Longaberger shops in Dresden fail to reopen as scheduled

DRESDEN — The sun shone brightly this week on Dresden’s Main Street, but it was dark inside the Longaberger Patio Shops.

Despite a posting on the Longaberger Co.’s website that had indicated the shops would reopen on Monday, the doors were locked, and no one was inside.

The shuttered shops were another in a string of sad news that began in early May, when Longaberger sent a note to employees saying the basket maker had ceased operations.

In a follow-up a couple of days later, officials offered the hope of moving forward even though, they said, senior bank lenders were “sweeping our cash daily,” leaving the company without money to operate or pay “sales tax and payroll tax.”

Then a small sign of life emerged. A message posted on the Longaberger website said: “Patio shops in Dresden, Ohio scheduled to open on May 21st, 2018!”

The news came as a surprise to sales consultants, who had not been notified by the company about the reopening of the shops in the Muskingum County village. The shops had been closed, like the rest of the company operations.

Sales consultants, who are part of a national, direct-selling network, traveled from as far as West Virginia and Pennsylvania in search of a few more baskets to fill lingering orders, but they found nothing but disappointment.