Wares Market on the Green is a new event hosting local vendors at Century Square’s outdoor area.
The first market will be held Friday Oct. 5 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday Oct. 6 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Century Square.
Christen Sharpe is the founder of Wares, a community of small business owners. According to Sharpe, Wares Market on the Green will be back in town in late November. Over time, Sharpe said she hopes Market on the Green will become a consistent, recurring event.
“I had a vision to bring a different type of retail experience to College Station,” Sharpe said. “I saw it being done really well in [other places] and I really thought College Station had the talent to do it and probably had the interest level to do it here and that’s when we started investigating and trying to see if it would be a good fit for this community.”
Sharpe said she has a passion for uncovering talent and connecting people. To find vendors for the event, Sharpe used both of these skills contacting local vendors who make a good product, have diversity and work well together.
“What we have on campus are some insanely creative souls and people, and that has been the fun part of finding some of these merchants,” Sharpe said. “There are these Aggies with college businesses that are doing really unique things and are entrepreneurs. That’s when we started to discover ‘hey, there’s some really cool talent here.’”
Emily Myers and Stacie Caffey are the founders and owners of Revival Living Interiors, a faith-based business based in the Bryan-College Station area. This shop is one of many that will be at Market on the Green.
“I thinks it’s helped bring awareness to a lot of local talent and it’s an opportunity for people who don’t necessarily have the desire to have a full-on store,” Caffey said. “We’re dreaming big and we feel like there is such a big place for it here in Bryan-College Station. … It’s such a great opportunity to do this and do it well and we pray it ends up being a really big thing here.”
The event will host nine vendors with a wide range of products, including The Naturalist Shop, Thomas Bros. Candles and Reckon T-shirts.
“I feel like there’s a good mixture of vendors and that people who come will kind of get to see a broad spectrum of different things and hopefully have something that kind of appeals to everyone in some way,” Myers said. “[Our vendors have] things that are really different that you don’t see a whole lot of out and about in town at different places.”
Sharpe said she saw a need for an outdoor vendor program in College Station, and hopes the market will help fill that need.
“The community has changed and who’s coming to visit the community has changed,” Sharpe said. “I really felt like College Station needed something that was unique and different and would offer a different draw.”