The Locavore Variety Store is now open in Greenwich Village, inspiring New Yorkers to shop small and local by showcasing 130+ brands and 700+ products made within 100 miles (ish) of the city. A true “variety store,” the eclectic product assortment includes homewares like brooms handmade in Brooklyn (Lower Valley) and table linens (Linoto), beauty and wellness items like artist-made body oil (A.OK Oil) and fancy candles (Joya Studios), as well as gourmet goods like dried fettuccine (Borgatti’s) and a pickle barrel (Eddie’s Pickles, NY’s oldest pickle maker).
Caroline Weaver, a specialty shop owner-turned-small business champion, brings her retail experience (CW Pencil Enterprise, 2014-2021), and fanaticism and knowledge of local brands to her latest project–a physical manifestation of The Locavore Guide, an online directory of 14,000+ independent brick-and-mortar retailers in NYC. Over the last two years, Caroline has walked 30,000+ blocks through 170 neighborhoods across the five boroughs to document each listing by hand (no algorithms!) to build a catalog of small, local businesses. The Locavore Variety Store will also sell NYC guidebooks, including The Locavore Guide to Shopping New York City, a printed guidebook publishing later this year.
“So many products that are made locally aren’t easy to find in actual local stores, and my hope is to create an engaging environment for showcasing them. From old-school classics, to great new brands, my goal is to stock .
