A new store for plants and more is setting down roots in St. Joseph.
Kaiku Plants + Pop-Ups, a shop for house plants, home décor and various artisan pop ups, is now open in the former Fred Upton offices at 402 State Street downtown St. Joe.
Owners Kelsey and Austin Bock, who also own Bound for Freedom and A Little Collective on either side of Kaiku – as well as Lumberjax Urban Axe Throwing on M-63 – said Kaiku is the latest business in their effort to spread passion for the arts and home life through the local community.
“We were thinking it would be such a fun addition to the town to have a house plant shop,” Kelsey said. “There’s just not anything really like that here.”
Kelsey, who is half Japanese and was raised in Japan, says the name Kaiku is a Japanese word that means “to grow or evolve,” and she envisions the store as way to bring local residents to the downtown area year-round.
While the plant shop will sell plants and other home goods year-round, the pop-up aspect of Kaiku will bring local entrepreneurs into the shop for brief sales opportunities.
“A lot of our friends and acquaintances just have a lot of amazing ideas and creative ways that they want to start businesses, but they don’t want to necessarily take a huge leap of starting a brick and mortar store,” Kelsey said. “We just thought it would be so awesome to have another reason for locals to come downtown and have a variety of creative products.”
In addition to plants and pop-ups, the Bocks envision Kaiku as an evolving shop where locals can also gather for different classes and other events like yoga with plants or terrarium classes.
“Just ideas to get the locals doing things or excited about coming downtown in the fall and winter,” Kelsey said. “We love the idea of getting out of the house.”
While Austin was born and raised in the St. Joseph area, Kelsey said she has grown to love it here and wants to share that passion with the community.
“It’s just really different here,” Kelsey said. “It’s a really magical town. I think as we started our first shop, we really just felt like this was our home and putting roots down just felt right.”
Learn more about Kaiku and find a pop-up schedule on their Instagram @kaiku.mi.
