HANOVER TOWNSHIP, Lehigh County, Pa. — A store that offers handmade natural soap, and hopes to connect to the community, has opened in Hanover Township, Lehigh County.
Buff City Soap opened at 942 Airport Center Drive in late November, and held a ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce on Friday.
- Buff City Soap opened its 253rd location in Allentown
- The soap is all-natural and handmade in store
- The store is making efforts to connect with the community
It is the 253rd location for the national franchise.
The store's staff the night before had finished making the soap on the counter, where the bars then cure for three days, according to Justin Young, the chief operating officer of Midwest Brands, the franchisee of the chain.
"We try to stay local. We try to make soap here in the store, hire within the community, do grassroots events locally as well.”Justin Young, chief operating officer of Midwest Brands
The chain's website says that the founders of Buff City Soap, "frustrated by commercial soaps’ harsh chemicals, detergents and animal fats," sought to create soap "a better way, [with] delightfully scented plant-based soaps, handmade daily, in each of our local Soap Makeries."
"We take tremendous pride in handcrafting each and every bar of soap in our Soap Makery. Each one is truly unique," the website says.
Buff City Soap is big on connecting with the local communities in which its stores are located, according to Sophia Fisher, Buff City Soap Midwest’s director of marketing.
Young echoed that, saying, “Some of our stores do upwards of 50 to 60 events a year in the community … We try to stay local. We try to make soap here in the store, hire within the community, do grassroots events locally as well.”
Heather Bougourd, the store manager, pointed out the Earth Day Festival in Jim Thorpe as one that would be perfect for the store to participate in, along with some of the many other festivals held in the Lehigh Valley. Bougourd also mentioned that outreach had been done at some schools.
“The PTA and PTO mom, somewhere between 20 and 50, is basically our demographic,” Young said.
Four local soaps were featured in the store: 2608, a Lehigh Valley IronPigs-themed soap poured to look like a baseball pennant; Light the Lamp, a Lehigh Valley Phantoms hockey team-themed soap in orange, black and white; Cloud Nine, in honor of Lehigh Valley Airport; and Caution, a black soap with large divots to resemble potholes, in honor of our roads.
Standard store hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.
