Bruce McFarland and his wife, Sonja, walked into a kite shop while attending a convention of hoteliers in California in the mid-1980s and were immediately swept up.
“A lot of bells went off,” Bruce said.
“I just figured out what I wanted to do,” Sonja remembered saying.
Bruce, who worked as general manager of the Mills House, and Sonja, who had previous experience in retail when she owned a clothing shop near their former Ohio residence, came back to Charleston and thought about launching a kite business on either Folly Beach or the Isle of Palms.
“But we figured we would miss out on a key demographic — tourists near the City Market,” Bruce said.
In 1987, the couple started selling colorful items that whipped in the wind from a small shop in the front part of an East Bay Street building that once housed a catering business.
Thirty-five years later, they have decided to reel in the kite string and shutter the shop.
The last day for their longtime Kites Fly’N Hi business, which has been in the Rainbow Market on North Market Street since 1989, will be Dec. 31.
Bruce, who is now 84 years old, has enjoyed chatting with customers and testing kites on the beach for more than three decades, but he noticed a trailing off in business during the past year and realized the time has come to close the 600-square-foot shop, where a rainbow of windsocks, flags and other items dangle from the ceiling and adorn the walls. Sonja also has a small display of scarves and other items she makes at home.
“There seems to be a different attitude now,” he said.
Fallout from the pandemic and nagging inflation are partly to blame. He also believes many children now prefer to play games on electronic devices and engage in online social media rather than play with kites.
Kites Fly’N Hi will close Dec. 31 in the Rainbow Market on North Market Street in Charleston after 35 years in business. Warren L. Wise/Staff
Still, he and his wife have found the business enjoyable.
“It’s really good fun,” Bruce said. “I’ve enjoyed flying kites and testing stuff on Folly. I still go out there and fly kites if I have the strength to do it.”
The couple’s business wasn’t always soaring, though.
Two years after they launched, they moved to North Market Street in a space a couple of doors down from the present site.
That was in August 1989. The next month Hurricane Hugo devastated Charleston and much of South Carolina.
“We had 4 or 5 feet of water in the store,” Bruce said. “We had taken all the merchandise from downstairs and moved it to the loft and covered it with a tarp. The roof leaked, but not a lot. We were fortunate we didn’t get much merchandise damaged.”
Nevertheless, the shop didn’t reopen until 10 months later after the sheetrock was replaced and wiring and other renovations were completed.
In 2015, they moved to the current location just a few feet down the street after termite damage was found in their former site. That building was gutted and renovated.
The McFarlands have endured the ups and downs of the economy and natural disasters, but their honesty with their customers also has kept the business going.
A steady stream of onlookers flowed through the store at midday Dec. 17, some looking for a last-minute Christmas gift.
Several of them approached the counter with a kite and and a bundle of string.
Bruce quickly pointed out to them the kite packages included string and they didn’t need to buy the extra spool.
“Thanks for telling us that,” one customer said.
After they left, Bruce remarked, “People don’t like to be bamboozled.”
Noticing the “store closing” sign near the door, one customer asked, “Are you retiring?”
“I’m closing the store, and I hope to wake up every morning,” Bruce said with a chuckle.
He later remarked his wife will find something to keep him busy.
Sonja, meanwhile, plans to continue knitting and weaving at home and sell her wares at seasonal craft fairs.
For the most part, though, she and her husband plan to sit back and relax.
“We have no plans to travel,” Sonja, now 80, said. “We’ve done a lot of traveling in the past so we let our passports lapse a few years ago.”
To her, the decision to close brings some peace of mind.
Bruce McFarland waits on customers inside his Kites Fly’N Hi shop in the Rainbow Market on North Market Street on Dec. 17. The longtime Charleston business will close Dec. 31 after 35 years in business. Warren L. Wise/Staff
“It’s a relief,” Sonja said. “I just didn’t want something to happen to Bruce, leaving me to close it down by myself.”
She also noted she won’t miss going to work too much because she has only worked on Sundays since the shop reopened two months after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020.
When the flow of customers had paused for a few minutes, Bruce looked around at all of the items that float and flutter in the breeze and have given his wife and him a living for many years and said, “It’s time to cut the kite line and be gone with the wind.”
Items in the store are marked down 30 percent. Prices will fall further through New Year’s Eve, when the McFarlands will turn out the lights one last time.
“It’s been a good journey,” Bruce said.
