SHOP TALK: We Are Moving on Up

Hi friends and fam!

If you are on our newsletter list you received our big news already! But we’re excited to share that WE ARE MOVING!

We opened up shop in the Belvedere Courtyard a little over a year and a half ago, in September 2016. The courtyard was a great incubator space that we stumbled upon on a downtown discovery stroll one day earlier that year. After calling on the spot to inquire about the lease terms, we pulled it together and made a long time dream a reality.

Here’s a look around. Mind you these photos (by our beloved Rachel Garrison) came after a quick 1.5 month long mini-renovation. Sarah flexed her design muscle with new materials for a better bathroom and mini-kitchen. Plus we added a custom pillow wall shelving unit and cut out a new doorway into what we styled as the bedroom, making for a better retail flow. The shop was set up like an apartment, which suited us well for displaying our new bath, bed, living and kitchen collections.

Since opening, Sarah and I have learned a lot, namely that the retail adage “location is everything” is super real. We have certainly built plenty of wonderful friendships within the SOPI community back in the courtyard, but we can’t wait to get up on the main drag and see more of that foot traffic that we missed by being tucked away, out of sight. Sarah and team asked almost every guest that walked through the door how they came by us and more often than not, the answer was something along the lines of “just wondering around town and found my way back here.”

Wait! You mean it wasn’t because of all our hard work posting pretty pics on Instagram, our buckets of duckets on local magazine and newspaper ads or a Word-of-Mouth referral? I’m sure those efforts paid off as well, but the foot traffic opportunities on Broad will surely enhance our bottom line! Don’t you think?

Even our neon dream sign couldn’t attract all the attention we crave! (But we love all the great compliments we received.)

Feedback on the shop, the mini-kitchen and the updates that we performed to get this former salon in shape for our collection has been super encouraging. We’ve ended landed a few design and staging gigs from it, as we hoped.

We are looking forward to bringing our vision to another space in downtown Southern Pines, but we do admit that dropping bonus cash dollars on a Moroccan cement tile, shipped from LA was a splurge that maybe didn’t translate in the courtyard. So, we’ll perform the upfit a little bit more conservatively on the next space. We’ll add a TEOT kitchenette in due time, but in the interest of getting back into the game sooner than later, we’re cooking up a plan to open on Broad street asap with the essentials.

Some design brainstorming needs to be done, lickety splitly. We should have access soon to get measurements and start pulling quotes for the basics like painting and electrical.

So where are we moving? It’s literally right around the corner, not even a full half mile away. We’ll be setting up shop at 168 Broad Street, right by the Ice Cream Parlor… which should make Sarah’s little girls REAL happy, since now shop days will mean Ice Cream Days too.

So, if you are local, please join us at the shop in the courtyard on Friday evening from 5-7pm for a fond farewell with cocktails and sales. And we’ll keep you posted on the progress at the new spot!

PS. If you aren’t local… use the coupon code MOVINONUP at checkout for 20% off your entire order, all the things – even SALE items.