The bell jingles as the door to Kinder Komfort opens, and a customer slips in with a hopeful smile. "Did you find it?" he asks Jenny Cisney, who lights up behind the counter.
"I did!" she cheers, retrieving a copy of Code Names, a board game the customer had hoped to special order but couldn't quite remember the name of days earlier. Jenny had put together the clues and figured out the name, found the game and even had her visiting mother bring it from Washington with her luggage rather than wait longer for freight. It's a small moment that captures the essence of Petersburg's beloved toy store – personalized service, attention to detail, and a commitment to making customers happy that goes well beyond commerce.
These values were hallmarks of Linda Herff, who owned and operated Kinder Komfort for 35 years before her death in early December. Now, Jenny and Joe Cisney have taken up the mantle as the new proprietors, determined to preserve the store's unique character.
Jenny's journey to ownership began unexpectedly in 2023, shortly after returning to Petersburg with her family after a decade away.
Joe was born and raised in Petersburg. Jenny and Joe met in Sitka through commercial fishing and lived in Petersburg for six years after getting married. When their son Gunner was born in 2012, they lived in town for another year before deciding to move to Washington, where both their parents had relocated.
"We came up one summer [2022], and we were out on the boat, and I was like, 'We should just move back. The kids are the right age,'" she recalls. The family had operated a taekwondo school in Washington ... but COVID restrictions were "really wearing on us as a family." They closed their school and returned to Petersburg. Jenny was ready for her next chapter.
Then, "I was just in [Kinder Komfort] shopping with the kids, and [Linda] goes, 'I'm gonna do something.' And I'm like, 'What's that?' And she's like, 'I'm gonna offer you a job,'" Jenny recalls. "I'm like, 'Oh, I'm not really looking for a job,' because I usually fish with my husband. And she's like, 'Well ... I'm going down for some medical stuff ...'"
Though hesitant at first, Jenny wanted to help and warmed to the idea of working temporarily for Linda.
It was actually Jenny's first-ever retail job, and it came with a surprisingly steep learning curve.
"If you remember, there used to be this giant cash register and a whole system that was very individualized to Linda that I had to learn," she laughs, remembering how she would reread the manual each morning before opening, for a refresher on how to operate the antique.
After working past her dread and getting the hang of it all, she says, "eventually I was like, 'This is really fun! Kids come in, they're happy.'"
After Linda's passing, the community wondered about the fate of the cherished establishment. Jenny, who had formed a connection with both Linda and the store, began to consider possibilities.
Mary Clemens, Linda's longtime friend and other part-time helper in the store, stepped up to keep the store open for the community during the holiday, and Jenny helped with big tasks like inventory.
"During that process of coming and helping after she passed away, I was like, 'Really, I hope somebody does buy it.' And we kind of thought, 'Why not us?'"
After discussions with Linda's estate, the Cisneys made their decision. Jenny describes it as "passing the torch" – not just acquiring a business, but accepting the responsibility of maintaining Linda's legacy.
Linda Herff was famously old-school. Her record-keeping systems were entirely analog – from the ancient cash register, to the machine that processed credit card sales by making a carbon copy imprint, to her meticulous handwritten notes about customers' preferences and children's birthdays.
"She never threw anything out," Jenny says, gesturing to the back room where decades of business records, catalogs, and correspondence are stored. "She had impeccable record-keeping."
More than her meticulous bookkeeping, Linda was known for her openhearted curiosity about her customers and community.
"She really had an amazing way of getting to know people, asking tons of questions," Jenny says.
"She'd always keep up with new kids that would come into town, writing their name on the monthly birthday board."
Linda kept a rolodex under the counter, to keep track of kids' birthdays with notes about what gifts had been bought for whom, so she could keep a sense of what children in the community might want from their local toy store.
Linda started many Kinder Komfort tradition that Jenny intends to continue. Like how, for decades, if kids brought in their report card with good grades in June, Linda gave them a free pack of baseball cards.
She adds, "Kids will come and they'll be like, 'Oh my gosh, you put the new poster out, and there's my name!' They notice all of these things."
"It means a lot to the community," Jenny says. "There's a lot of people that come in and talk about how they used to shop here when they were young, or just a lot of the little things that Linda did when she owned the store that are just things that people don't do anymore."
While maintaining Linda's spirit, Jenny also has plans to modernize aspects of the business.
She's considering adding bulk candy, video game accessories, and other items to fill gaps in the current inventory. "We have baby stuff, we have younger kids stuff, we have some adult stuff. I kind of feel like that teenager range is really a tough age group to shop for," she explains. "We're gonna try to fill that gap a little bit."
Future plans include developing online ordering for local delivery, making it easier for out-of-town relatives to buy gifts for Petersburg children or for locals who prefer to shop from home. Setting up the online shop is a relatively easy side effect of transition from Linda's all-analog system to a modern digital point of sale, inventory, and bookkeeping system.
Throughout any changes, Jenny remains committed to preserving the heart of what made Kinder Komfort special under Linda's stewardship.
"I do want people to know that things may change. We are going to be updating some things and maybe bringing in different inventory, but we are really trying to keep Linda's spirit in the things that we do," she emphasizes. "I think she deserves that. And I think that the community wants that, to make sure that they can remember the 35 years. There's a lot of history and a lot of memories."
Linda, who once told Jenny she planned to be in the store "till I'm 100," would surely approve of the care being taken to honor her legacy.
In a retail world increasingly dominated by faceless online shopping, Kinder Komfort remains a testament to the enduring value of personal connection, community knowledge, and the magic that can happen in a local toy store.
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