Last May, the wall inside Paper Scissors on The Rock was knocked down. It was, as owner Ron Hall said, “kind of a mess.”

However rather than a structural disaster, the absence of the wall began a new and successful era for Paper Scissors on The Rock .

Now, over seven months later, the enlarged store is doing better than ever. With an increased and diversified stock, Hall said one of the pleasures of the expansion has been providing more options for local shopping.

This has been especially important in the festive period, “Many people who have come in have said they are trying to do all their shopping locally…there seems to be a stronger sense of that this year,” Hall said.

The Lopez environment is indeed one where community members can buy a wide range of locally produced goods. Hall enjoys adding to this by bringing a diverse selection of gifts and art supplies to the island.

Since the store’s dimensions have increased from 649 square feet to 1400 square feet, Hall has had the space to lay out the variety of stock and “go deeper into certain areas.”

Where once the store was small enough to contain only a small selection of stationary goods and printing resources, now the extended space has blossomed with brightly colored selections of art supplies and specialist materials. Hall said the extra space has allowed the freedom for extensive diversification. One example is the store now carries many different kinds of glue, catering to many different needs and projects. This, to Hall, is simply another way to make shopping on Lopez fun and fruitful.

The space Paper Scissors on The Rock extended into was previously occupied by The Islands’ Weekly, and Hall said he had his eye on it for a long time. Hall said he let the owner of the building, Gary Berg, know about this wish. After The Islands’ Weekly moved and some little delay, Hall was able to take on the other half of the building, extending both his floor space, and his vision for the store.

“I had always felt that we needed more room,” said Hall, adding that much of the extra stock had already been purchased, he had simply lacked the space to display it before. In order for the store to reach its full potential, it needed that extra space.

Retail in a small community speaks to both Hall’s affection for Lopezians, and his appreciation of good business. Not only is the store a good place to see and converse with a variety of people, it is a platform for his business ethics; “It is enjoyable, seeing everyone…I think that there is a lot of opportunity to provide services and goods of decent quality at not too high prices.”

Hall is pleased with the reaction of customers, his “holiday open house” was packed with people eager to make use of another quality local resource. “People are really pleased we are here, they can do a lot of shopping and dont have to go off-island to get things…it’s important you can get that kind of thing locally,” Hall said.