L.O.V.E. for tender Locally focused West Kildonan emporium takes made-in-Manitoba mantra to heart By: David Sanderson Posted: 3:00 AM CDT Saturday, Sep. 30, 2023

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This article was published 30/09/2023 (742 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A few Fridays ago, Amanda Woodard, owner of L.O.V.E. located at 1729 Main St., received a text message from a person named Darlene.

Darlene had been showing up at L.O.V.E. — which stands for Locally Operated Vendor Emporium — like clockwork every Saturday morning since it opened in January, only she was hosting company that weekend, she explained, and wouldn’t be able to get to the West Kildonan locale, as per usual.

Woodard smiles, saying while that sort of exchange is probably commonplace at medical offices or hair salons, it’s unlikely many are going out of their way to let a retail outlet know there’s been a change of plans. Then again, L.O.V.E. isn’t your average, everyday store, she points out, seated at a table toward the back of the 1,400-square-foot premises, which, as the “Locally” in its tag implies, is stocked exclusively with made-in-Manitoba goods, among which are foodstuffs, clothing, jewelry, stationery and beauty products.

“By now, we have a lot of regulars who feel more like friends than customers,” says Woodard, as she adds a splash of pumpkin-spice creamer to a cup of Headingley-produced Jacked Up Jill coffee, packages of which are available for purchase near the front counter.

“Quite often they’ll be walking or driving by, and will stop in just to say hello. Darlene was right to send a text. If she hadn’t, I definitely would have been on the phone, asking where she was and making sure everything was OK.”

Woodard, a mother of four and grandmother of one, can’t recall a point in her life when she didn’t dream about running a store of her own. During high school she had a part-time job at a women’s apparel shop. At the end of every shift, as she was refolding tops and tidying inventory, she’d look around and think, wouldn’t it be wonderful if “all this” was hers?

Life, as she puts it, ultimately got in the way of her goal, but seven years ago she found herself at the helm of Style & Sass by Amanda, a home-based venture specializing in imported women’s fashions and accessories. At the time, multiple city hospitals were hosting weekly craft sales in a public lobby for patients and visitors alike. Woodard quickly became a familiar face at said affairs, where she would peddle leggings, joggers, tunics, sweaters and capes.

Style & Sass by Amanda was still going strong in March 2020, when the province began instituting restrictions related to COVID-19. That included shuttering the type of sales Woodard had been attending. Seemingly overnight she — and others like her — had nowhere to turn, to make a living.

Even after the sales were re-instituted a few months later her thought became, what happens if there are more lockdowns? It was then she paid a visit to Garden City Shopping Centre, close to where she lives, to inquire about renting a kiosk in the mall.

Never mind a kiosk, a manager told her. For a similar fee, she could have a sizable unit formerly occupied by Peoples Jewellers. Given that was where her husband went to choose her wedding ring, how could she say no, she says, flashing her left hand.

The lone stumbling block was that Style & Sass didn’t require as much room as she was being afforded. To remedy that, she began contacting entrepreneurs she’d gotten to know at the hospital sales, to ask if they’d be interested in sharing the space. When L.O.V.E. officially opened on Sept. 20, 2020, Woodard had been joined by six other locally run businesses, a number that quickly doubled, then doubled again in the ensuing months.

“It actually reached a point in the summer of 2021 where we had two setups in the mall, the former Peoples spot and another area near centre court,” Woodard says, listing Chef in the House soups, Waldbee honey and Casa Terra soy candles as vendors who’ve been with her since the get-go, or close to.

However, because L.O.V.E. was limited in terms of what it was allowed to carry — for example, they couldn’t have fresh baking on-site due to a competition clause with other mall tenants — Woodard began hunting around for a stand-alone location in the fall of 2022.

Like we mentioned earlier, L.O.V.E. moved into the former home of Sprint Cycle in January. One of Woodard’s ideas when she was at Garden City was to stage in-house demonstrations featuring individual vendors. Rules there prohibited such goings-on, but now that she had a space of her own, she began hosting near-weekly get-togethers, be it cooking classes, soap-making tutorials, sewing circles… you name it.

“Last week we had a dotting workshop and in a few days we’ll be hosting another paint night,” she says. “Those sort of things go a long way toward getting people through the doors on a weeknight or chilly day in the winter, and of course when they’re here, they almost always go home with something that catches their eye.”

L.O.V.E. currently carries goods from close to 110 different Manitobans. One of the newer vendors is Celeste Goncalves, owner of CG Pure Wash, a line of soaps, shampoos and body washes containing all-natural ingredients.

CG Pure Wash began as a small, home-based venture specializing in handcrafted bath and body products, says Goncalves, who formerly worked in the dental industry. She says it was “serendipitous” how her products found their way into L.O.V.E.

“Amanda and I share a passion for promoting natural and eco-friendly products,” she says, when reached at home. “When she discovered our products and learned about our commitment to environmentally conscious bath products, she graciously offered to stock them in her store. It’s been a wonderful partnership that allows us to reach a broader audience of health-conscious and sustainable-living enthusiasts.”

Connor Ward of Westside Craft Sauce, which offers seven flavours of preservative- and chemical-free marinades and sauces, has been partnering with L.O.V.E. for a little over a year. He says locales such as Woodard’s give entrepreneurs an opportunity to have their products available to the public year-round, as opposed to just in the spring and summer market seasons.

“It’s such a small, tight-knit community and as important as creating is, it’s equally important to have sales channels,” he says, noting he became a big fan of a locally produced freeze-dried candy solely by discovering packages of it at L.O.V.E. “Sometimes makers’ only (options) are craft markets, but stores like L.O.V.E. allow for growth, and bring us customers we likely wouldn’t have had, otherwise.”

Woodard is looking forward to her first holiday season in her new digs, which, as of a month ago, boasts a self-contained reiki studio run by Cherie Bowman. Besides regular hours (the store is closed Mondays), she intends to introduce private shopping parties for groups of 15 or so, on an appointment basis.

Additionally, she continues to hear from people who are interested in getting their handiwork onto her shelves. And although some of them express concern, telling her they might not be “big” enough, or that they don’t have a large following on social media, she assures them that isn’t a necessary criteria.

“One of my favourite vendors is an 85-year-old woman named Julie Melsted who makes greeting cards, who isn’t on Facebook or Instagram, and whose husband drives her here, when it’s time to restock, because she needs a walker to get around,” Woodard says, reaching for one of Melsted’s designs. “I do make an effort to try or study everything I carry but in the case of somebody like Julie, I knew within five minutes of chatting with her that she was what I call ‘my people.’

“I always say it’s a win-win: I need stock and people need a place to sell it,” Woodard continues, adding she should probably give that a shot, when it’s suggested she consult a card reader who sets up in a corner of L.O.V.E. every Saturday, to determine if a particular day is going to be busy or not.

“Plus, I’d much rather know that they’re concentrating on making their product, instead of spending time running around from one market to another. ‘Do what you do best,’ I tell them, ‘and let me do the selling.’”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca