Randy and Shawna Heninger became retailers by accident. They were working at the Internal Revenue Service correcting tax returns in the early 1990s when a friend who’d borrowed money from them offered to repay the debt by handing over one of his Mall of America retail kiosks. The couple said goodbye IRS, hello MOA. Soon, they were running several magnet and keychain kiosks across the country.
But when sales slowed in 1997, the Heningers decided to try something new. “We saw that there was a lot of opportunity for [bath and body] products never before seen in the U.S.,” Shawna Heninger recalls. “Also, many of the bath and body stores are slaves to their shareholders, which sometimes translates into lower quality and less innovation. We wanted to make new products and higher-quality versions of products currently on the market.” In 1998, Basin opened in the Mall of America.
In the crowded bath and beauty market, creating a distinction between Basin’s products and the mass-produced competition is key. The Heningers focus on ingredients such as olive oil and shea butter (a increasingly popular moisturizer). High-end soaps are the company’s best-selling products, and include such distinctive items as mosquito-repellent soap, soap for pets, even soap that glows in the dark. All the products are locally made. “We don’t want anything on our store shelves that we don’t personally use and love,” Shawna says.
Basin’s ethos is reflected in the neutral, clean look and feel of the stores, which puts the focus on the products. Stores feature wooden shelving, linen curtains, and wooden bins and metal tubs filled with Basin’s exclusive fresh-cut soaps, shaving creams, moisturizers, and other products, which are displayed in bulk with minimal packaging.
In 2001, Basin was awarded a coveted space in the “Downtown Disney” shopping district being built just outside of Disneyland in Anaheim; two years later, Basin opened up a third store in a similar district near Orlando’s Walt Disney World. With the Florida business booming, the Heningers have moved there; a fourth Basin location is due to open in Florida in October.
But they do frequently come back to Minnesota, which Randy Heninger says provides “a great cross section of the people in the U.S. that is hard to find anywhere else. If we ever have another new concept, we will want to start it in Minnesota.”
