ST. CLOUD -- A vintage decor store in downtown St. Cloud is packing up and closing. Meanwhile, its second location in Waite Park will be expanding.

The Rusty Pick will be closing its 707 West St. Germain Street store on Saturday, August 18. Todd Scott is the owner of the Rusty Pick. He says when he opened the Waite Park location last summer he knew he would eventually close the downtown store.

"I had a friend that decided he wanted to try to keep the (downtown) store going and we gave it a try. But just not being downtown all of the time and not being there all of the time made me realize that I need to make my focus completely about Waite Park and not splitting my interests between the two stores."

Scott says with the decision to close the downtown store, he wanted to make improvements to the Waite Park location.

"The (Waite Park) building is about 6,500 square feet and what we did with it was keep about 1,500 square feet in the back for a storage area and work area. The building next to us came up for rent. What we are doing now is, we're renting that building and we are going to do our work area over there, our excess storage and salvage is going over there and we're going to expand the entirety of this building into being retail."

The current 1,500 square feet used as a work and storage room at the Waite Park Rusty Pick will soon be additional shopping space.

Scott says having everything in one location will be more convenient for customers. No longer will shoppers have to bounce between St. Cloud and Waite Park to find an item. He says parking has always been an issue at the downtown location and at the Waite Park store there's plenty of free parking.

Being closer to other similar stores Scott says is also a plus for shoppers.

"We have not only ourselves but you have Salvage Sisters, Modern Barnyard and a couple other shops in St. Joseph. You become a destination area instead of just one stop. Our hope is that we are going to promote together and get groups coming in from outside of the area."

Scott says the goal is to have the Waite Park location expanded by October. The Rusty Pick in Waite Park is at 311 28th Avenue South.

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