Barry Adams | Wisconsin State Journal
Feb 22, 2018
Carol “Orange” Schroeder became enamored with retailing during her junior year of college when she spent a year in Copenhagen.
The Denmark city was filled with specialty shops selling colorful handcrafted items, furniture, candles, flowers and other wares and staffed by owners and employees who offered friendly service.
Schroeder studied Danish and English literature and obtained a master’s degree in Scandinavian studies, while her work experience consisted of working in journalism and being a dental assistant. But her career and life changed in 1974, when she landed a job at Bord & Stol, a Scandinavian retailer that sold furniture, housewares and gifts.
A year later, Schroeder and her husband, Dean Schroeder, bought the Monroe Street store and renamed it Orange Tree Imports, and they have been one of the city’s best retailing success stories of the past 40 years.