Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Taylor Riot. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Taylor, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

When I started setting up a booth at local markets I kept experiencing a lot of distain and apprehension from the patrons toward the things I was bringing and creating. This was an uncomfortable situation to deal with because I wanted to be in a place where my crafts and vintage items would have people excited to take a gander at what I was displaying. I then finally got on a few markets that were more similar to the flow I was bringing, but unfortunately the more intimate, smaller markets weren’t totally working out either. I was about to throw in the towel and just sell stuff online.
Then one day I was speaking to a friend when she suggested, “just run your own.” So December 2021 I gave it a try. I contacted a local bar that had a good open space that was inside and I ran with it. I wanted it to be a Market for the Strange and Unusual. I wanted this to be a place for people who didn’t sell your average market items, a place where someone that had never vended before could set up their wares with no judgement.
Unfortunately, the chosen location was not the right location, and after a few months I was hard at work looking for new spots that made more sense. I started getting interest not in only new locations but other weirdos were coming out of the woodwork wanting to be apart of what I was doing.
As of today, I am hosting markets in different locations 1-3 times a week, being that it hasn’t even been a year yet some markets are crazy busy and some are slow. I am constantly trying to re figure days and times to make the markets themselves more fitting for the locations they are held in. As well as, looking for new location and trying them out. I have focused on selecting most locations that provide an indoor space so the markets will never have to pause because of cold weather, and in turn keeping all the vendors going through the year.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

As I mentioned previously, I wanted to make a space comfortable for a more alternative group of vendors, as well as individuals wanting to get their foot in the market door, and also be able to practice their approach of setting up booths and approaching patrons. Currently, I host a variety of veteran and newer vendors, we always have a blast hanging out, networking and selling our wares. The vendors range any where from plants, hand made art and jewelry, vintage and scavenged items to hand crafted bone art and horror themed stained glass.
My promotion at this point is all paperless, I mainly use instagram to get the word out about events, as well as making vendor announcements for each booth 1 week prior to the event. My hope with posting the vendor announcements is not only to draw people into the markets if they see something they can’t live with out but also, get the vendor’s names out there for people who may not be able to attend.
I currently have 2 market groups Happy Cellar Bizarre (ig:@happycellarbizarre) and Sales from The Crypt (ig:@salesfromthe_crypt), both of which are held in different locations all over Denver.
I recently held a larger market/fund raiser at a great out door location on South Broadway, where Happy Cellar Bizarre had 20 different vendors and 5 different local bands. Between drink sales, door sales and donations for just that day we were able to raise $954 for The Brigid Alliance which helps with travel cost for abortions and other abortion related expenses, it was an absolutely incredible experience, Happy Cellar Bizarre has another fund raiser in the works for September.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what is in the future for Happy Cellar Bizarre and Sales from The Crypt and all of our weirdo communities.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Being able to extend a non-judgmental arm to people who didn’t have a place to sell their wares, while at the same time selectively curating vendors so we’re not over saturating with the same products and making sure their style makes sense with the flow in each event.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

During the pandemic I was selling vintage items and hand made plant hangers to make it through. Once we started being able to do things again, I started doing markets and selling some things occasionally. That in turn became a full time hustle of running my own markets.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @happycellarbizarre & @salesfromthe_crypt

Image Credits
All the market pictures were taken by myself. Shop ig: @macremancer Happy Cellar Bizarre logo made by Aubrey Izner ig: @aubscenities Sales from The Crypt logo made by Patrick Callnin ig: @chain_wallet