DICKSON CITY, Pa. — Lake Commerce started off as a joke from the Dickson City Police Department. It was only a matter of time before the joke took on a life of its own. That's where Buff City Soaps came up with the idea to name a soap after the fictional body of water.
Commerce Boulevard in Dickson City has had its fair share of troubles. Every time it rains heavily, drivers have to be detoured. A drainage issue causes the flooding and forces Dickson City police to close the road, preventing traffic from going to the shopping plazas nearby.
The road closures were happening frequently, so the police department took to its Facebook page and dubbed the flooded area Lake Commerce.
Buff City Soaps is one of those businesses affected when Lake Commerce reappears.
Store manager Kristy Latwinski says it even happened during their grand opening in September and has been a headache for business.
"I honestly can't even count. It seems to happen very often. When it was really heavy rains, it was like each week," Latwinski said.
Buff City Soaps offers soaps made specifically for this store, in addition to the lineup found in stores across the country.
Latwinski says they decided to add another to their local line calling this one Lake Commerce. The display even gives a nod to Dickson City police decorating it with yellow caution tape. This Lake Commerce definitely smells better than the one that forms in real life.
"We wanted it to be fresh, like fresh water, so we chose two of our scents that we already carry and mixed them together. We experiment a lot, and we just loved the smell, so we went with it. We even formed the top to try and make it look like waves and rocky," Latwinski said. "Our soaps are usually flat, but we wanted some kind of water design in it."
Latwinski says the store started selling the bars on Friday. When Dickson City police posted about the new soap, it went viral and created a big boom for business at Buff City.
"It's awesome. We've had a lot of new customers saying, 'Oh, we've been meaning to come in. We saw Lake Commerce.' It's been really good. We've turned a bad situation into a good situation."
Each bar of soap costs $7, and Latwinski says they're close to selling out. Employees are already in the process of making some more to meet demand.
Check out WNEP’s YouTube channel.