
Green Scene Natural Living Store of Marshall, located on West Michigan Avenue, is a family owned shop that sells environmentally friendly products ranging from soap to tea to clothing items.
The store boasts “a blend of organic, recycled, upcycled and earth-friendly ‘green’ merchandise for the entire family,” according to their Facebook page.
Claudia Murch, the owner of Green Scene since 2014, decided to start a pop-up shop in downtown Albion for the winter. Since the store offers a variety of hats and other winter apparel, the timing is just right. The pop-up shop will be a smaller collection of merchandise from the store in Marshall.
Murch had the idea for the pop-up shop while selling items at the Kellogg Center in Albion. She spoke with Jim and Staci Stuart of Stirling Books & Brew and the two agreed to put some of the Green Scene merchandise in the storage space next to Stirling Books & Brew for a few months.
“I felt like when I was there at the college, there is some good stuff happening in Albion. If we do this, maybe other people will be inspired to start businesses and say ‘you know we could do something here too,’” said Murch.
As the holiday season approaches, it can be difficult for people to find places to shop for gifts locally. Murch said she hopes the pop-up shop will attract both students and people of the Albion community for this reason.
Amanda Willerick, who has worked at Green Scene in Marshall for over two years, said while the store has regular business there, a lot of customers are people just passing through.
“I think a lot of people are curious as to what products we have. They might not know what exactly we carry. They might not be as environmentally friendly as we might be, but I think they’re more or less curious as to what’s in the store,” said Willerick.
Murch added that she does research about her products ahead of time to make sure they are up to Green Scene’s standard. This means products are usually made from renewable resources and derived from companies with safe labor practices.
“We try to make sure [the products] are fair trade and made with eco-friendly products,” said Murch.
The grand opening of the Green Scene pop-up shop is Friday, November 17. The shop will be open until January 5.
Photo by Autumn VanHeulen.
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