The Tug Valley Chamber of Commerce helps create community by elevating artisans.
written by ADRIAN KIGER
photographed by NIKKI BOWMAN MILLS
THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN WILLIAMSON has taken a creative business idea to the next level, and the entire community is benefitting. In the Collective Retail & Artisan Shops, a business incubator and retail co-op, nine small businesses have set up shop in a space that was once part of the First National Bank.
The idea for The Collective originated in 2019, when Chris Canterbury, president of the Tug Valley Chamber of Commerce and a business owner and pro-Williamson blogger, began thinking of ways to create “something that was missing,” she says. What was missing was opportunity and community in the downtown area. Canterbury shared her idea with Randall Sanger, executive director of the Tug Valley Chamber, and the two began brainstorming ways in which they could highlight small businesses and give them a chance to shine without the onerous overhead.
The idea was sidetracked in 2020 by the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, in 2022, fate stepped in. The First National Bank building in downtown Williamson, formerly the Hobbs Department Store, was looking to downsize. As the banking needs of citizens have changed over the years, the enormous space for tellers was simply no longer needed. Online banking had become prevalent and in-person banking could be done on the building’s second floor, so the first floor would literally be empty. When bank President Charlie McCoy shared this news with Sanger, the angels, as they say, sang.
The idea now had a physical space. Canterbury and Sanger had already devised how The Collective would run: artisan makers enter into a juried selection process with their goods. Those who are chosen rent a space in the building and pay the Chamber by the square foot. Customers pay one cashier, who is employed by the Chamber. “Most small business owners cannot afford the overhead of a space in which to sell, so this format allows them to get their products out into the community,” says Canterbury. “It also encourages people to just get out and socialize with one another.”
After two years, The Collective is going strong. The nine artisan shops sell everything from children’s clothes to books and homemade candy. Canterbury is always looking for new ways to keep The Collective fresh, and she hopes it will inspire other communities to set up something similar. For now, it is a work in progress, and progress is important.
68 Second Avenue, Williamson, “The Collective Retail & Artisan Shops” on FB
READ MORE ARTICLES FROM WV LIVING’S WINTER 2024 ISSUE
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