Community, creativity, collaboration, connection. To the 10 businesses residing in Phoenix’s 9,000 square foot courtyard located just a few blocks north of Arizona State University’s downtown campus on N. 1st St, The Churchill, promoting these values through forming strong relationships both with each other and members of the Phoenix community is a top priority.
“We’re all helping each other, so it’s just very family oriented. Everyone’s got each other’s backs,” Boudwin Hollett, a shopkeep at Gather said.
Gather is a woman-owned micro apothecary that is located in an 180 square foot shipping container within the Churchill. They sell goods from a wide variety of vendors, ranging from local jewelry makers to perfumers.
“Gather’s main focus is to spread the word of local small shop businesses. So what we do is we provide a lot of like vendors a space to grow their small business outwards of Gather,” Hollet said.
One of the ways that Gather gave small businesses an opportunity to grow was through their incubation program in which they allowed brand strategists and small business owners to utilize their storefront to explore their business plans. This program took place over two “business incubation periods” in 2021, the first one spanning from May to July and the second one ran from August to October.
Laurel Symone, who creates herbal skincare products, was one of the participants of the incubation program. She saw it as an opportunity to expand her brand and “really connect with the Phoenix community more and to share my love.”
The connections between Gather and its vendors is “very beautiful and open” according to Hollett. During her time working at Gather, Hollett has had the opportunity to experience this first-hand by building a relationship with one of the micro-apothecary’s vendors, Zully.
“She makes loose leaf sage bundles and herbs to help people. So I’ve grown a really big connection with her because I’ve made bundles with her,” Hollett said.
While members of The Churchill focus on finding ways to support other businesses, that’s not the only manner in which they support the community. Each of the Churchill’s tenants are required to complete at least four hours of community service every month. Additionally, The Churchill hosts weekly service outings that are open to all members of the community and it also holds continuous fundraisers.
Cosas, a boutique that sells unique gifts made by Mexican artisans, also supports causes that are a bit further away from Phoenix. The boutique sells a line of recycled plastic totes that were handwoven by women in the Jalisco prison system, and all the proceeds go to support them.
“The proceeds go back to [the women in the Jalisco prison system] 100% in sanitary items because since they’re in jail in a secluded area, a lot of the family don’t come to visit, so the vendor who works with Julie [Oberholtzer], the store owner, they make sure that they get them all the money back in like shampoo, conditioner, menstrual products and things like that,” Mem Torres, an associate at Cosas, said.
The boutique also supports Citac, a school in Tapalpa, Mexico, that provides services to children with special needs. Cosas sells a collection of flowers made from recycled soda bottles that are handmade by children at the school, and the school receives a significant amount of the proceeds.
All of the products sold at Cosas are also ethically sourced and the owner of the store knows each of the vendors as well.
“I think it’s amazing when you just come in and hear the stories and it’s not just like ‘oh imported stuff from Mexico’ it’s like ‘no it’s [the store owner] knows every vendor,” Torres said.
Contact the reporter lbrazele@asu.edu.
