Today we’d like to introduce you to Cassandra Kearns and Christine Bowden Cassandra Kearns and Christine Bowden.
Cassandra and Christine, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My sister and I Christine graduated from college in 2007 when the economy crashed. Christine’s degree was in filming television with a minor and furniture design and mine was in marketing. It was tough to find a job during that time as nobody was hiring. My sister Christine decided to start her own business called Bowden design house where she was traveling all over Texas doing maker craft markets for handmade items. I would travel with my sister as well and one thing we learned doing markets is that there are a lot of unique business and maker made items that are in our back door or even our neighbors that we don’t know about unless we visit these markets. As a maker or artist, it is very difficult to make a living doing something where you only set up on weekends to sell your items.. so my sister Christine, and I thought how cool would it be to actually open a maker store where we featured handmade maker made small business items where somebody could shop their items all year long. So the hunt began to find a place that we could build a maker store.. so the hunt began to find a place that we could open a maker store. We hunted for several years and ended up back in our hometown of Cibolo Texas. In 2016 we started the Shops At The mill and purchased a building in our old town area in Cibolo off of Main Street. We purchased our old hardware store lumber Mill and began renovations on our hundred plus year-old building. after almost a year long Renovations and Construction we opened our doors and will be celebrating nine years this year.. inside you will find a vintage style ice cream parlor where we hand scoop yummy ice cream made in Fredericksburg, Texas by Clear River creamery. You will also find all of the fun unique items by makers artist throughout Texas and the US. we purchase also from other small businesses so when you shop here at the Mill boutique and Mercantile, you are supporting not just us but a lot of of other small businesses, we currently carry products from over 150 small businesses. In 2020 during Covid we were looking to expand our store but quickly realize we were not in a position to do that given the state of the economy being shut down so following Covid, we worked on expanding the store and three years ago, we opened and expanded our clothing side of the business, adding an additional 2500 ft.². The Mel boutique in Mercantile, and the scoop at The Mill is a very unique place and you won’t find something like it anywhere else. It’s a cool place to bring your friends family or just to come hang out with us grab some ice cream or shop for a gift.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Renovating a hundred year-old building plus opening a new small business was very challenging. We had Contractor skip out on us, city issues because of the age of our building, trying to revitalize our old downtown area, which had little to no business in it at that time. We also tore down an old house in Nixon Texas to repurpose materials of the same age of our building so that when we did renovate we were using materials that fit the building the look and the feel.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about The Mill Boutique and Mercantile ?
we have been featured by Yolo, Texas travel in San Antonio two times on national broadcast. Our boutique and Mercantile features handmade maker made items that are unique and different that you can’t find anywhere else. We also purchase items from over 150 other small businesses throughout Texas and the United States.. so when you shop here your shopping local, you’re supporting other small business. We are also known for our ice cream, which comes from Clear River creamery in Fredericksburg, Texas, who has been in business for over 30 years. We get fresh made ice cream from them weekly in which we hand scoop. You can get milkshakes banana splits, sundaes, and waffle bowls.! we get told a lot of times that our store reminds people of a Cracker Barrel style or a Hallmark store. We just wanna be known for as a place to come and bring your family share experiences and find some really unique clothing and gift items for you or a loved one..
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
One unique thing is a lot of people don’t realize that we still work other jobs. My sister Christine still owns Bowden design house in which she sells to other small businesses similar to ours and I still work my day job and the lawn and garden industry as a sales director. A lot of people think that we came from a bunch of money, but we did not. We grew up here in Cibolo and we lived in a trailer and our parents supported us and help us get started with this building and they helped us a lot with the renovations and the remodeling hard labor and love. we love our store and we have a passion for our community and the things that we bring to it and a passion for small business
Contact Info:
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