Okay, I have to tell you -- this is one of those episodes where I left the studio just shaking my head, in the best way.

I sat down with Jessica Moores, the founder and owner of Manchester Craft Market at the Mall of New Hampshire, and within the first few minutes she told me she started this entire business with 17 cents. Not as a figure of speech. Seventeen actual cents. And from there she built a store that now holds over 300 local makers from all over New England.

I knew this was going to be a good one. I did not know it was going to be THIS good.

“I sat home and cried for 2 weeks. I did not know what to do.”

Here's the thing about Jessica -- she did not come from money, and she did not come from a business plan. Back when her kids were little, she was picking things up off the side of the road on trash day, going to swap meets, and selling whatever she found just to pay for school clothes and her own student loans. Her husband was working two jobs and she still needed to bring in more.

So she started making her own things to sell. She's always been a crafter -- that part never changed. And one day, walking through the Mall of New Hampshire back in 2014 when it had a lot of empty storefronts, the idea hit her: what if she did a craft fair right there, in one of the empty stores?

She did. Nine weekends, 15 to 20 local crafters at folding tables in the hallway. And one of those crafters said something that changed everything -- she said, “I don't want to sit here all day. I want you to sell it for me.”

That's the moment Manchester Craft Market the way we know it today was born. Jessica went back to the mall and asked for an actual store -- shelves, rent, the whole thing. They said yes. By 2017 she had her first real location, in what used to be the mall's old pet store.

From there it just kept growing. 20 makers became 40. Then 70. Then, after a feature on NH Chronicle in 2018 brought 400 customers through the door the very next day, it kept climbing -- all the way to where it is now: 307 local makers under one roof.

This is something I did not expect to talk about on a podcast about food and hospitality, but I am so glad we did.

Jessica has a strict policy against AI-generated art and products in her store. And I mean strict. She told me she's had to tell makers -- people who'd already been accepted -- that something they submitted didn't meet the policy, and instead of just cutting them off, she points them toward one of the real local illustrators in her store and says, let's come up with something original together.

Her reasoning is so simple it stuck with me: she has 307 local artists who can do anything AI can do, and probably do it better. Why would she waste that talent -- or waste the resources AI burns through -- when the real thing is sitting right there on her shelves?

In a world where it feels like AI is everywhere, I just thought that was such a refreshing stance. It makes the whole store feel more real. More authentic. Which, if you've ever walked through Manchester Craft Market, is exactly the feeling you get.

Okay, this part of our conversation got me a little emotional, so bear with me.

When 2020 hit and everything shut down, Jessica told me she went home and cried for two weeks. She had over a hundred makers depending on her to sell their products, and suddenly nobody could come into the store. She didn't know what to do.

And then she figured it out. She couldn't have customers in the mall -- but SHE could still get in. So she started going live on Facebook every single week. She met people in the parking lot to hand off orders. She sold masks by the hundreds out of her car.

And here's the part that really got me -- the mall forgave two months of her rent while they were closed, and she turned around and forgave ALL of her vendors' rent too. She worked straight off commission. That was HER income she was giving up, to keep her makers afloat.

You know what happened? It became their first million-dollar year ever.

I have run the Red Arrow for 39 years -- four locations, open around the clock -- and I know what it feels like to have to figure things out when everything is falling apart around you. Hearing Jessica's version of that story, and seeing where it led, was honestly one of my favorite parts of this whole conversation.

We also got into the community side of what Jessica's built -- she showed up at the NH World Christmas Market to support Nourish New England, a nonprofit fighting food insecurity, just because she believed in what they were doing. Her booth fee went straight to the cause.

And the store itself has become this whole world of its own -- 16 aisles, beautiful chandeliers, an online shopping group with about 19,000 members, and a website with around 15,000 items where you can do a virtual tour of the store like you're house-hunting. A tech company even called it “a bridge between traditional craft and high-tech retail.” Pretty cool for a place that started with folding tables in a mall hallway.

Oh -- and I have to mention this, because it made me laugh out loud -- when I asked what the most unusual thing she's ever sold was, the answer involved taxidermy bats. You'll just have to watch for the full story.

We also talked about her three kids, her team of 12 who she says “take this place like it's their own,” and what's coming up -- including a local author book fair on July 25th during their Christmas in July event, with another one planned for October 17th.

Jessica started with 17 cents and a whole lot of hope. Nine years later, she's built something that 307 New England families depend on -- and a community of thousands more who shop it. I left this conversation so inspired, and I think you will too.

You can find Manchester Craft Market at the Mall of New Hampshire, between Ulta and Macy's, or online anytime at manchestercraftmarket.com.

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ABOUT CAROL ERICKSON

Carol Erickson has owned Red Arrow Diner since 1987 -- four locations across New Hampshire, open 24/7. She started Beyond the Plate to tell the real stories behind the people who make New England's food and hospitality scene what it is. Not just what's on the menu. What's behind it.

Red Arrow Diner: redarrowdiner.com  | @redarrow24diner