Bussiness
Shop small at a big location: Local market Sweet Pickins is home to 70 small businesses
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LaLa Horton is working hard to keep vintage current.
She’s owned Sweet Pickins, a vintage boutique market in North Fort Myers, for seven years, but has been a business owner for more than 25.
Instead of making her store focused on one type of product, Horton has created a brick and mortar location for 70 small business owners to showcase and sell their products.
Sweet Pickins offers furniture, antiques, apparel, gourmet food, bags, soaps, jewelry collectibles, and so much more. If you can think of it, Sweet Pickins probably has it.
Horton has fought hard to keep her doors open through hurricanes, the Covid-19 pandemic, and issues with the economy.
“Six months after opening, Covid shut us down,” Horton said. “Many resellers were not able to come back from this event. Sweet Pickins had the stamina to endure and move on.”
She says passion keeps her going.
“Not only did I find my passion, but now I can make a living doing it,” Horton said. “There is no experience like owning your own business.”
Horton says the best part about running Sweet Pickins is being able to give her “boothies” the opportunity to run their small businesses without having to worry about the expense of having their own building. “Boothies” is the name Horton gave her clients that rent booths inside Sweet Pickins.
“I love to advise, teach, mentor, and share my 30 years of knowledge to help boothies scale their side hustles into a successful, profitable small business.”
Sweet Pickins opened on June 1, 2019 at 4150 Hancock Bridge Parkway in North Fort Myers. Horton said she loved the challenge of opening the storefront.
“The challenge of finding and sourcing desirable items, creating beautiful booth vignettes, and repurposing discarded items into beautiful, desirable, affordable home furnishings set my soul on fire,” Horton said.
Sweet Pickins is open every day from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“The store is absolutely stunning,” Horton said. “We’re set up with beautiful vignettes. We have the most talented artisan and our prices can’t be beat.”
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