A bad storm brings Goods to Church Hill

They say when life hands you lemons you’re supposed to make lemonade. But that’s a trite cliché with limited real-world applicability. They never really say what to do if, for example, life hands you a climate crisis, which would actually be helpful advice. Alas, Tippy Tippens had to navigate that particular gauntlet herself. Sweet news: Church Hill turned out to be her answer.

It wouldn’t be quite accurate to say that Kind Hearted Goods blew into the neighborhood in a hurricane, but reality isn’t so far off. The shop, which soft-opened late last year on the 2500 block of East Broad Street, is actually the sister store of Tippens’ first retail store, The GOOD Shop which she opened in New Orleans nine years ago. In spring 2024, she expanded the concept to Asheville, North Carolina under the Kind Hearted Goods banner.

“That was sort of a climate-change based” decision, she told The Lookout in a recent interview, speaking in the bright, high-ceiling space. “Summers are getting longer and hotter, and a store is really heavily influenced by the weather,” she explained, and the sweltering season in New Orleans had stretched from 2.5-3 months when she opened nine years ago to more like four-plus now. So she set her sights on comparatively cool Asheville to diversify the business, opening her second shop there in June of last year.

You probably know where this is going: lemons, and bitterly ironic ones at that. In September, Hurricane Helene hammered the western North Carolina city, causing almost $60 billion in damage, putting entire neighborhoods underwater, and forcing Tippens to make some tough choices about the future of her fledgling outpost. Having studied furniture design at Virginia Commonwealth University and lived in Richmond for a decade after graduation, she was deeply familiar with the city. Plus, she still has family in Yorktown, where she attended high school. So when her childhood friend Nikki Price, co-owner of neighborhood favorite Proper Pie Co., let Tippens know that Align RVA was vacating the space down the block, she decided to pack up shop (literally) and give Kind Hearted Goods a fresh start in Church Hill.

The bright, airy shop sells a tightly curated mix of housewares, art, and gifts, some produced by Tippens’ first business, an eco-friendly purveyor called Goods That Matter she founded in 2011, and others by artisans who share her passion for fashionable, sustainable goods. That business is a Benefit Corporation, and along with The GOOD Shop, has donated nearly $80,000 to community programs in New Orleans. Tippens hopes to create a similar impact in Richmond, and it starts with curating the right mix of craftspeople to showcase on her shelves.

“Either you donate, or you’re locally made, or using eco-friendly materials, or a diversely owned business,” she said, describing some of the criteria she looks for when considering whether to carry a brand at Kind Hearted Goods. “It's just a lot of research and reaching out to people and seeing who's interested.”

As at The GOOD Shop, Tippens plans to run her Church Hill store as a collective, with vendors chipping in on rent and taking turns minding the floor and managing their own stock in exchange for having a brick-and-mortar home base. (Schlepping from market-to-market every weekend gets old, after all.) A couple artisans have already signed up for this collaborative arrangement; Tippens aims to have six once the program is fully underway. Separately, she’s on the hunt for a tenant to lease the third of the three newly refurbished “solo spaces” on the shop’s lower level, as well as a vintage dealer to stock and merchandise a clothing offering on that floor.

That’s a lot of lemons to squeeze just months after evacuating a hurricane and moving to a new city, all with two other established businesses hundreds of miles away. But with over a decade of experience building a community around eco-friendly and socially conscious goods, and an admirably positive attitude, Tippens seems game for the challenge. And between her longtime connection with Richmond, her childhood friend running a successful business on the same block, and a space that allows plenty of room for her collaborative business model, things have clicked into place for Kind Hearted’s early tenure in Church Hill.

“We didn't look at anything else,” Tippens said. “The neighborhood's been really supportive… [I’m] excited to be here.”

📜 Possum Poetry

Possum Poetry is original verse written exclusively for The Lookout by Penelope Poubelle, the Lookout’s litter critter-at-large. If you spot roadside trash you’d like her to immortalize in doggerel, email a photo to [email protected]. All submissions anonymous!

👀 Got any favorite neighborhood feeds?

I’m still relatively new on the beat, and new to the neighborhood, so I’m always on the lookout (ahem) for sources of information to work into my regular reading. Reader Mike O. recently flagged a Blogspot page where Richmond’s Department of Public Works appears to post all its road closure updates, which is handy for folks trying to avoid Vichy Twitter. John Murden, the founding editor and longtime resident-publisher of Church Hill People’s News, told me that there used to be a bunch of these feeds; thanks to him, I now also know about this one, maintained by the Richmond Police Department.

If you know of any useful streams of local information that you care to share with your friendly neighborhood newsletter editor, I’m all ears! Drop it in the comments below, or submit a tip!

📢 Happenings on The Hill

• Cross ‘em up: Triple Crossing Beer is giving away a sweet Richmond Kickers package to kick off the season. Enter by Thursday (3/6) for a chance to win tickets to the team’s opener the following day. Entry instructions here.

• Meeting of the mayors: The leaders of Richmond (Virginia) and Richmond (upon Thames, United Kingdom) are convening Thursday (3/6) at 11am for a photo opp at the Libby Hill Viewshed, as part of Capital Trees 15th anniversary celebrations. Learn more about the transatlantic connection.

• Pedal Powers: Did you know that the East End was home to a BMX shop/museum with paraphernalia and 300 bikes from all over the world? I didn’t, until reading The Richmonder’s profile on Powers BMX. Check it out. 

• Stick ‘em up: The Lookout’s initial run of custom stickers is going fast! Venmo me one dollar with your address in the comment and I’ll send you two stickers in the mail. Venmo here.

Happenings on The Hill is a digital bulletin board for events, causes, and other items of interest to East Enders that don’t necessarily merit full editorial treatment. Got something for a future edition? Email the relevant details, links, etc. to [email protected] for consideration!

📸 A Very CHill Photo

Want to share your Very CHill Photo from the neighborhood? Email it to [email protected] with your name as you’d like it to appear for publication, and the camera you shot it on.