A Starks New Future

Think WalMart, but local.

That’s how Chris and Samantha Starks, the new owners of Aspen Sky Merchant Mall (Aspen Sky) in Saratoga, view their role in the community.

“It’s better than WalMart, it’s not a big box store, but you can get everything you need here,” said Samantha. “There’s something, literally, for everybody.”

On November 2, the Starks held a grand re-opening of the business they had purchased from long-time owner Linda Rogers. For years, Aspen Sky has hosted a variety of booths which allowed local vendors a place to sell their wares year round. This, said the Starks, won’t change.

“There’s definitely going to be booths that are staying the same because they are staples that we need. The craft and material booth is something that people always ask ‘Is that going away?’ and I’m like ‘No, it’s not going away.’ There’s other booths that have been emptied,” said Samantha. “Some people left when they found out she [Linda] was selling but we were able to fill those with local needs.”

According to the Starks, they see Aspen Sky playing an important role in the Saratoga business community. It’s also given them an opportunity to get to know the people in the area.

“It’s been fun to get to know people in the community who want to have a boutique but can’t afford to have a space downtown. That’s what you’re going to look for as we continue, it’s going to be that type of stuff,” said Samatha. “There’s still vintage and there’s still antiques. We’re always going to have that stuff because people like that, too, but it’s a good mix of the new and the old.”

While the couple may be new to the business community in Saratoga, they’re not necessarily new to the Valley. Samantha’s family lives in Laramie—where she grew up—and they often made trips to Saratoga, typically to visit the free hot springs.

“We were here all the time. My sister [Stacy] ended up marrying into the [Berger] family and Chris got a job in Rawlins,” said Samantha. “I said ‘It’d be so cool if I could live next to my sister’ and that’s what happened.”

Prior to moving to Saratoga, the Starks would come over to visit Stacy, and no trip was complete without a visit to Aspen Sky.

“We’d come into the store all the time. Every time we were in Saratoga visiting my sister, we’d have to stop here. So, we got to know Linda through that,” said Samantha. “Once we moved here, we had some stuff in the store and we got to know her really well and became friends.”

It was that friendship with Linda, along with a fateful stop for gas, which led the Starks to becoming the new owners of the merchant mall.

“One day I was on my way to work and I stopped at the gas station. I saw a flier in the window that said she was retiring and selling the business,” said Chris. “I had a couple minutes, so I ran over and said ‘Hey, I’ll be back tomorrow, but we want to sit down and visit with you.’”

The rest, as they say, is history.

Chris, along with being the co-owner of Aspen Sky, works for Union Pacific as a conductor. Samantha, meanwhile, has homeschooled their children.

“We graduated a daughter and she’s married and our son’s a senior this year and he’s graduating in May,” said Samantha. “So it’s just the perfect life transition.”

While there may be few changes to Aspen Sky, that doesn’t mean there won’t be any changes. The Starks have already made some additions to the store, beginning with a quaint coffee corner near the front door.

“The first month we were open, I noticed that the wives would shop and the husbands would stand around and not know what to do and they’d just go to the truck or go to the car,” said Samantha. “I told him [Chris], ‘I think we need a coffee corner for the guys to hangout.’ We want it to be a place where people can just come [and] socialize.”

Another change is the addition of a booth with homeopathic items and natural ingredients.

“Our newest booth has homeopathy and natural products. It’s hard to get, somebody told me the closest place to go was Casper,” said Samantha. “If we can keep people from having to do that [go out of town], we would love to be able to offer those things.”

It appears the community has responded positively to the Starks’ goal of providing as much local shopping as possible as they’ve used their money to show support.

“I think it [community support] has been great,” said Chris. “Even just sales-wise, we’ve been above and beyond anything we expected.”

Aspen Sky Merchant Mall is located at 103 E. Walnut Avenue in Saratoga. They are open 10 am to 6 pm Monday through Saturday and 1:30 pm to 5:30 pm on Sunday.