New pop-up craft store opens in Courtland

Natalie Rademacher, The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.
·2 min read

Apr. 17—COURTLAND — Area residents flocked to Courtland on Saturday to attend the grand opening of a new pop-up shop in town. The shop, Mercantile on Main, features a variety of local homemade crafts including bird feeders, jewelry, candles and outdoor signs. Some items in the store are upcycled, including birdhouses made out of old cups and saucers.

Lori Olson and a group of friends were having a girls day on Saturday and decided to come visit the new shop. Her son's girlfriend Ashley Kohn is one of the vendors with items available in the store. Olson bought a small decorative wicker basket that Kohn made. Inside the basket was the message, "Home is wherever I'm with you."

The new shop is nestled in the old post office building on Main Street. The other half of the building is a hardware store.

Opening a store is something Kelly Munce has wanted to do for a while. She had been participating in craft shows for years but hoped to create a stable space for people to shop and sell crafts. She currently has nine vendors from the area who have items for sale in the store.

As a pop-up shop, the store is only open for select hours. The store will be open next Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to noon in tandem with Courtland's city-wide garage sale. Mence hopes to open four days in May. Times that the store is open will be posted on the Mercantile on Main's Facebook page.

For the grand opening on Saturday there were door prizes and a drawing for visitors to win items. Around 11 a.m. the shop was full of about 15 customers, all browsing the selection of clothes and crafts available. Munce said it had been busy for most of the morning.

Sara Vollmer of Nicollet visited the opening with a friend.

"I always want to support local businesses," she said. Her friend, Terry Sparks, found and purchased a bracelet and some essential oils.

Munce is an Essig resident, but found a nice place she could rent to house her shop in Courtland. To find vendors for the store, Munce posted on her Facebook page and a couple garage sale sites. She also used word-of-mouth to find people who wanted to participate. With money she receives from the vendors, she said the space is pretty affordable.

Munce also owns Jersey's Sweet Spots Ice Cream Truck and hopes to park the truck outside the store when it's open during the summer.

"This is something I've wanted to do for a while," Munce said.

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