Eastern Market has always been a showcase for entrepreneurs - standing the test of time
The Brief
Detroit's Eastern Market started in the 1800s and is as relevant to the metro area as ever.
In addition to produce and food, it has provided a platform for entrepreneurs and vendors.
Vendors are always welcome and the application process can be done online from mid-February to May 1st.
DETROIT (FOX 2) - Best known for flower days, farmer's markets and Lions tailgates, Detroit's Eastern Market has a rich history dating back to the 1800s.
If you've been there before, you likely think of the sheds - a hub for vendors to set up shop looking for fresh and local goods.
The backstory
"On a busy Saturday during the summer months, you will see several hundred businesses or vendors in the sheds," said Katy Trudeau.
The market itself has always been a way to get fresh food to an area that is often underserved - and while much has changed in the past century, some things remain.
"One of the things that all types of entrepreneurs are attracted to at Eastern Market, is that entrepreneurial spirit that started over 100 years ago," she said. That same spirit drew business owner Bethany Shorb to open Well Done Goods.
"It started here just as a workshop," Shorb said. "We do all of our screen printing in-house too."
Now, 20 years later, the workshop evolved to a brick and mortar location.
"We just continued to grow as demand arose," she said.
It's a similar story for the owner of Shops on Top, Deron Washington, he jumped at the chance to be a part of the rich history.
"I used to come to Eastern Market as a kid and I'm like wow, now I've got a business here in Eastern Market," said Deron Washington. "What a blessing."
Both Washington and Shorb have learned, it's easy to get customers when the sheds are open - the trick is giving people a reason to come back when they are closed.
"I definitely lean into the customer service, but I do have some nice merchandise too," Washington said. "We (asked) what can we come up with in terms of our brand and we say, 'Y not Detroit'?"
Whether it is building a brand, or being able to pivot to meet a need, success at Eastern Market is about carving your own path.
"We constantly adapted. During Covid we made wild screen-printed ties and T-shirts and no one was wearing ties when they're in front of their Zoom computer, they are wearing sweatpants, so we started making masks."
As for the bread and butter at Eastern Market, you can find it, and so much more, at one of the many sheds which are transformed during the weekends and summertime.
"We brought back our Tuesday Summer Market and kicked off the Sunday Summer Markets on Sunday," Trudeau said.
Market Days are a staple and something customers have come to rely on.
"It's a really important commercial district to Detroit and the region's economy, but we also have to be attracting more residents in and around the area," she said.
And more people means more opportunity. Vendors are always welcome, and the application process can be done online from mid-February to May 1st. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.
"Get on our website and check that out," she said.
Trudeau added that it fills up quick.
"We generally keep a waiting list of vendors to sell in the Saturday market," she said.
Right now Eastern Market has plans to grow right alongside the neighborhood starting construction on Shed 7 this summer.
The Source
Information from interviews at Eastern Market contributed to this report.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Vilonia nonprofit Lisa's Closet goes ‘all in' for local kids with Poker Classic fundraiser to provide shoes & clothing
VILONIA, Ark.- What started as a son's tribute to his late mother has become a winning hand for kids across Central Arkansas. Lisa's Closet, a nonprofit based in Vilonia, is changing lives one pair of shoes at a time—and they're raising the stakes with their biggest fundraiser of the year: the annual Poker Classic, happening June 21 at the Knights of Columbus in Conway. Sean Barber, president of Lisa's Closet, says the organization was born out of tragedy, after his wife Lisa passed away suddenly in 2020 during COVID-19. Family starts nonprofit Lisa's Closet to honor legacy of Vilonia paraprofessional 'Lisa was a kind-hearted, loving person. She loved kids and just lived to help others,' Barber said. 'When she passed, our son Braxton wanted to do something in her memory. He gathered her friends and family, got the ball rolling—and eventually invited me along for the ride.' The result? A growing nonprofit that provides new shoes and essentials like clothing to students in need throughout the community. Lisa, who worked as a paraprofessional, had a special place in her heart for children. That legacy lives on through Lisa's Closet. While the family originally considered a backpack program, they quickly learned about a bigger need: shoes which then turned into shoes and clothing. 'Lisa loved shoes—maybe had an unhealthy obsession with them,' Sean said with a laugh. 'Then counselors started telling us about kids wearing sandals in the winter, shoes held together with duct tape, or ones that were two sizes too small.' Bryant school bus driver donates 75 pairs of shoes to local organization serving kids Lisa's Closet stepped in to help—and the impact has been immediate. 'When a child gets new shoes, they light up. Sometimes the shoes blink or sparkle when they stomp. It's not just about the shoes—it's about dignity, confidence, and helping them feel like every other kid in the classroom,' Barber said. The organization started small, helping just one school in Vilonia. Now, they've gone all in—covering every school in the Vilonia School District and expanding into three schools in Conway, with plans to grow even more. To help fund their mission, Lisa's Closet will host its annual Charity Poker Classic on June 21 at the Knights of Columbus in Conway. While poker might sound competitive, Sean says the vibe is anything but serious. 'It's not like what you see on TV,' he said. 'It's just a fun night to support a great cause. Everyone's playing for the kids.' If poker isn't your game, no problem—the organization also accepts donations year-round and is also holding its charity golf tournament this fall. Lisa's name lives on, quite literally—the nonprofit's logo is based on her actual handwriting. Arkansas nonprofit launches campaign to keep food cold and families fed 'She never liked attention,' Sean said. 'But to know this much kindness is being spread in her name… she'd be smiling right now.' To learn more about Lisa's Closet visit their website or Facebook for registration or donations. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Fountain Valley High School to discontinue theatre course offerings
Fountain Valley High School (FVHS) will discontinue its theatre course offerings at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year, following the reassignment of FVHS Theatre teacher Robert Zick to Ocean View High School. Zick, who currently teaches theatre part-time at both schools, will teach English and Social Theater at Ocean View in the fall. 'It was not my decision … I didn't get a real reason for why it's happening, with the exception of the sections that are not available here [at Fountain Valley],' Zick, who found out about his reassignment last week, said. 'I believe what's happening is that they're trying to deal with declining enrollment through the district and the permanent contracts for teachers.' FVHS Principal Paul Lopez cited declining enrollment districtwide and declining student interest in theater as the reasons for the discontinuation of theatre course offerings. In the past few years, FVHS has offered theatre classes with enrollment at what Lopez described as 'low numbers.' In a transfer announcement email obtained by Baron Banner and sent by Director of Human Resources Dr. Morgan Smith, Ocean View currently has at least one opening for an English teacher. Zick is credentialed to teach English and previously taught English classes at Fountain Valley. 'We're in a situation where [Huntington Beach Union High School District] is not hiring teachers because of declining enrollment,' Lopez said. 'So there's a person that has a credential that has low numbers in other classes, and there's a need at another school.' As a permanent status teacher, Zick is an employee of HBUHSD, meaning he is only guaranteed a job matching his credential at one of six school sites — not a particular school. 'It's a move at district level to allocate personnel and get the numbers where it needs to be for the students in our district,' Assistant Principal of Guidance Casey Harelson said. 'It's not something we're celebrating or happy about, but we understand it has to happen when there's declining enrollment.' Due to the low interest in theatre courses, including fewer than 20 upperclassmen for the next school year, Lopez confirmed FVHS is unable to hire a new teacher for these theatre sections. 'I don't know why interest is declining,' Zick said. 'I know theatre can be scary to students when they're first coming into high school, but I've had seniors wish they did it earlier. A lot of students find their home and their voice here in a safe place to be whoever they are.' The program's future When Zick first arrived at FVHS as a theatre teacher, he slowly built the program up to five sections before the COVID-19 pandemic. Declining interest, Zick's part-time assignment between two schools and the relocation of the Social Theatre class, a unified theater class for special education students, have created challenges at FVHS. Currently, FVHS students have the opportunity to take either a fourth-period Theatre 1, 2 or 3 class or a seventh period Theatre Production class. Theatre 1, 2 or 3 are designed to develop an actor's knowledge and understanding, while Theatre Production is where students rehearse and design the program's various productions. This year's productions include 'The Play That Goes Wrong,' 'Pippin: The Musical' and 'She Kills Monsters.' The program has two final productions for this school year: 'The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals' and 'Check, Please!?' Although Zick says he understands elements of HBUHSD's position, he believes there are other paths to consider for FVHS Theatre's future. This includes utilizing Proposition 28, the California Art and Music in Schools Initiative, which provides additional funding for arts education, to build robust arts programs at each school site that incorporate various forms of visual and performing arts. Proposition 28 funds have been used to hire various new performing arts coaches at Fountain Valley. 'I think the theater community here right now is going to do whatever we can to ensure that there is a path for theater to continue, whether it is through a club or if there can be a class or pooling resources from the community to ensure these students here have an opportunity to continue to do theater,' Zick said. 'It's just figuring out what is the best path forward.' FVHS is currently exploring various alternatives to continue the theatre program on campus, including an after-school format. According to Harelson, there are other theatre classes still available in HBUHSD. This includes Marina High School's zero period and after-school production classes or the Academy for the Performing Arts, the arts magnet program at Huntington Beach High School. It's possible for students' schedules to be accommodated by pursuing theater at another site and academics at FVHS. 'I know Lopez and I are both committed to do everything we can to support the small but passionate group of theater students we have here, and we are currently still exploring alternatives,' Harelson said. 'People should know it's not an intentional thing. It's not that we needed to shut down the theater because they had low numbers,' Lopez added. 'We've been running it with low numbers, which is hard to do with declining enrollment. It's a matter of the whole system working together.' Theatre students' response FVHS Theatre students learned of the news on Monday afternoon through an announcement from Zick himself. Both a petition and a social media account have been created by members of the theatre program to advocate for their concerns for the future of FVHS Theatre. At the time of publication, the petition has received over 2,900 signatures from current and former Theatre students, as well as other community supporters. 'Theatre at FVHS has not only been a space for artistic expression but a crucial safe haven for countless students. Unlike any other space within the school, it provides a nurturing environment where creativity thrives, students find their voices, and a unique sense of belonging is cultivated,' senior Lizzy Doan, author of the petition, wrote. 'We understand that due to low enrollment and issues outside of our control as students, these classes and the theatre program overall are being cut. However, there are still many students currently at FVHS, and incoming students as well, who benefit from the theatre program.' According to comments on a recent post, the 'Save FVHS Theatre' group is planning to organize a dress-up day, contact HBUHSD officials, speak at an upcoming board meeting next Thursday and advocate on social media. 'It's been affecting me emotionally. [Theatre has] been a home, a home away from home for me as much as it is for the students. We had our banquet on Friday, we had an award ceremony [Sunday] and we've got a series of shows that we'll do this week,' Zick said. 'I'm holding on to that mantra 'the show must go on,' so we're going to finish the year strong.' Related
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Trump throws curveball at Japan tea giant's US expansion swing
By Kentaro Okasaka and John Geddie TOKYO (Reuters) -Top Japanese tea brand Ito En's latest push to win over health-conscious U.S. customers with its traditional unsweetened brew has hit a new road bump: President Donald Trump's trade tariffs. The company, which splashed out on a tie-up with Major League Baseball star Shohei Ohtani and launched a less bitter tea to capture a bigger slice of the lucrative growth market, is now debating whether to hike prices or move some production across the Pacific, executives said in interviews with Reuters. The dilemmas facing Ito En can be found across Japan, the biggest foreign investor in the United States, as Tokyo's trade negotiators return to Washington this week to try and strike a deal to cushion the blow to its fragile economy. Makoto Ogi, Ito En's general manager of international business development, told Reuters the company may raise prices of its products in the U.S. to compensate for Trump's 24% levy on Japanese goods set to come into force next month. The problem is their retailers and distributors may resist for fear of losing sales. "We may not be able to ask them to raise our prices despite what Trump is saying," he said. The last time Ito En raised prices in the U.S. - by approximately 10% in 2022 - sales dropped by around 5%. The company said the decline reflected the price hike as well as factors such as COVID-19 that affected market conditions. The company is also considering making tea bags in the United States, and bottling drinks there rather than in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand as it does presently, Ogi and other executives explained during interviews in Tokyo. These details of the firm's potential plans to counter tariffs have not been previously reported. The executives did not disclose the costs of such moves. In its latest results released this month, Ito En reported its profit shrank by 8.2% in the year to April, but forecast an 11% jump this year. It set a modest 3.7% profit growth target for its U.S. tea business, versus 20.7% growth achieved last year, an outlook partly related to tariffs, a company spokesperson said. Its shares rose to nearly a four-month high in the wake of the results, with its president later telling investors the forecasts were "conservative". Many Japanese firms have set up war rooms to chalk out plans to restructure supply chains or cut costs to offset tariffs and keep their U.S. growth plans on track, said Mizuho Bank analyst Asuka Tatebayashi. A survey of 3,000 Japanese companies by export promotion organisation JETRO late last year before Trump's tariffs found the level of interest in U.S. markets at the highest in nearly a decade, with food and beverage companies like Ito En the most enthusiastic. "When you talk to companies in Japan, the U.S. comes first," said Tatebayashi, adding that they face shrinking domestic demand and are generally cautious about expanding into riskier emerging markets. GRAND PLANS For Ito En, the U.S. has long been a market it is eager to crack. Five years ago, Joshua Walker, the newly-appointed head of U.S. non-profit Japan Society, hosted Ito En's North America head Yosuke Honjo in his New York office. Honjo gestured to the green-coloured bottles of their flagship 'Oi Ocha' brand lining the shelves and said he wanted them to spread around the world like Coca-Cola's red bottle. "It was refreshing. Japanese companies would not normally have ambition of that type of grandeur," said Walker, recounting the executive's previously unreported remarks. Honjo, via a company spokesperson, confirmed the remarks. Founded in the 1960s by Honjo's father and uncle, Ito En has grown to dominate Japan's tea market, using around a quarter of the country's total crude tea production. Since expanding into the U.S. in 2001, it has dabbled in selling sweet and flavoured tea varieties familiar to Americans. But more recently it has focused on the unsweetened tea popular in its home market, hoping to tap health-conscious customers and a boom in Japanese food and cultural exports. Honjo said growth has also been aided by a sharp rise in Asian Americans, estimated at nearly 25 million in 2023, or around 7% of the U.S. population, according to the Pew Research Center. Japan's exports of green tea surged 24.6% to 36.4 billion yen ($251 million) last year, with nearly half destined for the United States, official data showed. Some equity analysts like Jiang Zhu of Tokyo-based rating agency R&I have highlighted the high marketing cost of Ito En's international push at a time it faces tough competition at home from tea brands such as Coca-Cola's Ayataka. The company said it has around a 2% share of the U.S. market for tea beverages, ranking eighth largest, with Unilever's Pure Leaf leading the sector. But it has a long way to catch up with the 3.9 billion gallons of Coca-Cola's trademark Coke drinks sold in the U.S. last year, at only 3.1 million gallons by comparison, according to research firm Beverage Marketing Corporation. "Kikkoman's soy sauce is probably in every American household now, but it took about 50 years for it to become a part of the culture," said Akihiro Murase, Ito En's public relations manager, referencing the Japanese food manufacturer as a template for success. "We are not there yet but we would like to make unsweetened green tea a part of the food culture," he said. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
