MANAYUNK

Originally Published in Manayunk Magazine

By Caitlin Maloney

Photography by Susan Beard Design (susanbearddesign.com)

The Start Of It All

Meredith Podob was just a 19 year old college student in 2000 when she walked into Latitudes Gallery for her first day of work. 15 years later and she’s sitting in a chair in the middle of the store for this interview not as an employee, but as the owner of Latitudes and Longitudes.

Meredith first came to Main Street looking for a job while she was attending Philadelphia University. After being hired at two other Manayunk businesses, Why Be Board and Banana Republic, Meredith’s need-to-stay-busy mindset lead her to also work at Latitudes Gallery. “Ever since I started to work when I turned 16, I’ve always had one to three jobs,” Meredith said. “I need to stay busy; I’m a social person, so working allows me to expand my social network.”

After working at the gallery all throughout college and landing a full time job after graduation, Meredith still never really left the Latitudes family, always helping out on weekends and during the holidays. “There was really never a point when I ever stopped working here, it’s crazy, this is the longest job I’ve ever had,” she said.

It was in 2011 when Meredith happened to be between contracted jobs. She stopped down to visit Latitudes and as she walked up to the store she noticed the sign right away; a large “FOR SALE” sign was looking right down at her. A shocked Meredith walked in to ask the owner Joan what was going on. After 29 successful years in business, Joan said she put the sign up to see if there was anyone  interested. As Meredith left, she jokingly said, “Joan, wouldn’t it be funny if it was me who bought the store from you.”

When the word first came out of her mouth she really was joking, but as she left the store and walked to her car, she started thinking even more about the possibility of owning her own business, a dream she’s always had. She comes from a long line of entrepreneurs; her parents own a manufacturing business and her grandparents owned a clothing store and butcher shop. The entrepreneur spirit is certainly in her blood.  

Before this dream could become reality, Meredith called her mother Dana, her go-to financial advisor, to help her put the numbers together. “It all happened really fast,” Meredith said. “It was January when we started talking and made an offer, and six months later by June, I was the owner.”

Though she had worked in retail most of her life, Meredith never owned her own business and knew this would be an adventure all her own. “I came into the shop the first day I owned it and of course you’re overwhelmed a little bit, but I thought ‘Okay I got this,’ I knew I was ready,” she said.

Rebranding A Manayunk Landmark

Back in January when she first decided to buy the business, Meredith started to think about ways to make the longstanding Main Street store her own.  “I thought about changing the name completely, but because it was here and was an established business for years, it was so recognizable that I realized I couldn’t change it, I could just add to it,” she said. “I always say that a longitude comes in and shakes things up.”

The subtle name change from Latitudes Gallery to Latitudes and Longitudes has proven to be a smart one. People who haven’t been to Manayunk in a few years walk in to the store and are excited to see it still here. Meredith assures them that it’s still the same business at heart, but it’s a little different now. “They always say it looks amazing and that I’ve done such a great job with it,” she said. “Those moments make me the happiest.”

Those returning customers are happy to see that Meredith has maintained some of the key merchandise Latitudes Gallery was always known for – mainly their greeting cards, jewelry and children’s toys. She focused on bringing in updated jewelry styles and more Melissa and Doug brand toys. The greeting cards, they’ve always remained the same. “Everybody knows to come here for the funny cards, they’re not your Hallmark cards, they’re raunchy, there’s no better way to say it,” she said. “I have people who come in and sit here for an hour just reading the cards and they just laugh hysterically.”

The decisions Meredith made were all part of her plan to keep the demographic of the store wide enough to include everyone. “I know a lot of gift shops tend to lean towards one certain audience, but I didn’t want that, I wanted to have a store where you could find anything you needed,” she said. “I call it a one stop shop.”

One of the other things Meredith did to transform the gallery into her own, was to remove the outdated display cases to make the store feel more visually pleasing and the items more accessible. As she started researching display methods, Meredith’s creative mind started flowing and she knew right away that with her industrial design degree she could make displays herself. “I guess I have the creative eye, that’s what I’ve been told.” Meredith said. “I wanted to make pieces that brought out the character of what I was trying to display.”

As you look around the store, you can see the handmade touches and a reoccurring theme: bodices. Meredith was candid in saying that she has no idea where her obsession with bodices came from, ever since she was little she loved them and attending a fashion focused school certainly didn’t curb her addiction. She’s always used them as a fun way to display her own jewelry at home, friends and family always buy them for her and her room is admittedly filled with them. “I feel like your jewelry shouldn’t just be hidden away, it should be displayed, so I wanted to do that here so people could see that it’s not just functional, but also pretty,” she said. “Sometimes when I’m out searching, I come across one and I’m like ‘I have to have it,’ I just love them.”

Decorating her window is one of Meredith’s favorite things. The window tells a story of what’s going on in the store and is the best way to draw people in, Meredith explained. “If it’s crafty, the person walking by will get the impression that the owner has an eye for design and knows what they are doing,” she said. And just as we discuss this, we look out the window and see a man walk by – seemingly in a rush to get somewhere – and stop just for a moment, to look at Meredith’s window display that clearly caught his eye.

Finding The Merchandise

Every single item in the store is something Meredith personally has picked out, most of it at the infamous New York Gift Show, the Mecca for all retail shop owners who flock from all over the country twice a year to find new lines to sell. Before going, Meredith reviews the list of vendors, looking at all of their work and marks down their booth locations so she can map out her day. The temptation is the hardest part. Meredith’s mother Dana is not just her shopping partner, but also handles all of the stores accounting and finances. “She’s the one that keeps me in line,” Meredith laughed.

While at the show, Meredith stops by her favorite vendors including Grandmother Buttons, a New Orleans based jewelry company with one-of-a-kind pieces made from repurposed buttons and beads. Meredith orders so much from them that they now know her by name. It’s the hundreds of new vendors that are the most enticing though. “Every time I go to the gift show I try to bring three to four new vendors I haven’t had in the store before and actually this sounds really crazy, but I’ve never had any new vendors that haven’t worked out,” she said.

Shopping all day for new items for the store seems like a dream, but it’s still work. “We start at 9 a.m. and go to 5 p.m. or 6 p.m., so it’s a whole eight hour day of shopping,” Meredith said. “This past year we went Saturday through Tuesday so it was almost 32 hours of shopping and it gets exhausting.”

Since most of the merchandise Meredith picks out at the gift show is handmade, it takes about two or three months for it to come in. “When I get boxes in, it’s like Christmas to me, and when customers see the big shipments dropped off at the store, they can’t wait to see all the new stuff I have, it’s so exciting,” she said.

At Home In Manayunk

When she first walked through the door of Latitudes at 19, Meredith never would have imagined herself as the owner one day. Her dream of owning a business she thought was just that, a dream, not the reality it is today. “The reason why it came true is because my parents believed in me and they were able to push me in the right direction because they had been there before as entrepreneurs themselves,” Meredith said. “I’m still standing today because of my mom. I’m not very good with numbers, that’s my weakness, I know more than I did when I started, but my mom gets all the credit in that department.”

Meredith’s favorite part of transitioning from employee to owner is being able to connect even more with the customers. “I love getting to know returning customers and knowing they will love something new that came in based on what they liked before,” Meredith said. Even more than that, it’s being able to grow up alongside her customers and become a part of their families. “I see people grow up, I see people shop for their boyfriend, their fiancé, their husband, and then their families,” she said. “I’ve seen so many babies grow into young children and puppies grow into dogs.”

Dog owners are great, Meredith said, because once she gives the dog a treat, they always drag their owners back to the store and often end up buying something. “I’m actually bringing in dog items and toys for the holidays for the first time, so I’m pretty excited about that,” she said.

If it wasn’t for that one visit to Latitudes, Meredith would probably still be working in the engineering field making a lot of money, she laughed. “That’s a big misconception, people think store owners have so much money, not so much,” she explained. “I have employees and bills to pay and I pay everything else before paying myself.”

Besides working 60-70 hours a week, Meredith is also an integral part of the Manayunk business community being an active board and committee member. “Manayunk is my home, so I want to make sure my home is the way I want to see it – of course there are things that could still be changed, but that’s with every growing community and Manayunk is growing again,” she said.

Manayunk has been Meredith’s home since college – she’s lived in virtually every part of this neighborhood and has become a recognizable face on Main Street. “When I’m out at the grocery store and someone says, ‘are you the owner of Latitudes,’ and I say ‘yeah that’s me,’ and when I look at the store and everything in here, it’s because I did it, those are the most rewarding feelings.”