As the holidays come to an end and we enter into this new year. The possibilities of what 2024 could hold seem endless. The month of January at Urban Southern is always a time of reflection on what the prior year brought, how we grew as a company, and how we can work to improve in the future. It's a time of reevaluating our strategies, policies and getting creative with a game-plan on what we want the next year to look like.
As we take time to reflect on 2023, there are a few memories/events that stand out.
Vendor Marketplace's
This last year we were blessed with the opportunity to branch out and open up booth spaces in 2 local vendor markets. It was a new adventure for us, as our only prior experience with vendor marketplace's was in running our own, with the Artisan Barn. So being a vendor in another local space was so fun! We moved into the Artisan Village in April, and the Artisan Mill in June and have so enjoyed having multiple retail locations in Lancaster.
1 Year Anniversary
In June we celebrated our first anniversary at our new building with an event at our storefront. The day included sales, giveaways, food & ice cream trucks and celebrating with the local community. We had the most amazing time, and felt extremely grateful for how the Lancaster County community has supported us since opening our doors.
New Product Launch
August came along and it was time for a product launch! Our team had been working on SIX new products for months and it was finally time to reveal them to everyone. We released the Urban Sling , Urban Slim Crossbody , Everly Wristlet Wallet, and something a little different for us, 3 new Canvas Totes. Launching new products is always a big highlight of our year. We're constantly working to come up with new ideas for products and its such a pleasure to see our customers enjoy them.
As summer came to an end and autumn approached, we got ready to take part in 2 pop-up vendor markets. First was the Devon Horse Show - a 4 day show that encapsulates all things equestrian. The oldest multi-breed horse show in the country; Devon offers up a wide array of equestrian sporting events, vendor shopping & food. Next came our favorite show of the year, Farmhouse Market! This 2 day makers market is always a highlight of the fall season in Lancaster County. With 60+ local artisans offering up a selection of handmade items, plus delicious food & live music from local musicians; Farmhouse Market is THE place to be.
Holiday Open House
November marked the start of the Christmas season with our annual Holiday Open House. We celebrated with sales, giveaways, food & coffee trucks, plus a s'mores station. All those Lancaster locals showed up to support us again and blew our expectations of that day out of the water! Our morning started with a line of customers wrapping around our building to the road and customers consistently flowed through our store until closing time that evening.
Yuletide Devon
The Christmas season was in full swing and in December we were back at Devon setting up another pop-up store, but this time, for a Christmas village. Yuletide Devon brought a traditional European style Christmas festival to the Devon Horse show grounds. From Black Friday to New Years eve, this event boasted unique vendor shopping, live performances from top tier music artists, gourmet food, Christmas lights & more.
Topping off our holiday season was was our Fox & Friends News interview, which was certainly the most unexpected event of the year! Earlier in the year, we had been in contact with a representative from Madeinusa.com (a new online marketplace for shopping products exclusively made in America) about the chance to promote our products on Fox News. It was something that was occasionally discussed and there was a small possibly that it would happen, but if we're honest we weren’t holding out much hope. It seemed like such an amazing opportunity, but we didn't want to get too excited in case it never happened. So you can imagine our surprise when on a Tuesday morning we received a call asking if we would be available for that Saturday's show! Our team quickly prepped a selection of products and our owners Daniel & Rachel packed up and set out early Saturday morning for New York City. The cast & crew at Fox were all so accommodating and kind. We thoroughly enjoyed our experience shooting the segment and have been absolutely blown away with the support & orders we've received since it aired.
Click Here To Watch Our Fox News Segment!
New Family Member
Finishing out our list of favorite 2023 highlights is a non-business related one. In December, Daniel & Rachel had the privilege of adding a new member to the family! The Smucker's are officially a family of 6 with the finalization of the adoption of their youngest child Joshua. Sweet little Joshua has been a part of the family as a foster child since coming home from the hospital as a newborn, and now as of December is officially a Smucker. Which has definitely been the best Christmas gift of the year!
