Shack to storefront

The alternative healing and hippie shop, Holistic Gypsiez is continuing to grow despite the pandemic. The store held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday with the Mt. Pleasant Area Chamber of Commerce.

“It’s been overwhelming and amazing seeing our store grow,” owner Sarah Gordon said. “I originally started out in a shack behind house. It was my little craft shack that I used to create and sell my crafts, and now it’s turned into a whole community. I love it.”

Gordon and her partner, John Howell, opened Holistic Gypsiez in 2018 in a small, rented space in Salem.

“It was just going to be something I could do for a hobby, and in 2019, we found the little space out by the old Pizza Hut,” she said. “Then I just showed up everyday and worked. I just wanted to create a cool little shop, and it just grew like a big baby.”

Holistic Gypsiez recently moved to a bigger space just off the Mt. Pleasant square. Though the move occurred during a time in which small businesses were struggling due to the pandemic, Holistic Gypsiez has seen an increase in business and foot traffic.

“We’re always busy, and everything from the orders to the foot traffic has been quadrupled,” Gordon said. “We have this bigger space now, and I’d love to do more with it.

“Back in the small shop, we could barely fit more than three people in the store at a time, and now we have all this room,” she said. “I’d love to have more events and activities to really use the space, maybe even get some local artists to show their work or hold special classes on things like crystals.”

Gordon is excited that the community has received Holistic Gypsiez so well and that the community within the store continues to grow each day.

“I am an eclectic person, and I got into the holistic life as a path of coping with my medical and mental health,” she said. “I’ve met and bonded with so many people through this shop, and in the end, it comes down to I just want to help people.

“It’s exciting, because I go places now and I know people,” Sarah said. “I want to bring hope to people that have come from tough times, and if that means people just come in to look around, have a chat, that’s perfectly fine. I just want to help.”