News

Princely retail experience remains strong at Minnesota home furnishings shop

Minnesota retail storefront also a shrine to the man called Prince.

May 2, 2016

The rock icon Prince, who died last month at age 57, was a retailer in the early 1990s, and the site of his former store is being remembered as providing a unique experience for shoppers and fans and serving as a pilgrimage site for those wanting to pay respect.

The GoHome Furnishings store, which opened in 1996, on W. Lake Street in Minneapolis, was once Prince's New Power Generation shop, complete with a purple door that still welcomes shoppers.

Inside, there are still sheetrock canvas portraits of Minnesota's beloved musical icon. The store, according to a Minneapolis-St. Paul Business Journal report, sold Prince merchandise as well as souvenirs and even boasted new retail customer experience technology — a phone that provided fans with the ability to enjoy yet-to-be released music.

Prince is being remembered as a customer of GoHome, according to a Southwest Journal article.

"It was always a little surreal when you're standing here behind the counter, and the door opens, and you look up and Prince is standing there," store owner Rick Olinger told the Journal. "It's become a weird shrine," Olinger said.