We recently connected with Amanda, Chelsea Delk, Mishler and have shared our conversation below.

Amanda, Chelsea, appreciate you joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Lots of wine… just kidding. Sort of. Getting into this business was really a coincidence. We had briefly discussed opening up something of our own but then a space became available in downtown Owosso. We decided to look at it, attempting to put most of our hesitations aside knowing full well we had no plan, no vendors, nothing. Once there, we knew that was it; we were all in. It became a collaboration of our two personalities; just two friends who had both expressed interest in owning an inclusive space that offers affordable products that we both love; Amanda, who loved the idea of having a refillery for the community, and Chelsea who was interested in a little witchy type book shop. We combined the two and now offer a selection of everything from books and crystals to skincare and soaps.

Amanda, Chelsea, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

We are Amanda and Chelsea, we are friends and business partners. We created Rooted Merchant on a whim, but are passionate about creating an inviting and welcoming space for all. It is at our core to create a safe, healthy, happy, and warm space for all who come in. For us it is less about what we provide (even though we provide some great products), but more about what we can do to help our community. This month we were able to raise and donate $600 to 6 local teachers to help them with their classroom needs. Rooted Merchant has given us the opportunity to help our local community.

We wanted to have products that help our environment and can be obtainable for all. All the products in Rooted Merchant are from small businesses with many of them being women-owned. When people choose to go all natural with their wellness and home products, it can be an expensive endeavor, by offering these products in a refill setting we can help our customers obtain this. We love that our customers bring in old jars from home to fill up their product and find additional items they are buying for the self-care or as gifts.

We live by doing a little bit of good daily creates the biggest difference. We hope we can continue to show up in our community and make small differences daily that impact in a large way.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

We actually met each other through our children. Both of our sons joined a local gym and started doing jiu-jitsu right around the same time and then from there our daughters became friends so we were constantly together. We rented an Airbnb in Ohio for a big Jiu-jitsu tournament and then from there we started doing euchre nights and bonfires. We all just kind of clicked, even our husbands are good friends. It’s actually funny, too, because Amanda is the female version of my husband and I am the female version of hers, which is probably why we all get along so well.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

We do not sell items on another platform outside of our website, www.rootedmerchant.com. The decision for us was an easy one to make because we are literally what our name says; merchants. We buy products and supply them to our community. We do the work of vetting the brand, looking at ingredients, testing out products, etc. We feel like it just would not make sense to sell on another platform outside of our website but we are always updating our products and our website so even people outside of Owosso can enjoy them as well. We have a few regular customers from out of state and so far we have had no complaints with shipping times or anything like that so it’s really going well.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rootedmerchant.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rootedmerchant/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61553289668093

Image Credits

https://www.facebook.com/HeatherCislerPhotography/ Heather Cisler Photography