We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Caitlyn Viars a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Caitlyn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

Y’all-Mart started as an idea from my partner Candace. She saw a need for a market space in Columbia for eclectic makers, creators, and curators. I came up with the name and we ran with it. Our first Y’all-Mart was an unexpected success! Each market since has provided us with new challenges from which we’ve learned and grown. We’re still learning and understanding what success means to us. With Y’all-Mart we’ve inadvertently created a community of folks that feel like they belong. As queer women, Candace and I understand how important belonging feels and we are committed to this space of sharing art, ideas, bones, and community. December 4th will be our 8th curated market and the second Y’alltide Greetings!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Y’all-Mart is a flea market for southern eclectic folks. Your local yallternative market! Candace and I are weirdos from the south. We both find comfort in flea markets, thrifts stores, vintage, and bones. Candace opened her vintage shop and began traveling for markets in the South East and got to see first hand what we were missing in Columbia! Flea markets provide smaller businesses with more opportunities to engage shoppers and get their work out there. We want to be able to provide this engagement to as many unique and eclectic creators and curators as possible! It’s been incredible to be able to connect with so many talented folks and even watch them grow over the Y’all-Marts! We hope to be able to facilitate this community for many more markets!

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

Candace and I met playing Roller Derby, and we realized we had A LOT more in common than just the wheels on our feet. We dreamt up Y’all-Mart and have been following our little dream together since. Our balanced skills, shared passions, and open communication has helped shape Y’all-Mart.

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

We’ve built our reputation on being genuine. We want Y’all-Mart to be a space where folks feel comfortable being who they are. In order to facilitate that, we strive to be 100% ourselves as much as possible. This means being true to our intentions, not always knowing the answer, and honesty when we are wrong.

Contact Info:

• Website: yallmartsc.com
• Instagram: yallmartsc
• Facebook: facebook.com/scyallmart