Maryland wanting to buy something and then people from a few blocks away who didn’t know we were here,” said Witten. “That seems to be our biggest issue, but things are going really well right now.”
Witten continued a theme of community common among downtown business owners. He says they’ve managed to make a few connections despite being new.
“We’ve been talking to the boutique next to us a lot and are kind of doing a deal where if they have a family and mom is looking around, they can mention the comic store,” said Witten. “They’ve also gotten posters from us to put up in their windows so we’ve made some connections and hope to continue that.
Despite being new Witten mentioned plans to obtain a second building in the Sapulpa Downtown. He said they aren’t in any rush but would eventually like to have one location specializing in comics toys and statues and the other in tabletop games, manga, and trading cards like Pokemon.
“We have plans to do some of our own exclusive covers for the store by using local artists,” said Witten. “These would be custom covers for comics and manga that you could only obtain from our website or store.”
He also mentioned bringing in bigger, established artists for certain events but wanted to provide an opportunity for local artists to build their careers as well.
You still have time to visit these stores during Sapulpa’s Christmas Chute which officially comes to an end on December 31st. You can see a calendar of Chute Events at route66christmaschute.com
