Business is booming in Manhattan, and another new business has opened its doors. The once half-empty Manhattan Station strip mall is finally filling up with new businesses, much to the delight of residents who had gotten used to the vacant units.
The Crafty Nook, a consignment craft store showcasing local crafters’ wares, began welcoming customers on December 13. A formal ribbon-cutting was held on December 21.
Although some initially mistook the new craft shop as a temporary pop-up shop for the holidays, that is not the case.
Emilia Berg, who owns the craft store, intends for it to be a permanent fixture at 25632 S. Gougar Road.
Berg is a local crafter who enjoys making handmade soaps and candles. When she’s not working on crafts, she works as an insurance agent on one side of the space.
“I’m a big craft fair person, and I’ve made friends along the way. This has been an idea for two years but just didn’t have the space for it,” Berg explained.
Previously, Berg had a few vendors sell their goods at her last office. But it never really took off because it was such a small offering, and not everyone knew it was there.
When Berg’s lease was up, she began looking for a new office space to grow her insurance business and finally make the dream of having a full-fledged craft store come to life.
The large space on Gougar Road was perfect.
“We have the insurance on one side and the shop on the other. We take turns greeting people as they come in and make it a team effort,” Berg explained that her employee also is a vendor, so it worked out that they each are able to do both jobs.
The space has enough room for up to 30 craft vendors to display and sell their goods on a consignment basis. Berg doesn’t charge a monthly fee in addition to the consignment rate, which removes the pressure of having to sell a certain amount.
Berg is accepting new vendors, and encourages those who are interested to reach out to her.
“Come in and talk to me. Check out the space to make sure it’s a reasonable space for you, and they’re ok with the consignment fees to be a part of it,” Berg explained.
Although she tries to keep a variety of vendors in the shop, she doesn’t like to turn crafters away.
“Kids who want to explore their entrepreneurial skills—I’m not going to turn them away,” Berg said, explaining that a local youth had approached her about offering soaps.
While the shop doesn’t have too many duplicate vendors, she tries to make sure that the items sold by a similar vendor type are unique. For example, Berg explained that she might have two custom cup vendors, but they would offer unique styling and sayings.
The shop currently offers an array of knitted goods and apparel, crocheted pieces, soaps and body scrubs, candles and wax melts, cups, coasters, charms and jewelry, journals and baseball cards, greeting cards, and more. Vendors rotate and restock their items in their assigned spaces.
“I like to support local people and their dreams,” Berg explained, noting that although craft fairs are fun, they can be hard.
Berg said that a vendor’s success would often be at the mercy of a craft show. External circumstances, like poor weather or a lack of advertising, could result in a poor showing, leaving vendors out of luck with low sales but still having to pay a hefty show fee.
“Having this space available for local vendors and crafters is a way to set them up to where there’s never any failure,” Berg said of the Crafty Nook.
“For me, I know that my crafting is a good stress releaser—a hobby I really love doing. I was passionate about wanting to provide a space for others to be able to do the same thing, especially with rising costs. It’s a really good opportunity to support local crafters,” Berg said.
The new craft store is located next to the newly opened Peaceful Grounds Coffee Company at the corner of Gougar and Sweedler Roads, and customers can stop into the craft store during business hours. All payment types are accepted.
Current business hours are Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Fridays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Berg is working on having weekend availability and may update the hours as customer demand dictates.
Stephanie Irvine is a freelance reporter.
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