You’ve got to hand it to Martin Norman. He saw something others did not. Years from now, when he’s telling his grandkids how the family business got started, he can truthfully say, “Well, everyone else was running one way so I ran the other way.”
It was March 2021 when he opened the doors to his souvenir shop in downtown Salt Lake, selling fridge magnets, key chains, T-shirts, hoodies, salt water taffy, honey, and other made-in-Utah merch.
You couldn’t argue with his location at 122 South Main — a block from Temple Square and the convention center, kitty corner from the mall, directly across from the new Eccles Theatre.
But one big problem: There were practically no tourists.
The pandemic was just starting to loosen its grip. Main Street was as empty as Dodge City just before a gunfight. Many businesses were still closed, some had shut down for good. It was why the 130-year-old building Martin moved into was available for lease.
He made $20 the first day.
Enough to keep the lights on — for about an hour.
But Martin was confident of three things: That tourists would return, that the economy would recover, and most importantly, that pouring all his energy into nursing a new business into life — he slept on a cot in the store in the first few weeks — was going to do wonders for his mental health.
“I’d have worked at McDonald’s just to have a career change of path,” he says.
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Prior to becoming a small business owner and purveyor of Utah souvenirs, Martin’s career was in law enforcement. He was a corrections officer at the Utah State Prison.
He’d been at that job for 12 years and it had taken an increasing toll. He’d seen things he couldn’t unsee, watched colleagues struggle under the strain, some who took their own life.
“Seventy percent calm, 30 percent chaotic,” is how he describes the working conditions at the prison. “When you’re responding to fights, riots, all that stuff, it adds up. I was in a position where I knew I needed to make a change for my own mental well-being.”
He left the prison in December 2019, three months before COVID-19 locked things down, and went to work for friends who owned a souvenir shop in Park City. He suddenly found himself in an environment that was “night and day” from his previous employment. Calm prevailed. It was just what the doctor ordered.
He began plotting a strategy to open his own souvenir business, in his own style.
Instead of bringing in merchandise from other states and other countries, his plan was to sell Utah souvenirs made right here in Utah.
“Eighty-five percent of my inventory comes from local companies,” he says.
His shop, Uniquely Utah Souvenir Co., is full of products that arrive by minivan instead of airport couriers. The handmade soap comes from a woman who lives not far away in the city, the honey comes from local bees, the sterling silver jewelry from a homegrown artisan, the chocolates from local chocolatiers.
Even the ubiquitous T-shirts and hoodies — a souvenir store staple everywhere — are customized right here in Utah. Or to be more exact, right here on premises. Early on, as prices for outsourced clothing kept rising, Martin found a six-color, six-station press for sale on KSL.com, bought it and assembled it in the store’s basement. He taught himself how to work the press and now does all his own screen printing and design. It’s helped keep his costs down and prices low.
Two-and-a-half years later, the business that was launched during a pandemic by a former prison guard is safely afloat, a secure fixture on Main Street, the latest paean to the American dream.
The owner is in good shape as well.
“There is life after trauma,” Martin says. “My PTSD will always be a part of me, but it doesn’t run my life anymore. When I’m at work I don’t worry that I’m going to get stabbed in the back or thrown off a tier. Does that happen to (corrections) officers a lot? No. Is that the reality there (at the prison)? Absolutely.
“When you leave that environment you look at things differently. Now I’m around people that are happy, that are on vacation. They’re here to celebrate, and that’s what I needed. I needed to see the good side of life again.”
