OCT NIBJ: The Golden Rule: Coeur d’Alene business owner underscores the power of giving back

There’s a reason why they call it the Golden Rule, according to Beth Rich.

“That’s how I treat our customers, that’s how I treat the people who work for me, that’s how I treat my fellow business owners in town,” she said. “We’re all in this together.”

To successfully churn the cyclical business world of Rich, longtime owner of downtown Coeur d’Alene retail shops Mix It Up Gift and Mix It Up Home, philanthropy is the name of the game. In other words, what goes around comes around.

How this is accomplished is multifaceted for Rich, a locally revered businesswoman with a distinct passion for giving back to charities and local causes. 

First, she picks an organization. 

Second, she’ll encourage that organization to incentivize their employees to visit Mix It Up. How that’s done? If they shop at her locations via community give back event, she’ll cut a check marking a percentage of the total sales.

Finally, she sends that check back to that organization.

“I total up what everybody spent, and I write a check for 15%,” she said of a previous event supporting the Women's Gift Alliance.  

Whether it's through fundraisers like these or community events, Rich supports about a dozen organizations, foundations and community efforts near and dear to the heart, she said. This includes Kootenai Health Foundation’s Festival of Trees, Salvation Army Kroc Center, Hospice of North Idaho, Boys & Girls Club of Kootenai County, Canopy Village, Women’s Gift Alliance and more.

Accolades have poured in amid this philanthropy. 

Rich, having owned and operated Mix It Up Gift for eight years and Mix It Up home for the past three, has maintained the prestige of being named No. 1 Gift Store by the Coeur d’Alene Press every consecutive year since purchasing the business in 2018.

Mix It Up Home and Gift was also named, among over 30 outstanding home and housewares retailers from 31 countries around the globe, the USA winner for giftware retailers for 2023-2024. 

Rich got emotional when she revealed “I would be nothing if it weren’t for this community.”

“The philanthropic part of what we do is really just me making a business decision to give back to a community that supports me,” she said. “It's just full circle. They support me, I support them.”

With the help of the Coeur d'Alene Downtown Association, Coeur d'Alene Arts and Culture Alliance and the Coeur d'Alene Convention & Visitor Bureau, Rich said she hosts about 130 community events every year between her two locations. This includes things like Art Walk, shopping and Hospitality Nights.

Cindy Sweeney, a longtime Mix It Up customer and a realtor with Cindy Sweeney Homes, is one of Rich’s favorite Hospitality hosts.

“She’s a marketing genius and she supports the downtown area with such enthusiasm that makes her so approachable and likeable and a true professional,” Sweeney said of Rich. 

Sweeney was one of Rich’s first customers when Mix It Up opened. After becoming a Hospitality Night Host and the event becoming so successful, Sweeney said Rich “brought it on with so many other professionals to do a Hospitality Night, because it benefits me and her.”

“It’s a win-win for both of us,” Sweeney said. “It strengthens business and her bottom line because of word of mouth and client referrals. My clients going in wouldn’t have gone in if it weren’t for invites for social nights.”

In addition to what Rich does philanthropically at a local level, she does on a global scale. Sweeney, who works with an organization called Hope’s Promise, which places orphaned children with community caregivers, traveled to Zimbabwe last May to help facilitate a new home for children who don’t have any family. 

On the flipside, Rich has sold in her Mix It Up locations purses hand-made in Africa.

John Lambert, who regularly visits the Mix It Up locals with his wife Maynil and their well-known yellow lab Griz, said it’s efforts like this that keeps Rich’s inventory “fresh” and “novel.”

“To actually find that type of philanthropy that far away and bring it back to Coeur d’Alene? It’s not only another talent of hers but shows the size of her heart,” Lambert said of Rich. “She has a real talent for finding ‘the awesome’ in retail. I always feel like I’m wowed when I go into her stores.”

Mix It Up Gift is located at 513 Sherman Ave. and can reached at 208-667-8603.

Mix It Up Home is located at 305 E. Sherman Ave. and can be reached at 208-930-0001.

    Mix It Up owner Beth Rich shows a picture she took of Hudson's Hamburgers, which she's selling as a postcard in her downtown Coeur d'Alene shop.