When we opened a little over a year ago, it became clear pretty quickly that we needed a serious stockroom. There was no way all the bras we needed to have in inventory were going to fit in the actual store. As luck would have it, the retail space directly behind the bra shop space was empty and available so I made the executive (ha!) decision to start renting it.
Because it had been a retail space before (remember the gem shop?), it had it’s own entry door from the parking lot. It also – and I’m not sure exactly why – had a door connecting the front space where JOY is to that back space, which was perfect for us to easily go in to get something and and bring it back into the shop. I hadn’t budgeted for it, but it was expense that really was necessary if we were going to be a serious bra shop with serious inventory. Believe it or not, bras take up a lot of room – especially those padded ones!
Having this back room gave us plenty of room for stock and a couple desks, and it also gave us a place to receive product when the UPS guy rolled in that hand truck stacked with boxes. It was actually a bit more space than we needed, which got me musing about someday putting a little annex JOY spin-off shop back there – maybe a specialty shop that sold maternity bras and lingerie, or mastectomy bras, or maybe bridal “foundations.” Life was pretty good with that spacious stockroom, but when a friend of mine came in a few times this spring to talk about a business idea she had if she could just find a place in Manchester to put it. Well…that’s where we get to Farm Store.
The friend is named Hadley Stock and I had met her a few years ago when she catered a pig roast at her mother’s house. If you’ve ever had Hadley’s pulled pork with homemade BBQ sauce, you know that finger lickin’ smile I have on my face right now. Her idea was to bring her BBQ to town. She was thinking restaurant at first, but then thought maybe a place where people to get her BBQ and her sides “to-go.”
As the vision started to unfold, a farm “mart” of a idea started taking shape where all of the food and products were sourced within a radius of Manchester – meats, produce, flowers, honey and even (especially!) her bacon, ham, and chops. I could totally relate to her struggle to find a location having been in the same position myself a year prior. Like so many things about this damn bra shop, there was something beautiful right there in front of me. I suggested putting up a wall in the stock room just the way I had envisioned if I ever did the little JOY annex thing. She could sub-lease from me and use the side with the separate entrance for a “mart” and we, JOY, would keep the other side as our stockroom.
Pink Boot “Farm Store” has been open for a couple of weeks now and it’s been amazing seeing the freezers fill up with locally-raised beef and pork and the fridges stocked with the most beautiful beets, broccoli, carrots, and fennel I’ve ever seen. Give Hadley a call if you want to get your hands on some of her BBQ or pulled pork or just to see what’s in the Farm Store on any given day at 802-342-7454.
Farm Store is open every day EXCEPT Thursdays and Sundays. It is no accident that these are the days when the local Farmers Markets happen – Thursdays from 3-7 at Adams Park in Manchester and Sundays from 10-2 at H.N. Williams in Dorset. Someday Farm also has a farm stand in the parking lot of J.K. Adams in Dorset on Saturday mornings and Wednesday afternoons. Eat local. Shop local. It matters. It really does.
With Farm Store coming to town, there’s one more locally-owned business in Manchester and I’m thrilled to be just a little part of the story. I’m even more selfishly thrilled that I get to just walk back there and do my food shopping! 4732 Main Street has turned into quite the perfect little “mini-mall,” don’t you think? …a music store downstairs, a “real food” store in the back, a little bra shop in the front… Music. Good food. Good bras. What else can we ask for? Oh, joy!
