The Miami & Erie Trading Company is celebrating its fifth anniversary as a Spring Street business this holiday season. Five years ago, Josie and Marion Slater decided to become part of the revitalization effort downtown by opening a specialty store. The store is dedicated to American-made, Ohio-made, and local artisan goodies ranging from art and antiques to food, soap, and vintage pieces. So, if you’ve never set foot in Miami & Erie, this holiday season is the perfect opportunity to have a look.
When they started Miami & Erie, the Slaters bought one of the older brick buildings and re
stored it themselves. They demoed the space, stripped the floors down to the original wood, painted, and had a mural of downtown St. Marys designed. They put a lot of work and effort into making the building beautiful and full of character. Now, the first storefront is home to Miami & Erie, and the second storefront is open for a new tenant. If you think your business would be a good fit for the space, contact Josie Slater.
One thing that sets the shop apart from others is its range of locally made goods. Slater stocks Grumpy Goat Experiment Soap, which is made in St. Marys and comes from goats raised in New Bremen. She stocks Lake Erie Candle Co. candles, which are from Port Clinton and are 30% off for the remainder of the holiday season. She also has art by Rhonda Hager (paintings), Robert Makely (photography), Lori Tester (photography and design), and Lori Triplett (music). You can find gifts like Terrapin Ridge Farms sauces and jellies, which are made in Urbana, and Smithey Ironware from Charleston, South Carolina. Slater sells some items on consignment. So, if you have a product, see her about stocking it at Miami & Erie.
Other great finds at Miami & Erie Trading Company include baby clothes and toys, children’s books, Terris tumblers, pillows, home decor, Christmas decorations, and Ruth Hunt Woodford Reserve Bourbon Balls. Slater also teased a special Miami & Erie-branded product that will be coming soon for Christmas. She said it was a common product that a lot of people love, so stay tuned for that. There will be sales throughout the shopping season to celebrate the store’s fifth anniversary. Also, stop by during the Miracle on Spring Street on Saturday, Dec. 6, to get some Reindeer Food. Store hours will be extended on Saturdays through December from 10-3 p.m. instead of 10-2 p.m. Regular weekday hours remain the same – Wednesday – Friday 11-5 p.m. The second storefront, formerly Jackalope Stash, will feature pop-up shops from 4-5 vendors on the last two Saturdays of December.
Slater has been a long-time SMART member and is the Cochair of First Fridays in town. While Miami & Erie will not be participating in the Sip & Shop today, she did want to remind people of how important it is to shop local. Especially for the holidays. She said, “Shopping online – it’s easy and fast, and I get it. Sometimes there are things you have to buy online. But if all you do is buy online, you’re not going to have a downtown. You have to decide what you want and make the decisions and changes in your life to support that vision of what you want.”
Josie and Marion Slater are also the owners of the new coffee shop that is set to open on Spring Street. When asked about an opening date, she teased the beginning of 2026. She said, “We appreciate everyone’s interest, support, and patience. We are continuing to work towards opening the coffee shop. We’re hopeful that in the early part of the new year, we will have a definitive answer as to when. We know it’s taken a long time. Believe me, when we bought the place, it was not our plan to not be open yet. So, once we have a date, we’ll let everyone know. We will get there.”
The project has taken a long time to finish for two reasons: renovations and exciting opportunities. The coffee shop has finally completed its natural gas line, which took two years and eight months to complete. That was one of the bigger delays. There were also several inspected items that had to be repaired. The project now has the green light to continue. Through December, the Slaters will be finishing the electrical work and floors. Besides renovations, Slater also said that another delay was the opportunity to turn the coffee shop into a two-story venture. Changing the scope of the project also set things back. After the coffee shop is done, the Slaters will decide what to do with the apartments above the storefronts of the Miami & Erie building.
Slater is hoping that by having a coffee shop, the theater, the winery, great retail, and other interesting and fun places like The Comet and The Art Center, the people of St. Marys will start to view downtown as a vibrant, pleasant, and fun place to spend time. But she says that it’s crucial that people actually come downtown and spend time there.
“It takes effort to help improve the situation downtown. If you want downtown to be more vibrant and have more, you need to come downtown. It’s why we bought this building. We decided to be the change we wanted to see. We wanted to help move downtown toward something that people say they want and that we wanted for our community. It’s easy to complain. It takes effort to come down and invest your time and money,” said Slater.