Sustainable Lifestyle Store Coming to Uptown Saint John
SAINT JOHN — A new entrepreneur wants to create a place for Saint Johners to shop and learn how to live more sustainably.
Katelyn Price is the founder of Juniper, a sustainable lifestyle store expected to open in uptown Saint John this spring.
The shop will carry sustainably made and sourced clothing, skincare, gifts and small homewares. It will also feature a refill station, sustainably and ethically sourced cleaning supplies and personal care products like shampoo and conditioner.
The idea for Juniper stemmed from Price’s own frustrations with finding sustainable and ethical products in Saint John. She often resorted to shopping online.
“I like to shop locally and support my local economy and I enjoy the experience of going into local stores and things like that. But I found that I couldn’t find some of these things that I wanted to support the changes I wanted to make in my own personal habits,” says Price.
“I started to think about that idea and noticed that gap and flushed it out. Since then it’s been about a year that I have been thinking and working on it and now it’s finally coming to be.”
Price has been developing the business with the help of Economic Development Greater Saint John’s Navigator program. As part of her market research, Price launched a public survey on Facebook to get feedback on her idea. The survey got close to 300 responses, most of which were supportive of Juniper’s concept. Though there are stores in Saint John that carry some sustainable products, there’s an interest in a store that has a wider range of offerings.
“The feedback was very reassuring because some of the key questions that I asked was were they able to find sustainable products in the community,” says Price. “A few awesome shops came up, because there are some great sustainable products at The Feel Good Store and Corn Crib. Those came up again and again because they’re awesome stores. But then they mentioned that maybe they’re not able to find everything they want to see.”
Right now, Price is the process of securing the lease on a storefront. She’s not ready to say exactly where yet, but it will be in the uptown core. She’s optimistic that the store will be open for the spring or early summer.
Juniper will be a new store Saint John, but there are lots of others similar to it across Canada. Halifax’s Tare Shop, for an example, is one Price and drawn inspiration from.
“They’re totally a community hub, bringing people in and presenting those alternative options,” she says. “They were hugely inspiring.”
Once open, Price hopes Juniper will be the go-to place in Saint John for people interested in living a more sustainable life.
“I really hope that it becomes a community hub for people interested in sustainable lifestyles. Whether you’re already practicing sustainability in your day-to-day life and have been for years, or if you’re interested in learning more, introducing habits and maintaining those habits,” she says.
“I really hope Juniper becomes a resource for people to turn to if they have any questions or if they want to find other like-minded people.”