Small Business Highlight: Blue Glass Jar Farmacy
Blue Glass Jar Farmacy was started by three generations of women who wanted to share their skin, hair, and body care recipes. Grandmother Alma Hall, daughter Vanessa Sweet, and granddaughter Castel Sweet started Blue Glass Jar Farmacy in November 2021 because they wanted to expand their customer base and build upon their family and friends' love for their products. They offer everything from face wash to beard oil to foot soaks, as well as Alma’s own (and soon-to-be available!) loose leaf tea. All of their products are made in small batches so they can make sure that everything is made correctly and that after-production waste is decreased. If you want to check out all of their handmade products, you can go to their website, www.blueglassjarfarmacy.com, or catch them at any of the pop-ups they attend all over town. You can get a full list here.
Being a small business started by three generations of women is such a special experience, so I asked Castel what this means to them. “It’s very special to be able to do something that includes the three of us…” she remarked, "It really means a lot to be able to come up with items together and come up with products together, but so I think for the three of us, particularly [with us] being in three different generations, offers so much to one another.” Their products originate from a mother-daughter tradition; when Vanessa was younger, Alma would find ingredients or products to help her daughter, who later passed the recipes on to her daughter. It was both a personal as well as a tangible experience to be able to pass down because they were able to share tips and tricks that helped with acne,dry skin, or whatever else was bothering them. All three women love to connect and collaborate through these products,and each product brings a little piece of their family to yours.
Blue Glass Jar Farmacy sells at many pop-ups and markets around town, but they mostly sell at the Collierville Farmers Market from May to September of each year. I asked Castel why the three love to sell at this farmers market. “We like the people that come and being able to talk to the same people each week because a lot of people come back and tell us how the product is or how they enjoyed it or new people come and tell us how other people told them about it, so it’s always good to have that interaction with customers. That’s something you don’t get online.” she noted. They love to get feedback in person and to be able to see the faces of their customers instead of just a name and an address. Each of the women love to get to know the other vendors and their businesses. Unfortunately, the Collierville Farmers Market ended on September 29th, so if you want to catch Blue Glass Jar Farmacy there, you’ll have to wait until May 2023!
They offer many products already, but I asked what other products they might release in the future. They mentioned releasing a large collection of the aforementioned loose leaf tea, and also that they are bringing back their Winter Hand Cream,a product originally released last winter that did really well with their customers. The women also plan to expand their product lines by developing a facial toner and a body scrub based on the feedback that they have received from customers as far as what they would like to see from Blue Glass Jar Farmacy. They really take what their customers want to heart, and it’s easy to tell that they do everything they can to create products that their customers will enjoy. Keep a look out for those new products by following them on Facebook and Instagram.
The last question I had for Castel was what her family loves about being a small business in Memphis. She informed me that they appreciate getting more ideas when talking to customers about products or how they can improve on them, and even getting advice on how to market their products better. They never take such advice for granted. The women also love being in Memphis because the climate is perfect to grow most of the herbs and plants they use in their products, which grow in Castel’s mother and grandmother’s backyards. They don’t grow everything, but they would like to get to the point where they have a small plot of land that’s just for their herbs. Blue Glass Jar Farmacy is still relatively small, but they are so excited for the future and what they have planned. I would like to thank Castel Sweet for speaking with me about Blue Glass Jar Farmacy and telling me about how they started and where they plan to go! Here is their website and both their social media profiles: Facebook and Instagram.
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