Sprouting sales with 'green' products - As Kindred Spirits retail store sells environmental products; includes sources of environmental products - Managing Your Small Business - Brief Article

Nation's Business, May, 1996 by Roberta Maynard

Lest anyone think that environmentally friendly products are merely a vestige of the past, the success of Wendy Walker's business in Rockville, Md., proves otherwise.

First-year revenues at her store, As Kindred Spirits, came to $700,000 in 1995, up 70 percent from the year before, When Walker sold her goods only from mall kiosks. By the end of 1995, the mailing list of 1,500 names she had brought from the former kiosk operation had ballooned to 4,000. She projects revenues this year of $900,000.

Walker owns and operates the store in a shopping center with her husband, Jeff. She sells jewelry, sculpture, original artwork, ceramics, cards, and apparel, emphasizing recycled goods and hemp clothing--no leather or plastic products. A percentage of the profits goes to providing vegetarian food to international relief programs.

Walker believes the inventory she carries helps create an ambience that draws customers who identify with her own ideology.

It's not just baby boomers reliving their youth who are buying her "green" goods, either. College students make up a large part of Walker's customer base. To keep them coming back, she is careful to offer products in a wide range of prices, as well as special events geared to them.

Another factor in drawing customers, Walker believes, has been her retail neighbors, which include natural-foods purveyor Fresh Fields and other stores that cater to what Walker calls "lifestyle" customers.

Walker reaches out to these potential customers by advertising on public radio and in neighborhood newspapers. A steady menu of storytelling sessions, book signings, and other events provides something extra for customers.

Walker finds many of the products she sells through cottage businesses and at shows for wholesalers.

The following two sources of environmental products have also been useful:

* The National Green Pages, published by Co-op America, a national nonprofit group. It lists 1,500 firms that supply environmental products and services. To obtain a copy, send $6.95 to Co-op America, 1612 K Street, N.W., Suite 600, Washington, D.C. 20006; or call 1-800-58-GREEN (1-800-584-7336).

* The Green Pages, a directory of 5,000 U.S. suppliers of environmental products and services, published by U S WEST in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Commerce. A supplement to The Export Yellow Pages, it is available free while supplies last from local Commerce Department offices, or it can be ordered for $19.95 by calling U S WEST Direct at 1-800-422-8793.