SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY’S: One Sunday at at Time
At theGIRLMOB we are highlighting small businesses every Saturday in the hopes of inspiring and promoting our peoples vision’s in expanding the entrepreneurial landscape. This weekend we are proud to work with One Sunday at a Time, a trio owned store in Bushwick, Brooklyn curating Black and POC creatives.
Business Name:
One Sunday at a Time
Owners:
Alfonso, Sonya, Seema
Cultural Backgrounds:
Alfonso is African-American/Haitian, Sonya is Armenian (one of the last babies born in the USSR), and Seema is Pakistani.
Store’s Vision:
One Sunday at a Time is a retail tech company, lifestyle brand, and concept store + event space based in Bushwick, Brooklyn. We curate apparel, decor, and self-care products that bring a Sunday feeling. We center Black and POC-owned brands, artists and practitioners.
Can you tell us about how the business got started:
We’ve known each other for a long time and always knew we wanted to collaborate together on something like this. We had this tradition of getting together on Sundays to decompress at the end of each week. Whether it was putting together a look and heading to brunch or vibing at home, behind the tradition was the need to make time for self-care and community care. We wanted to share this feeling with others—particularly our Black, POC, and queer communities—through curating design objects we surround ourselves with to create our own sanctuaries. Whether it’s something adorning the body or living within the home, we want the pieces to fit seamlessly into your life and make you feel good. We opened the store in July 2019 and have been evolving the concept since.
What are the most exciting things you’re looking forward to as a small business?
Building on the brand and community we’ve been able to create so far and continuing to partner with other small Black- and POC-owned businesses. We love the recent surge in support for businesses like ours!
What are some of the challenges you’re specifically facing?
Being a primarily physically-based business is uncharted territory during these times. All three of us have a background in tech, always looking at screens, and the physicality of the store was an important part of what we wanted to create. We know we’ll be able to hold events again, and in the meantime we want to continue building our community in ways that feel safe and authentic.
The most rewarding exchange you’ve had so far between yourselves and a customer?
People are glad to see faces like ours behind the counter and to find out we’re the owners. A lot of our new in-store customers have told us when they first entered the space they didn’t expect this to be a Black- and POC-owned space. People also assume that our price points are higher than they actually are. It’s always interesting to break those expectations and connect with customers on a personal level. Particularly recently, we have had some real a** conversations with customers about the oddities of living through a pandemic and the fascism that seems to fester in the USA.
What are some of your favorite products in the shop right now?
One Sunday Candles, $30-50
We recently launched our first capsule candle collection. The initial line of 16 oz votive inspired candles are almost out of stock (just a couple left in-store). The larger votive size won’t be restocked for a while but we are launching a smaller 8 oz size of the design very soon. We hand-pour the candles ourselves and use the line to explore scent as memory.
Hanahana Beauty Body Butter & Exfoliating Bar, ($7-26 and $14 respectively)
We love Hanahana Beauty! We partnered with them for a Black-women-led event for Womxn’s Day this year, which included panels on skincare, sustainability, and business. Exfoliate in the shower and apply the body butter—your skin will be glowing, guaranteed! Plus, the brand gives back through the Hanahana Circle of Care, which serves 60 women from the cooperative producing the ingredients used for the products.
Gran Sans Chain Link Earrings, $50
We love Gran Sans—a jewelry line inspired by founder Zoe Pulley's grandmother, Sandra Moon, a creative original better known as "GranSan". These instant cult-classic earrings are made with brass hoops, chain & details and embody Brooklyn realness and art school modernity.
What goodies should we keep an eye out for this summer at One Sunday at a Time?
One Sunday Candles 8 oz cuties - everyone loves candles!
One Sunday Soaps (exclusive dish!) - we just finished in-house production of our first capsule soap collection. We’re so excited to share these with our customers.
Philadelphia Printworks re-stock - We are about to re-stock one of our favorite brands, Philadelphia Printworks. Their “Thank Black Women” tee’s have been a best-seller and we’re getting some of their new designs in.
Fresh Vintage Pulls - we have a rotating selection of vintage and are planning a drop of new pieces very soon.
Being a small business in the Bushwick area, how does your business reflect the community?
New York and Brooklyn embody the idea of the melting pot. Bushwick has always been an immigrant community, and all three of us are immigrants or children of immigrants. We have a multi-ethnic, multi-national, multi-orientation, multi-gender millennial founding team and supporting team. We look like the diversity photos start-ups use for PR. There is demand from people that look like us and share our experiences for brands that prioritize design and function while balancing trend and ethics. As we reopen, we are furthering our commitment to partnering with Black-owned businesses and are focusing new spending on Black-owned brands.
Do you feel you are supported by the community and how so?
Since we’ve reopened, we have loved seeing everyone’s faces (rather, half of their faces). We love the support and hope to see it grow as more people find out about us! We’re still underground.
Your shop also serves as a community space with artist pop-ups and events. With the second phase of re-opening, how are you transitioning as a shop?
Like everyone else, we’ve having to readjust our initiatives in response to the pandemic and this new normal. A big part of that for us is collaborating and supporting Black and POC owned brands that we already work with through our consulting initiative, STUDIO one sunday. For example, we’ve partnered with BLK Palate on some long-term cross-lateral projects that we’re really excited about.
What is some advice you have for other POC’s trying to open up their own business that remain true to their vision?
Impostor syndrome is a b*tch, so celebrate your wins—however “small.”
Get everything in writing. Even if it’s a casual collaboration or agreement among friends, making sure terms are written down is crucial for successful and equitable professional relationships.
Allow for the vision to change and know that you can stay authentic through it. You might embark on your business thinking that you have to be this or do that. Don’t let others label you—if you don’t fit into a box, it means you’re doing something new. A business, like the humans that allow it to function, needs to change and adapt to succeed.
Stronger together. It’s important to open doors for others and build together to sustain a collective cultural shift. We’re so excited to be a part of a new wave of Black- and POC-owned millennial businesses in Brooklyn. Their success is our success and we believe that this mindset is what will allow us to rewrite the rules of our society.
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