Vibey Women-Owned Shops You’ll Want to Try Out

Support talented females and their businesses in Guadalajara, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Oakland and San Francisco

Your wallet can create positive outcomes. It can “move the needle,” as the business folk say. A way to positively move the needle on equality and the economy? Buy women owned.

Spending at female-led shops benefits these hardworking businesswomen, sure. You’re also backing healthy communities: Research shows that women reinvest in their neighborhoods at sky-high rates. So here’s to putting women on paper currency and getting more in their hands! 

We rise by lifting others. That’s the greenHAUS code. Practiced by ladies Cole and Dayna Reed, that maxim becomes a welcoming art gallery and boutique with inclusivity and community at its core. (The married couple have also brought Portland its blackBOX studios and coworking space openHAUS.) You go to greenHAUS for uplifting gifts, modern jewelry, vintage purses, art events, and a shop’s commitment to showcasing work made by indigenous, queer, Black, and brown creatives. “How many products do you have in your home that were built or designed by brown people?” Cole asked Oakland Public Broadcasting listeners in 2019. “I want you to be real and look at yourself and invest in your community because we are a part of your community because it is our community.” Real talk.

Champion cupcaking. Female founder Jody Hall has awarded scratch-made, buttercream-bathed cupcakes to Seattleites since 2003. In return, Seattle has named Cupcake Royale its best cupcake maker Every. Baking. Year. The strawberries they source nearby are picked at their peak ripeness! And the Royale crew doesn’t overmix their batter to get you treats like the Charmed cupcake (“moist vanilla cake, topped with cereal milk buttercream frosting and dunked in Lucky Charms”)!!! Other heroic acts here include donating 40,000 cupcakes a year for good causes. On election day they put a free cupcake in the hand of anyone with an “I voted” sticker. Dessert democracy works.

This shop feels like springtime. Like sun shining on mysterious plants after a sudden rain. Crimson Horticultural Rarities proves there’s a lot of magic in the world, and especially here in Temescal Alley. Come for enchanting pottery made and by women ceramicists plus unusual plants made by Mother Nature. And you’ll swoon over the floral designs by co-owner Allison Futeral. Great for gift items, including handmade soaps. Good for accepting new botanical responsibilities. Thankfully, Crimson’s online plant care guides will make cohabitating with your green friends easy. (Air plants are nearly effortless roommates.)

In the heart of the Grand Lake/ Lake Merritt neighborhood you’ll find Alyce on Grand and its incredible collection from independent female artists, sustainable fashion designers, and apothecary suppliers.

Owners Alyce and Kalu leverage their inter-generational experience to activate their boutique into a community space--one welcoming to all ages of women entrepreneurs, especially women of color who need a place to start or a space to grow. Stop in to shop (or order online), and attend one of their creative workshops or in-store pop-ups featuring a swoon-worthy small local business. 

This is Nimia. Found near the Chapultepec neighborhood in Guadalajara, Nimia offers something for everyone. You can find anything from unique accessories, stationery & clothes to ceramics local illustrations. Owners of Nimia, Licca and Andrea, two friends passionate about design and illustration, wanted to make a small but comfortable space for pieces from independent and local artists to share with their friends. They also usually organize small artistic events and open galleries. When you’re here, take your time, shop original stuff, share a smile.  Vibemap Tip: Great local illustrators’ and designer’s art can be found here!

Where your most artsy, Earth Mother friend shops for gifts. Earthen is a go-to for simple utility (durable ceramic bowls) and mystical objects (tarot cards) and personal wellbeing (botanical body washes). Artist Julia Lemke runs this ceramics studio + homewares shop. It’s rooted in folk craft and modern design. It’s as if the book “Women Who Run With the Wolves” and magazine “Dwell” came to life as a home decor shop so you can enjoy your everyday rituals. 

Gioia Pizzeria offers up a quick slice for the noncommittal. An oven-fresh whole pie for the devoted. With a location in San Francisco too, her/his owners Karen and Will Gioia give pizza “the Gioia touch” -- That means seasonal and housemade ingredients but a New York-style fast experience. How do you judge a pizzeria? Not by how it makes its Caesar salad (the Gioia grand touch involves croutons out of Acme Bread’s Pain au Levain). By how it presents its simple Margherita - Gioia does it with a sweet spread of Early Girl tomatoes, garlic, basil, and chewy mozzarella atop a crispy-charred crust. It’s called a classic pizza for a reason.

Helping Canadians cope since 1991. Odin Books, the independent bookstore from Catherine Ellsmere is your go-to for mental health, education and psychology-based titles. And there’s a wealth of resources including toys, art, and media that families, professionals and self-improvement seekers need. That’s all of us! One of their bestselling books, “1-2-3 a A Calmer Me,” may be aimed at kids, but who doesn’t need stress management help?