Welcome to the History of Mini Bazaar!

I’d like to give you a little background on our business.

My name is Lucy Simmons. I live about 5 miles North of Idaho Falls with my
husband, Jay. We have four daughters, and one son.
We have one daughter and her family that live in Ohio, and one daughter and her
husband that live in Washington, but all the others live nearby, and help us in some way in running Mini Bazaar. We have sixteen grandchildren.

Mini Bazaar began with my sister, Millie Batt as my partner. We come
from a family of six girls, and still enjoy a close relationship with our mom
and sisters. Our dad passed away in 2005, and one sister passed away in 1992.
One of our sisters, Ellen makes the roasted almond chocolates that we
sell at Mini Bazaar, and Grace makes the marshmallow popcorn.

In the fall of 1980, we thought that we could gather a few handmade items,
and show them at home parties, for orders. (Much like a Tupperware party). We
spent our weekends doing afternoon or evening parties, and everything we sold
fit in the trunks of our cars. Eventually, we started to do mall shows. We would sell our wares, along with a few friends, in the hallways of the local mall for a weekend, now and then. Talented women would call us, interested in selling their wares, and soon we could see that we needed more space.

We rented empty office space for a weekend at a time, both in Idaho Falls
and Rexburg. As we accumulated display pieces and inventory we started looking for a permanent location. Millie stumbled on to the beautiful, new Chiropractic Building at 1880 E. 17th Street in Idaho Falls. It had a lovely garden level,that included an unfinished basement. We talked Dr. Glanzer into letting us rent from him, and we rented there from 1986 to 2006.

After being there for 20 years we found that parking and display space
were getting pretty tight. We found an old industrial building  along
the river on Capital Avenue that we thought had great possibilities. You can now find us here at 765 S. Capital,  in Idaho Falls.

We open for a several weeks beginning the middle of February, and then we open on Fridays and Saturdays during the rest of  May, June and July. We use August to prepare for our Fall season and open for seven weeks during September and October. Our Christmas season opens around the 25th of October and continues through the middle of December.

As the 2007 year came to a close, Millie and her husband were called on a
three year mission and she decided to retire at that time. We
will always miss her at Mini Bazaar.  Millie does help us out at times, and we love having her.

My daughter Bobbi has worked at the store for over 20 years, and has taken on  the managing responsibility of the store.

We are the oldest and the best boutique in this area, and have customers
that travel long distances to visit us. We love our business, and enjoy our
customers and the many friends that we’ve made over the years.