This Fresno plant store has a new bookstore inside, plus a small business incubator
What started as a little plant shop in central Fresno now has four small businesses operating under one roof.
The Let It Grow plant store near Shields and Van Ness avenues is turning into a sort of small business incubator.
The store, just around the corner from Gazebo Gardens, opened about a year ago selling all kinds of houseplants and associated goods.
Now, three other businesses have opened under the same roof.
Mobile book seller The Book Bus opened a storefront in the building just before Christmas.
Good Fill, a zero-waste retailer where customers bring their own containers for refillable handsoap and other products, moved in last year.
And as of last weekend, local skincare company Dorothy Mae & Dominga is its products there.
Keep reading for more details on each business.
Plant store origins
The original business owner, Kelly Replogle of Let It Grow, took over the main part of the building, stocked with all kinds of houseplants. When you walk in to the 1,500-square-foot building, there are rooms off to either side that the other businesses have moved into.
Replogle was hosting pop-up events with vendors on her back patio and got to know all three businesses through those events.
All four owners are women and all have loyal followings on Instagram and other social media platforms.
“It’s a little bit selfish,” Replogle said. “The more we support each other in small business, the more we reap the benefits.”
None of the businesses have big marketing budgets, she said.
“For me, marketing has been a huge stressor in business, and social media has been bar far the most lucrative marketing,” she said.
So it made sense to partner with other businesses that have big Instagram and Facebook followings. A customer may come in for a book, for example, but end up leaving with a plant too.
The business owners also bounce ideas off each other, and share information about topics like taxes and recommendations, like for bookkeepers, for example.
Several of the businesses put an emphasis on sustainability and most have a similar target market, noted Good Fill owner Alyssa Ndombeson.
“It’s been great to have the same mindset in the same space,” she said. “It’s been a fun environment to have all these entrepreneurs in there and we can all share ideas.”
The arrangement also gives the smaller businesses a leg up when they may not be able to afford thousands in rent on their own storefront location.
They pay more affordable rent to Replogle that’s based, in part, on their sales.
All businesses share the same hours as the plant shop, on Thursday and Friday evenings and throughout the weekend.
Books, skincare and zero waste
Want to know a little more about the other businesses?
The Book Bus’s Anna Lackey was a mobile book seller who would haul her books to various events around town. Now she has a permanent home – and a comfy chair to read in – inside Let It Grow.
She sells lots of popular fiction – from Stephen King to the Game of Throne series – along with classics.
Good Fill was started by Ndombeson in March of 2020, right as the pandemic started affecting life locally. She would deliver refills to customers’ homes, pouring from a gallon jug into the customer’s container on their porch.
Now customers bring their containers (mostly spaghetti or pickle jars they’ve saved) to Good Fill. They refill their containers with handsoap, body wash, or all-purpose cleaners for bathrooms and kitchens.
After Ndombeson subtracts the weight of the container, customers pay only for the fluid they’ve purchased.
Dorothy Mae & Dominga is a skincare line made by Fresnan Rachel Gomez-Wafer. The business is named after her grandmothers.
The handmade products include facial moisturizers and masks, bath soaks and hair care products. Each product is named after family or friends who inspire her.
The business officially moved in Saturday, though she’s done pop-up events in the space already.
Details: Let It Grow and the three other businesses are at 529 E. Shields Ave. Hours: 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays.
This story was originally published January 18, 2022 at 10:13 AM.
