Disclosure: Heidi Beedle is married to Erin Beedle.
December is the busiest time of year for retail small businesses in Colorado Springs. With the influx of holiday shoppers, small business owners do the bulk of their business during the holiday season.
“We do about 15% of our yearly sales in the month of December alone,” says Erin Beedle, co-owner of Odds and Ends Emporium, a toy and gift shop located in the Ivywild School.
Odds and Ends carries a variety of toys, gifts, jewelry, art, stickers, soaps, and other locally made goods. While half of their inventory is wholesale products from vendors like popular stuffed animal producer Jellycat, the other half is consignment goods from local artists and makers.
“About a third of our total sales are consignment items,” says co-owner Keely Krueger.
Unlike retail products, where the business owner buys wholesale and keeps the profit, consignment allows a business to build an inventory without up-front expenses, but the margins are slimmer. Odds and Ends gets 40% of the price of consignment items, and 60% goes to the vendor.
Odds and Ends consignment vendors include Sense by Cin, who produce a variety of anatomically correct candles, VanZayton Arts, maker of unique pen and ink prints and stickers, and local author Jimmy Sena’s book “Tesla’s Walk,” a long-form poem about the inventor’s time in Colorado Springs. The majority of Odds and Ends’ consignment vendors are woman-owned businesses in Colorado.
“We sell the products for them,” says Krueger. “This is a way for them to sell their products outside of online vending and markets, which most of them do as well.”
In addition to their usual fare, Odds and Ends has stocked up on seasonal items for the holidays. Since 2021 they’ve offered Christmas crackers, the festive party favor that originated in England and contains a paper crown, a toy, and a fortune cookie style joke or poem. Along with toys for kids of all ages they’ve also got unique, locally-made Christmas cards, ornaments, pottery, candles, tote bags and more. They’ve also got the perfect gift for the puzzler in your life – a membership to their puzzle club, an unlimited lending library of puzzles for $30 a year.
Odds and Ends Emporium will also be hosting Santa Claus on Saturday, Dec. 21 from 5 to 8:30 p.m. Families can purchase a polaroid with Santa for $5 or take their own photo.
“We love having Santa every year,” says Beedle. “He really brings the holiday spirit to the store.”
