A Market Off Mill Celebrates Grand Opening

A Market Off Mill (or AMOM) held their Grand Opening celebration a couple months ago. It is a shared space concept that was created by Shanel Smith. Smith originally had a traveling and online boutique called Obsessed, which she started 2.5 years ago. It was a creative outlet for her to sell her repurposed vintage tees, along with other clothing from up-and-coming designers from around the country.

After doing that for some time, she felt that she wanted to plant some roots in the community. She explains further, “I knew that I needed to settle down and begin creating a solid foundation for myself, and I knew I couldn’t have done that with the traveling boutique so I begin exploring options for a retail space. To be honest, I was a little scared of pursuing that on my own, so my sister gave me the idea of having other small business owners join me and making it a shared space.  And so AMOM was born on a Sunday night sitting around the dinner table.”

She found a quaint space off Mill Avenue, and enlisted the help of several local makers to join her in the venture. Along with selling her Obsessed brand, the other makers include: Slather Botanicals, Emerge, Keep It Wild Co., Southwest Leggings, Adam Rabbit Jewelry, Bearded Lads, BÄRA, Knee Deep Denim, Iconic Cocktail Co., and Burn Candle Company. “As a small business owner, it is hard to work with other people because you feel like a lot of the people who are “helping” do it with intentions of benefitting themselves.  Sometimes it’s hard to find people who really want to help small businesses grow….well I wanted to change that.  With AMOM I wanted my fellow small business owners to know that this truly is about them, it is about helping them grow and bringing more attention to their brand and awareness to the community about small companies who previously were online only or a pop-up-shop.  This is not a business venture for myself, but a business venture for all small businesses in Arizona.  I want this to be a place they can come and grow,” Smith explained.

The Grand Opening celebration was well-attended. It was so great seeing such a welcoming community that supports small businesses. Guests were treated to cocktails (and mocktails) by Matt and Kaylee- the duo behind the famous-all-over-Phoenix Iconic Cocktail Co. Passed bites were served by Honey Bears BBQ, which unfortunately I wasn’t able to savor due to diet restrictions; however, I could tell that guests enjoyed them, as plates were empty in a matter of minutes. For dessert, there were beautifully decorated cactus cookies, succulent cupcakes, and small cakes in a cup- created by Lisa’s Boxed Kakery. Those little cake cups pack so much flavor in such a small bite!

Follow A Market Off Mill on Facebook and Instagram to check out when their workshops are, as well as other announcements.

Scroll down to see more photos from the event.