SPRINGFIELD – The Creative Reuse Marketplace, a one-stop shop for crafting materials and donations has found its new home at the White Oaks Mall in Springfield, relocating out of downtown.
The small arts and crafts nonprofit held a ribbon cutting ceremony for their grand reopening July 5 on the second floor of the mall outside of Malibu Jacks.
While the business is only open two days a week according to their Facebook page, the team is steadily seeking volunteer work behind the scenes at the new location to continue unpacking boxes and get the store set up at 2501 Wabash Ave.
Each section of the store is decorated and themed for different types of crafts materials, divided with an array of supplies for hobby, crafting and artistic need. In one section of the store, customers can find scrap metals and textiles in a category for more hands-on crafts, while on the other side paints and papers for 2-D art are available for purchase.
The reusable and recycling market shop originally opened at 122 Fourth St. in June 2021 by the city’s former Waste and Recycling Programs Manager Adena Rivas.
Full of bolts of yarn, scrap paper, metal parts to old magazines, the shop was the epitome of “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Operating as a place to drop off donated unused craft materials where people could grab for free or buy at a small price, the store operated from 2021 until April of this year, leaving downtown because of space issues, according to the nonprofit.
“While we love, Love, LOVE our downtown location, we have far outgrown our current space,” the CRM team posted to social media in April. “We can’t thank our downtown neighbors, partners, and, especially, building owners, enough for all their support.”
The last day open at the previous location was April 26.
“We’re not a thrift shop, we’re an upcycle crafts shop and one of the biggest things is when you go in you should feel inspired,” Rivas said. “It could get pretty claustrophobic, and it got pretty hard to see what you have. … We had to constantly flip our store over on a monthly basis for seasonal stuff.”
Rivas said while the reuse family of volunteers liked their downtown space, the decision to move ultimately came down to where they could set up best; the future of how the marketplace can interact with downtown is uncertain, but she hopes there is a chance to return through events in the future.
“We love downtown and hopefully we can come back in different ways with workshops, little pop ups,” Rivas said. “It was very, very difficult, a lot of people found that to be the case (on Adam’s Street) after the fire.”
Having a one-stop shop for all materials a crafter would need is a major step for the market who can finally spread out their selection, and make it easier for volunteers to work the shelves.
The store is open Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with days and hours shifting later into the fall season.
Claire Grant writes about business, growth and development and other news topics for The State Journal-Register. She can be reached at CLGrant@gannett.com; and on X (Formerly known as Twitter): @Claire_Granted
