New and Exciting Places in Communities Across Mississippi

During my traveling across Mississippi, I have found some great places to shop.  As you can tell, shopping is my hobby.  I can hang with the best of them. Recently, I came across a new way of setting up shop. This is being done in a couple of communities.  Today lets discuss co-op shops.  These shops are popping up all over.  A co-op is a group of entrepreneurs who get together and rent booth spaces from an individual.  The owner of the shop takes care of everything from manning the area, to keeping up with what each booth sells, to taking care of the credit card machine and pays all the overhead.  The entrepreneur rents the booth spaces and then they pay a percentage of their sales to the shop owner for running the store.  It is a win- win for everybody.  This has been very successful across the nation, as well as in Mississippi.  The first time I saw this done was at a place in West Point called Bits and Pieces.  It is a great place and has a little of everything from antiques to new cool boutique items.  I wrote about them earlier in a blog called My Favorite Places. 

I was recently on the coast and had the chance to shop in a place called Maggie May’s.  Nancy Moynan, the owner, is a great lady and has really recovered from Katrina in a great way.  With many of the local artists and stores displaced, she decided to open up a shop with multiple booth spaces for artist to show their work.  One thing lead to another and now this great shop has many beautiful works of art and eclectic gifts.  I talked to Nancy, this week, to get her website address to share with you; but, she told me it is being developed and if you need any information you can email her direct (now that is customer service) at maggiemays126@att.net. 

I live in Columbus Mississippi, and a fairly new place has opened up, called Savvy Spaces Market Place.  What a cool place.  It has around 12 booths and has moderate to high-end merchandise.  I just love it.  Megan and her Mom, Donna Garrison, have the right idea.  Donna has been in retail for over 10 years and really knows the business.  She has had this idea for a while and opened the shop about 8 months ago.  Savvy Spaces Market Place has gifts, gourmet foods, clothing, locally made candles, children’s clothing, maternity wear, jewelry, stationary, and pewter.  I know she is always looking for good quality merchandise and artists to rent booths. 

So, if you get a chance to come to Columbus, Mississippi visit Savvy Spaces Market Place and tell Megan and Donna you read about them on Mississippi Maven – Expert Retail Therapist at janrmiller@blogspot.com. Cool Stuff!!!