COLUMBIA − A new Columbia store taps into Black history to give aspiring business owners a launch pad. The Shops at Sharp End held a soft opening on Friday and fully opened on Wednesday.
The store offers a physical location for people trying to start a business. It’s located at the corner of Walnut Street and Fifth Street in downtown Columbia, once the heart of the city’s Black community. The Sharp End was a collection of Black-owned businesses, homes and churches.
The Central Missouri Community Action (CMCA) partnered with The District and the Regional Economic Development Inc (REDI) to set up the shop.
Federal funds helped push the store over the finish line. An American Rescue Plan Act grant through Boone County allowed the group to hire staff, including a shop manager, according to Jayme Prenger with the Missouri Women’s Business Center.
The store is a business incubator which provides space for entrepreneurs to sell products and establish their brands. About 20 business owners offer products in the store, Prenger said. The store is set up to support double that number.
“[It’s] for retail businesses that want to get started but they just don’t know exactly where to start,” Prenger said. “They don’t have the funds for the overhead of having their own brick-and-mortar, things like that.”
The store also plans to hire a business coach and will offer a six-month-long workshop. It’s a chance for business owners to test their products on the market, Prenger said.
Anyone can apply to be a vendor, but it places an emphasis on Black-owned businesses like Black Tea Bookshop, run by former Columbia Public Schools teacher Candace Hulsizer.
Black Tea is a curated bookshop that focuses on Black stories and authors, Hulsizer said. The store offers a variety of children’s books, novels and memoirs.
Hulsizer was a second-grade teacher and reading specialist with CPS for around 20 years. She was also an adjunct professor at the MU College of Education and Human Development.
Hulsizer said there is a “huge gap” in the types of books available to students. Minority students don’t see themselves represented in enough stories, Hulsizer said.
“As a mom, as a reader myself, and then as a teacher myself, I realized that it was part of my responsibility, and what I wanted to do, to fill in that landscape,” Hulsizer said.
The store is a passion project for Hulsizer, who also has a full-time job. She hopes to open up new worlds for both kids and adults.
“This is my dream,” Hulsizer said. “My dream is to be able to be around books, to talk about stories, and to get these stories into the hands of our community.”
Hulsizer heard about the incubator through the Missouri Women’s Business Center, where she’s been getting advice on how to grow her business. Hulsizer said she plans to host pop-up events and eventually open a physical location.
Christina Jones visited the store Friday to support Hulsizer, who’s a friend. She said the history behind the Sharp End carries on through the store.
“As I was walking to the shop from my parking space, in my mind, I thought about how this may have looked years, years ago,” Jones said.
Customers can also buy clothes, drinks, hand-crocheted animals and spices at the store. Prenger said the shop will be “kind of like a revolving door” of business owners. It will offer space for business owners until they can set up on their own.
“This really is a program to build them up so that they can stand on their own,” Prenger said. “And they have the skills and the knowledge and things that they need to start their own business.”
The store, located at 500 East Walnut St. Suite 109, is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. This Saturday, the store will be open from 10 a.m. to noon. Click here to apply to be a vendor at the store.
