by Anita Miller

Unlike most industries, retail that fills an eclectic niche hasn’t changed that much over recent decades, although the habits of some Hays County shoppers have. There are still men who stair down the aisles before Christmas, wondering what to buy.

“The guys” used to flood the aisles of Paper Bear, the one-of-a-kind gift shop in downtown San Marcos, like clockwork on Christmas Eve, recalled the store’s owner Carol Peters. “Now, they come in about three days earlier,” she chuckled from behind a bright, Mexican folkloric themed face mask. “Different guys, I guess.”

After 42 years helping Central Texas residents find the perfect gift for all the hardest people to buy for, Peters is staring down a hard deadline of her own — closing the doors of the shop she calls “magical” for the last time.
Having let the word get out early in 2020 that she would like to sell the business, at one point she even had a potential buyer. Then COVID-19 came and, well, everyone’s path took a different turn.

Though open for limited hours, the store isn’t ordering any new stock now and is cleaning out its storerooms. Peters, who says retail and art are in her genes, is keeping her options for the future open — maybe something like online jewelry sales, she hints.

Since opening the doors for the first time in 1978, the store has moved twice and underwent “rightsizing” in 2009. Toys and jewelry are the top sellers. They compete for floor space with all manner of knickknacks and collectibles, pottery, candles, incense and smudge sticks, cards and paper products, games, precious stones, clothing and accessories and even furniture — just to name a few.

Also competing for space is Dia, the fourth in a line of shop cats who basically defy everything known about feline behavior by not flinging merchandise to the floor.

Some of the shop’s merchandise comes through traditional channels but not all. Other items are handmade locally and finally, ”We have some special importers who bring things to us, they just walk in off the street.”

The street has presented its own struggle. Peters went to San Marcos city hall with petitions to overturn back-in parking; finding a place to park has never been easy on the busy street of LBJ.

“Customers are so important. It’s a special place, and they used to dress up pretty just to come into the store. It’s special for people to come here,” she says.

As part of a military family, Peters moved around a lot as a child. She landed in San Marcos along with her husband whom she met while attending the University of Texas, and they moved into a travel trailer while helping his parents out

The trailer is still in its parking lot, she say, hinting that travel might not be off the table.

Until inventory is depleted, Paper Bear is open afternoons Thursdays through Saturdays.

Come by, say farewell and experience the magic one more time.