IndieRetailer.com

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Indie Retailer - Search Engine for Independent Retailers and Consumers

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About Us

This site was conceived by a San Diego married couple of independant retailers, or “Indie Retailers.” Our names are John & Jennifer and we considered ourselves too young and more modern thinkers than to have taken on the label of “Mom & Pop Shop.” Although fitting the traditional description of small independant business owners striving to establish a legacy for our children, after some time we realized that traditional “Mom & Pops” were generally left to tend their business and had few worries of “big box” competitors/predators. As such, there wasn’t much need for ingenuity, imagination, and/or business diversity…Before we get too far ahead, let’s start from the beginning of our (ad)ventures and get you caught up.

Our little story starts in 1998 in a series of “accidental whims.” In April of that year, we visited a little shop in our neighborhood owned and operated by a French woman who sold French artist’s paintings and furniture. She told us she is having a sale because she is going out of business. We took advantage of her demise, made our purchase, and went home. Jenny and I had some light-hearted discussion on what it would be like to open our own little neighborhood business. The following day, we returned to the office of the owner of that retail space and signed the lease, returned home not really sure if we really just did that and said, “Now what?”. Neither of us had any idea what we were going to do with the space and neither of us really had any business experience other than working for someone else. We just knew that the location was one of the best spaces in our neighborhood. There’s a great restaurant next door that’s been there well over 20 years and draws a good weekend crowd. There’s almost always a wait outside for a table, and we would be right within browsing distance. To give you an idea of “our little neighborhood”, we are just about 4 miles outside of downtown San Diego in a community generally known as South Park. We’re about 3 miles east of the world famous San Diego Zoo and Balboa Park. Although we’re surrounded by beautiful and fantastic tourist traps… er… I mean attractions, our neighborhood is not on the way to or from any of them. The only way you would typically be found here is if you live here or were lost. Well, except to intentionally go out of your way to shop in our quaint and wonderful little shop of goods that you simply can’t do without! O.k., so back to our story. “Well, now what?” Jenny and I had thought perhaps we’d run a stained glass shop seeing as how it was a hobby of ours at the time. With more thought, we realized how time consuming and tedious the work was and we’d probably never be able to keep up with the demand of our highly artistic quality work. Of course, already having a good 6 months experience with production, how could we expect anything else. Hmmm, o.k., maybe not. How about a candle shop?!? Yeah…there isn’t anywhere to buy candles for several miles without going to a mall, fighting traffic, or scrambling for parking in downtown San Diego. O.k., fantastic, but we can’t just have candles, what else?Jenny and I had recalled a vacation to Bali a couple of years previous and remembered what beautiful crafts and art they produced there. I thought perhaps I’d go and pick up a few gift and decor items to add to our little venture. About 2-3 cubic meters worth ought to give us a good start. As Ignorance on Fire*, I flew to Bali in May of 1998 not having the first clue that riots, political and economical turmoil were about to erupt. I visited as many carvers and craftsmen as I could in the relatively short time I would be there. By the end of the trip, I had purchased enough products to fill an entire sea freight container (you know, those big garage looking things you see traveling down the highway?).

After the U.S. Embassy had called for all American nationals to leave the country in a hurry, I returned home and told Jenny that I had purchased a little bit more than the 2-3 cubic meters we had intended. And again, we were faced with a “Now what?”. We had no room to speak of for storage in all 400 square feet of the shop and we had a full container enroute.