New businesses have space at furniture store grand opening

Recently, the Ashley Furniture Store, located at 850 Barnes Drive in the Stonecreek Crossing Shopping Center, opened with fanfare and activities. The new store takes on the old footprint of the former Bealls. Inside, store management extended an opportunity for other businesses to have pop up stands throughout. For new shoppers, there was also a DJ, and employees were handing out promotional cards and other grand opening items.

Ashley General Manager Dustin Seiver said the store will honor grand opening cards until Aug. 31, a grand opening benefit that provides customers with discounts.

Of the small businesses set up at the opening, one of them was from San Marcos. Douglas Smith Soap is a local artisan soap company that Michael Douglas-Smith and his husband Kevin Douglas-Smith started during the pandemic. Douglas-Smith held down the stand at the opening, while his husband Kevin was at the Farmers Market on the Square this Saturday– where the couple usually sells their products from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“We sell handcrafted soaps, all plant-based. No detergents,” Douglas-Smith said, adding that it was on a trip to a local hobby store during the pandemic that lead to their purchasing a soap making kit, and started them on their business journey.

Douglas-Smith said their storefront will be opening Aug. 10 at 208 North LBJ Drive. Another business at the opening was Flower Bar, with founder Jaime Sandborn greeting customers. “I started Hello Flower Bar just under a year ago,” Sandborn said. “I put together custom flower bar experiences for everything from corporate events to baby and bridal showers to birthday parties, and it’s just a really fun way for people to select flowers, get creative and make their own bouquets to take home as a little take-away.”

She offers services at her website, helloflowerbar.com.

Spencer Zamora hosted a succulent potting workshop on behalf of Succulent Native, a company that is owned by Shannon Donaldson and located in Austin. With two locations, one at Lamar and Oltorf, and the second at Lamar and FM 2222, the company is growing.

“Shannon started the shop in 2008 or 2009, and she had a purple bicycle cart that she would take down to 6th Street,” Zamora said. “I used to see her downtown with her little teacups and her arrangements, and then she expanded and opened her first store downtown and expanded up north. So, now we have the north shop and the south shop. We’re an all female owned and operated business.”

Check out the company website at succulentnative.com.