Carver Junk Company — Doing Good

Shopping Small. It's a movement these days. Back to our roots, supporting our neighbors, and buying locally-handmade items. It's heartwarming, feel-good, and economical. But who exactly are you supporting, when you shop small? When you shop small with Carver Junk Company, you're supporting Chad & Brandy, Allison, Aimee, Caitlin, Carol, Brian, Colette, Lee, Gabe, Erica, Jennifer, Lauryn, Aaric, Cheryl, Rob, Kirsten, Kristin, Naomi, Heidi, Katie, Stacy, Darcy, Dave, and dozens of other local makers. When you shop small with Carver Junk Company, you're supporting our dreams and goals. You're supporting our story.

The CJC Story

We often tell people we started this business on a whim. Which is sort of true, but not entirely. Here's how it happened:

I {Brandy} have always been a DIY-er, in the sense that I like to try new things. I rarely get very deep into a craft or hobby - instead my hobby is really learning a little about a lot of different things. In my mind, that always lent itself to a future business selling locally handmade arts & crafts. I could create new things seasonally, and I could support others that did the same, by selling their items. It got added to the bucket list {a real-life, actual list, from which I check things off} for retirement.

When Chad & I met, he worked in sewer & water construction, which meant long days, and sometimes weeks on the road. I worked {and still do} in a corporate setting. In 2012, we were buying our first home together, and he somehow convinced me to move to Carver, where he grew up. I wanted to live in a neighborhood, where we could walk to shops & restaurants. We looked at 50 houses in South Minneapolis, and 1 house in Carver.

We put in the offer on our new house; a 1,000 sq ft home with a huge yard. A house within walking distance of restaurants {ok...bars} and all these great little "occasional" stores in downtown Carver. As we walked through the stores, a month before we were set to close on our house, I kept thinking to myself "this is exactly what I want to do someday."  We bought an antique warehouse cart, refinished it in the driveway of our old townhouse, for the living room at our new house. All the while, thinking to myself "We could do this." Never saying it out loud.

[caption id="attachment_2376" align="aligncenter" width="720"] The coffee table that started it all.[/caption] The night before we closed on our house, we did our final inspection, and headed into downtown Carver to celebrate with a drink. We passed by one of those little stores, and noticed it was vacant, with a For Lease sign in the window. Without saying a word, I dialed the number. Chad turned to me at the same time, and said "call them." Without ever having talked about opening a business together, this felt like a sign. The next day, we closed on our house at Noon, and signed the lease to our new store at 1:00. [caption id="attachment_2375" align="aligncenter" width="343"] Our new house and our new store. All within one hour.[/caption] We jumped right in. It was 300 sq-ft, and open one weekend a month. Maybe it would be enough extra money for Chad to quit his 60-80 hr/week job that took him away from home so often. Maybe the extra few hundred dollars a month would be enough for him to stay home with future babies {because we weren't having kids with him gone that often}. Now that we lived in Carver, my salary went a bit further, and this seemed like it might be just enough to let us start planning our family. [caption id="attachment_2374" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Our new landlord took our photo after signing the lease![/caption] We worked a lot of hours that first year. We moved from our 300 sq-ft space to an 800 sq-ft space in a basement down the street. We brought in vendors to help us fill space, and we grew our Facebook following to over 10,000. We moved again the following year, to a 900 sq-ft space with no stairs. We had a baby. We opened a second store last year, and have nearly 40,000 fans on social media. We launched a website, brought in many more local vendors, and Chad runs this business full-time. We've been able to hire another full-time employee, and some part-time folks. [caption id="attachment_2377" align="aligncenter" width="720"] The first Carver Junk Company location, the night before Grand Opening.[/caption] We could only have imagined what Carver Junk Company would become when we signed that lease, on a whim. And it's become what it is today because of a lot of hard work, and a community that supports shopping small.

When you shop small, you help us take our daughter to the community center for swimming lessons. You allow us to spend our money at other local businesses - like the restaurant down the street. You enable us to give back, to support local charities and civic groups. You allow us to give the girl scout from Chaska another place to sell her cookies. You allow us to give the dog rescue from Hopkins a place to hold fundraisers. You enable us to bring in more and more makers from our local community, so they too can realize their dreams.

We hope to share more stories from our makers, from now until Nov 28th. Small Business Saturday is the biggest day of the year for small business. Carver Junk Company will be stocked full, at both stores, with handmade & vintage gifts, decor, and furniture. RSVP to our Small Business Saturday event here. 

And, from the bottoms of our hearts - THANK YOU. Thank you for enabling our dreams, and supporting our families.

Have we ever told you how Chad and I {Brandy} met?  Why would we have, really? Hint - it has nothing to do with furniture. The short version is that it was very "Must Love Dogs"-like. One of the things we bonded over was the fact that I had a pit bull named Suvi. Chad is a big dog advocate as well, having a doberman and a chihuahua named Ramsey & Pablo. Together, our passion outside of repurposing furniture is advocating for misrepresented dog breeds. I like to think the two things are related. It's a stretch, I know, but hang with me here.... We take things that are unwanted, un-needed, and un-loved, and find them new homes. Wouldn't you agree that applies to both furniture and dog rescue?? Minnesota Pit Bull Rescue {Suvi's alma mater} finds solid homes for solid dogs. They temperament test their dogs, and their foster-based rescue requires training and an approval process before dogs are adopted out. They work hard to ensure that their dogs are great representations of a misunderstood breed, and that their owners are, too! Carver Junk Company doesn't have any intention of starting a screening process before we "adopt" our furniture out to new homes. But we do feel the underlying principle is the same - we find solid furniture. We rehab it, and offer it as beautiful alternatives to purchasing new furniture. We offer educational options in the form of painting workshops that allow our customers to rehab their own furniture {in lieu of buying new or discarding}. Have I convinced you that it's a natural partnership yet? Pit bulls and Junk? Ok, ok. What if I just tell you that we wanted to do something heart-warming on Valentine's Day, and partnered with Minnesota Pit Bull Rescue to bring in a Puppy Kissing Booth for charity??  I mean, who really cares if it has anything to do with furniture? For a $1 donation, you get sloppy puppy kisses from adorable pit bulls. We get to support our favorite local charity. The dogs get some visibility, and maybe some interested adopters. Win-win-win. On Valentine's Day, February 14th, we'll have a kissing booth setup in the back of the  Minneapolis store from 10 am to 6 pm. The address is 4748 Chicago Ave S.  You won't be able to adopt dogs at the event, but the amazing volunteers there helping with the puppies will be happy to give you any information you'll need to learn about the dogs & the adoption process! Who is coming to kiss some puppies??