PEORIA MAGAZINE November 2023

MOM AND POP

‘THE ENCHANTMENT IS UNFORGETTABLE’

For more than a half century, The Hayloft Shops in Mossville has charmed customers with a shopping experience all its own

BY LISA COON PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

W alking into the gift store at The Hayloft Shops along old Galena Road in Mossville is like stepping into a travelogue. Visitors can find treasures tucked and displayed in every corner throughout the 1½-story, 2,500-square-foot gift and gourmet shop located in a con verted historic barn. They include Russian woodcarvings, hand-stitched doilies from China, linens from Belgium, German wooden smokers, tea sets and a large variety of teas from across the world, gourmet goods, Wil ton Armetale ware, Woodmere china, dinnerware from the White House Col lection, personally designed Christmas ornaments and many other items sourced internationally or from contacts owner Becky Schotthofer has made throughout her years traveling abroad. And most everything has a story behind it that Schotthofer is quick to share. The gift shop is one of three buildings along a block that make up The Hayloft

Shops. The other buildings — just steps outside the gift shop and across a brick parking area — house a women’s apparel shop and an antique shop, both of which also offer visitors unique shopping and browsing experiences. For nearly 40 years, the women’s apparel shop has carried the Geiger line of clothing from Austria. Schotthofer hosts trunk shows at least twice a year to show off the next season’s line of classic boiled-wool pieces. The apparel shop also carries a selection of mother-of-the-bride — or groom — and special occasion dresses, hats, purses, statement jewelry and many other carefully sourced items. Some of the bestselling items, Schot thofer said, are from family recipes. A top seller in the gourmet shop has been the family’s formulas for garlic and herb sea salt and their mulling spices that can be mixed with apple juice or cranberry juice. The mix of homemade items and carefully curated crafts and fashion

has earned The Hayloft shops national recognition from gift industry asso ciations. Over the years, The Hayloft has been recognized five times as a national award winner for promotions and displays and customer support. “We’re very proud of that as we’re up against all the large department stores,” Schotthofer said. A BLOSSOMING BUSINESS The Hayloft Shops got its start 53 years ago as a ceramic shop when Schotthofer’s late mother, JoAnn, asked her husband, the late Fred Schotthofer, to create a workspace in the hayloft of a horse barn on the family’s farm on Cedar Hills Drive. The little ceramic shop in the barn hayloft grew quickly, and Schotthofer, who was off at college studying art, helped her mother keep up with ceramic orders by shipping home finished, painted items. She joined her mother full time in 1974.

30 NOVEMBER 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE