RubberStamps.Net rises out of the ashes in new downtown Davenport location

As firefighters were still knocking down the flames of a fire that would leave Gwendolyn Lee’s rubber stamp business “a total loss,” she was already making mental lists for how to reopen.

It was Sunday night, Oct. 25, 2020, when her RubberStamps.Net store and manufacturing facility at Bettendorf’s Cumberland Square was destroyed. The e-commerce business, which produced custom rubber stamps and labels, was gone. The cause: undetermined.

Forced into survival mode, Lee channeled all her energy into figuring out how to get back to production, serving customers and more importantly, “keeping the employees whole.” One of her first phone calls that night was to Kyle Carter, Executive Director of the Downtown Davenport Partnership (DDP), an affiliate of the Quad-Cities Chamber.

“I’m gonna need a roof over our heads,” she recalls telling Carter, whom she knew from serving on the DDP Board. 

“It was pretty awful getting that phone call, it was heart-wrenching,” said Carter, who offered “to help however we could.”

Finding a new home, getting back to business

He and Jenelle Wolber, the Chamber’s Director of Business and Economic Growth Services, went right to work on identifying possible sites. “We reached out to our broker community, developers and city partners to see if there were any buildings available that met the company’s specifications,” Wolber said, adding they produced a list of several prospects in just a few days.

“I was obsessed with getting open before Christmas,” Lee said. At the time of the fire, “We were growing and getting ready for our biggest holiday season ever. Talk about insult to injury.” 

Wolber was impressed by Lee’s resiliency and focus. “After a tragedy like that, it is hard to keep everything moving and processing what’s most important. But she was a trooper and able to keep everything compartmentalized.”

Carter, who thought Lee’s timeline was unrealistic, remembers warning her, “This usually doesn’t get done that fast.”

But the determined business owner moved just as fast as she said she would.

By Dec. 1, Lee had leased a pair of neighboring downtown Davenport buildings, including the former Paradigm space at 320 E. 2nd St. and across the alley in the rear of Sergeant Pepper’s Auto Shop. With half the space of her original footprint, she said the entire team was back to work, accepting orders and producing rubber stamps by Dec. 15.  

Downtown advocates  

Carter said the Chamber not only wanted to retain Lee’s business and its workforce but also felt a responsibility to a couple who was on the frontlines donating time and money to their neighbors when the 2019 flood hit.

“They donated generously to the flood relief for other businesses,” he said of Lee and her husband, Todd Robert.

They are no strangers to downtown Davenport, where they have lived in a warehouse condo for the past six years. Together, they also own Endless Brews, a craft beer bar on Main Street.

As word of the fire spread, Carter said downtown businesses answered the call for help with donations of food, money and moral support. “People really did bend over backward to help them.” 

Keeping employees whole

Despite a two-month shutdown, Lee said it never crossed her mind to do anything but reopen. “As a business owner, I only thought about what can I do to get back up? I had 25 people on staff and all their families (to think of). I knew I needed everybody back.”

Her determination was equally matched by the generosity of friends, customers, fellow Quad-Cities businesses and even strangers.

“We were able to keep everybody on the payroll because of a Go Fund Me (account) and our savings,” she said of the effort, which raised nearly $40,000 in donations.

She said customers, even ones whom she has never met in person, donated generously. One Ohio coffee shop, which stamps its coffee bags with a RubberStamps.Net custom stamp, offered free coffee to customers who donated to RubberStamps.Net.

“I felt so much responsibility for my customers and their customers, and my employees and their families, and to my parents,” she said. Although her parents are retired now, she said they owned the building that was destroyed as part of their retirement plan.

Lee had launched the startup business in 2005 with her father, Scott Lee, after she graduated from the University of Iowa. It was an extension of the Superior Labels company he first began in their basement in 1994. Since relocating to Cumberland Square in 2009, Lee said, “The stamps had taken over … and he exited the business.” In fact, she said the business’ sales volume and production levels were beginning to outgrow the 15,000-square-feet space.

Future plans

Now, just over two months in her new location, Lee said, “We’re almost back up to where we were (volume-wise) last year.”

Carter marvels at Lee and her company’s progress, the speed of its recovery and how she worked tirelessly from her condo “to keep the wheels on.”

“I’m so happy for them,” he said. “To be where they are now is absolutely incredible. We were just thrilled to help them.”

For Lee, who is always looking ahead, there is satisfaction in that her business “has started flooding back.” But while she has a four-year lease and a very functional space again, she soon hopes to set her sights on finding a more permanent and larger location. “I can’t wait to get back in expansion mode.”