We already have the Southwest Michigan Wine Trail and the even wider scope of the Makers Trail for wine, craft beer and artisanal spirits, but if avowed environmentalist and dedicated recycler Becky Kliss has anything to say about it there may well soon be a “Re-Sale Trail,” highlighting what she hopes will be an ever-increasing opportunity to buy re-purposed things made from outcast pieces and parts of everything from uncapped beer caps to decommissioned shipping pallets.
It has been nothing but positive vibes for Becky Kliss and her colleagues at Re-Imagine in downtown St. Joseph since opening the quirky shop over the 4th of July holiday. In fact, Becky says that once folks step inside and start discovering all of the possibilities for transforming trash into treasure the first thing they want to know is, “Where are there more stores like this?”
Fortunately, the answer is getting a bit easier to answer considering places like Mosaic Re-Sale and 6 Degrees in downtown Benton Harbor, and to an even greater extent of re-purposed imagination, the new Urban Garage Market on Main Street there.
Best of all for Kliss, who celebrated her formal Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting ceremonies with the crew from Cornerstone Alliance and the Women’s Business Center at mid-week, those who come in automatically start thinking about things they never thought about before and become more inclined to send fewer things to the landfill and more to places like her new Re-Imagine workshop downtown.
Additionally, Becky says, “The people that come to me to consign stuff that they make are hitting home runs with folks!” By way of example she points to the handiwork of a woman who recycles old bedsheets into utility rugs that have been flying out the door. In fact, her “ribbon” in the ceremonies Wednesday at 1pm was actually a strip from one of those bedsheets that was immediately turned around after the giant scissor ceremony and dispatched to the assembly line for inclusion in yet another area rug.
For those interested in learning how to do some of the amazing work that is underway in the Imagination Station inside Re-Imagine, classes will be getting underway in September and October. There’s a pallet class beginning August 31st to learn how to re-purpose ordinary wooden shipping pallets. Children’s classes will be getting started soon at the back of the store, and you can even schedule a birthday party to be hosted inside the Imagination Station where party-goers can re-purpose all sorts of things into newly found treasures.
Traffic at the eclectic new shop at 414 State Street next to The Buck Burgers & Brew has been steady and solid. One sign inside that always draws a chuckle is a parody of the famed Notre Dame locker room reminder to football players to “Play Like a Champion Today.” The spot-on counterfeit reads instead, “Poop Like a Champion Today,” and it has been replicated in small greeting cards as well, which are being sold in the “Ecelectic Menagerie” section of the store, and they’ve been not only a laugh-generator, but a profit center for the consignment artist selling them.
If you missed the original story showcasing Re-Imagine and Becky’s back story on the new place, click this link for the rest of the story as told here at Moody on the Market.com:
https://www.moodyonthemarket.com/at-re-imagine-in-downtown-st-joe-everything-old-is-new-again/
