A botanical shop in Bigfork teamed up with a local distillery back in March to help fill the need of hand sanitizer.
“We didn’t know what to do, we didn’t know what was going to happen and obviously it got a lot worse than what we thought it was and once I think we realized that we got together with a local brewery or distillery and started meeting a need in the community," said The Good Stuff Botanical's co-owner Michael Johnson.
Michael and Maranda Johnson say when COVID-19 shutdown Montana back in March, they wanted to help the community. So they teamed up with Whistling Andy Distillery to make hand sanitizer.
The Johnson’s say they are happy to still give help to people suffering from psoriasis, eczema, and other skin conditions through their products as well as hand sanitizer.
“As uncertain as everything is it feels good that we can be certain that we can still provide that stuff to people and that we can do something that we can do something about this whole 2020 whatever you want to call it," said Maranda.
Maranda says that 10 years ago, the couple decided to quit their day jobs to put everything into their products, and even got their products on Rosauer's grocery store shelves.
“The feedback we were getting was crazy and so we quit our day jobs and started going to farmers markets and it's just kind of blew up from there because...I mean it really helps people, yeah and just because we got into a big store right off the get go it was you know other it validated us," said Maranda.
Michael says that the couple is there to genuinely help people, not just to sell products, being a psoriasis sufferer himself. “It is not just something we make we're not just here to make money we're here to actually help people," said Michael.
Even their oldest son Everest joins the couple in their love for their products. “Well, I usually use it for Boo Boo’s, but I don’t use sunscreen at all," said Everest, using the family's Gypsy Cream as sunscreen and lotion.
The Johnson's say that despite COVID-19 impacting their home life with remote learning for their two kids, they feel great about getting to help the community. “It's just good to feel that we can help with something and be a part of the solution and not part of the problem.”
The Johnson's opened up their shop on 801 Grand Drive several months ago, and are hopeful for the future of their business.
You can find more information on their website.