EAST PALESTINE, Ohio – Kat’s Krystals has come full circle with the launch of Kat’s Krystals & Vendor Vault.
Five years ago, Kat Smith was a small vendor with a dream and a shelf in Mama’s Attic, a store that offered the wares of antique pickers and other small business owners in East Palestine.
Smith’s business grew from a shelf to a section to taking up the front of the store. After two and a half years, Kat’s Krystals, which offers a variety of jewelry, gift items and, of course, crystals, was able to move into its own storefront less than a block away across Market Street.
That move gave Smith two rooms for merchandise, and Kat’s Krystals had room to spread and grow. But now another two and a half years later, the store is ready to make another leap.
Smith said her husband, Trev, “had really been wanting a kind of creator space for a while, and we started realizing it might actually be time for a move because when I would get new stock in, I would have to rearrange the whole store to try and fit it in.”
So the Smiths are opening a new store in the same location as Mama’s Attic.
The new store will give them more room for additional items. Kat plans to bring in new items after attending a large gem show gathering in Tucson, Ariz., in January.
She added that she has many other ideas once the finances used to refurbish the long-closed Mama’s Attic building are rebuilt. Painting and new carpeting were among the updates needed to transform the larger space into the cozy, Kat’s-style vibe found in the small shop down the street.
“There’s a lot of ideas that we actually have the space for now,” Kat said. “That’s very exciting.”
And her husband’s handiwork has created shelves and display vaults for nearly 40 additional vendors. Thirty-five spaces are already rented in anticipation of the store’s opening Saturday.
She is delighted by how many inquiries she got once the new logo for the store went up on the window of the new space this fall. Local vendors, from East Palestine to Youngstown, are preparing to move into the space.
The first vendor started stocking their shelves the week of Christmas, and the Smiths began moving the entire store after Kat’s Krystals closed on Christmas Eve.
Kat said she knows the idea of bringing in vendors isn’t a new one, but at this point they will be working mostly with creators.
“We’re not reinventing the wheel in any way. There are hundreds of stores like this, but our vision of what we want to bring forward and curate here is our idea,” she said. “Mostly, we tried to curate makers, small businesses, artists and things like that.”
She loves seeing what other creative people can come up with and make. The new storefront will also allow others to create through classes.
Some of the vendors and others in the community have approached Kat with ideas for upcoming classes they want to teach, such as cookie and cupcake decorating, earring making and needle felting. Classes will be announced on social media and posted on a bulletin board inside the store.
Over five years, Kat’s Krystals overcame the Covid pandemic and the February 2023 train derailment in the village, tumultuous times that closed other businesses.
She remembers trying to gain traction and reach people who were interested in what she wanted to sell. Now they will be able to help other future small business owners.
“My hope is that maybe a couple of these small businesses that we have in here can maybe, one day, take the leap and move into one of the empty buildings we have downtown,” Kat said.
Pictured at top: Trev and Kat Smith stand in the new Vendor Vault section of their new store.