Eighteen years ago, Hope Meadows began designing greeting cards with literary and vintage themes, recruiting fellow moms from the playground to help with her home-based business.
A series of moves and product line expansions ensued, and now Fly Paper Products sells over $1 million a year in gifts and home goods, mostly wholesaling to some 2,000 customers worldwide, particularly independent bookstores.
Online customers have included some who want to pick up their purchases in person at their 8,000-square-foot production facility, set back off Jackson Rd. near Parkland Plaza.
“They’ll come in, they’ll grab their bag, and they’ll say, ‘Can I go smell the candles? Can I look at anything else?’” Meadows says. “I’m like, ‘Yeah, come on in.’ But it’s always awkward for them.”
So they recently opened the front area as a retail shop to showcase their literary-inspired lines. Along with the greeting cards and candles, they feature glassware, mugs, classic books, notebooks, tote bags, stickers, magnets, writing implements, natural wood bookmarks, teas, room sprays, and more.
“I never set out to have all of this. It grew organically,” Meadows says. Her literary passion drives the creative effort, supplemented by her staff. “They come up with a lot of phrases, they have a lot of ideas, and they’re all book lovers, so it really helps with the excitement.”
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Their all-time top seller is a multicolored memo pad patterned after library book checkout cards of yore. The sticker that reads “I’m silently correcting your grammar” has sold more than any other. (Meadows has eschewed filing for trademarks: “I feel like a phrase is a phrase. … There’s a piece of the pie for everyone.”)
The wit, nostalgia, and bibliophilia extend across the product categories, where one truth holds steadfast: as Meadows says in a casual aside, “We could sell anything Jane Austen.”
Fly Paper Products, 4109 Jackson Rd. (989) 493–1804. Mon.–Fri. 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Closed Sat. & Sun. flypaperproducts.com
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