Saltwell Western Store is hosting a customer appreciation open house to celebrate its 60^th anniversary on November 17^th, 18^th, and 19th.

The open house event will take place Friday, November 17 from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Saturday, November 18, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and on Sunday, November 19, from Noon to 4 p.m. The store is located at 2000 Seven Mile Drive, New Philadelphia, Ohio 44663.

Throughout the open house, the store will feature special promotions and sales in all departments including jeans, hats, boots, jewelry, and more.

“We want to celebrate and thank our customers who have supported us all these years,” said Sally Puzacke, who owns the store with her husband Jay. The store has come a long way from its humble start in a horse barn. “My mom and dad (the late Vern and Venette Mason) started the store in 1963,” Sally Puzacke said. “My dad was very active in the horse business and couldn’t find horse supplies in the area. He started with a 20 by 40-foot area that just sold horse supplies.”

The original store was built later that same year and quickly filled with horse supplies. Western clothing was gradually added to the store followed by cowboy boots, hats, and other western wear accessories.  As inventory expanded, so did the store with five expansions over the past 50 years. A new wing was added in 1969, the back of the store was extended and the front porch was closed in 1976, and the store was lengthened by 40 feet in 1983. The latest expansion was completed in 2012 when a new showroom and second story were added in addition to a larger warehouse bringing the total retail space to over 7000 square feet.

While the store originally only carried horse supplies, today, Saltwell Western Store sells everything from men’s, ladies’, and children’s fashion jeans and western wear, to boots and cowboy hats to jewelry and western décor and while the name includes ‘Western Store’, the store carries a wide assortment of gifts, clothing, and home décor for all lifestyles

“We’re so much more than a Western store,” Puzacke said. “We have quite a few customers who buy our fashion jeans, boots, purses, and jewelry who don’t consider themselves as following a Western lifestyle, so we have something for everyone. If you’ve never been to our store before, I think you’ll be surprised at what all we have to offer.”