MANAYUNK

Meadowsweet Mercantile is one of the most original shops you’ll ever set foot into and it’s located right here in Manayunk! Majority of the unique and adorable items are one-of-a-kind pieces making it difficult to walk out of the store empty handed. Owners Stacy and Michael find the merchandise for their store in two ways: sourcing from local, hand-picked artists as well as restoring raw pieces they find from all over Western PA. Together, the two make a fantastic pair for the shop! “He actually accomplishes what I have in my brain; I can say I want that table to look a certain way and he’s able to do it. I see it in the dirt pile and then he’s very integral to getting it into the store and looking good,” says Stacy.

The love for small business must be part of Stacy’s genes! Her great-grandmother owned a candy shop and general store in the 1940’s and “pretty much everyone in [her] family has had some kind of entrepreneurial spirit”. Throughout the early stages of her life Stacy had a soft spot for small businesses as she worked for and learned from them. The appreciation she manifested over the years for the hard work and love these small business owners show for their shops is clearly displayed in the pride and passion she has for her own storefront. “It’s so important to have the owners in the shop because they’re the ones that tell the story, know the process, and know where it comes from.” Her affection towards small corner stores from her childhood is effervescent in her store’s atmosphere and product selection. “This is a lifestyle shop; its mingled, its intimate, it’s really personal and the items were built to last.”

The store’s charm and Stacy’s warm personality pair perfectly with the fascinating trinkets and imaginative pieces of furniture. The products are intimately chosen and created with care by local craftsmen or Stacy and Michael themselves! “We try really hard to cultivate strong relationships with people in Western Pennsylvania so that when they find things or when they’re taking a building down they reach out to us,” says the shop owner. From refurbished wooden furniture to hand sewn aprons and individually crafted pieces of jewelry, each product has its own unique personality and story. The mission of the shop is to provide a really nice environment for merchandise made by people in the area. All of the facelifts of the foraged products are done in house, by Michael or Stacy, however they like to keep it as original as possible but also functional. “We don’t take age off of anything, for me it’s important to show its age because that’s the real part of it you can’t really buy new furniture ‘with age on it’ because it hasn’t happened yet unless you time travel!”

 

The inspiration for Stacy’s shop came from a time when within a community there was individual shops owned and worked by one person or a family. She wanted to revive that feel of walking down the street and having “The Shoe Store”, “The Butcher”, “The Candy Shop” and seeing the familiar face of the owner behind the counter. How does she keep herself differentiated from the big name stores? “For me it’s about education and it’s also about letting go. People who live their lives by the ‘box store model’ won’t understand what’s going on in here. Box stores are set up so that there’s 5 boxes of the same thing, and it’s not the same environment [in Meadow Sweet Merchantile]. This is totally different; it’s very intimate and personal and you can’t get that feel at a shop like that. Those other stores are very anonymous.”

The rustic feel of Manayunk and the accumulation of small business owners works perfectly with Stacy’s vision for Meadow Sweet Mercantile. Stacy’s words on living and working in Manayunk are poetic. “The relationships that I have with other people who live and have a business here are inimitable. I live here, the owners of Volo, Breaking Bread, Sweet Elizabeth’s, & a number of businesses who I’m not even mentioning all live here. You really feel like you’re working for the community and you feel a sense of ownership. It’s a different understanding of your neighborhood when you live in it. This is your home! There’s a big benefit to live and work here at the same time and being able to socialize and feel like you know your customers and residents really well.”