{"id":60031,"date":"2025-11-25T11:16:24","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T11:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/60031\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T11:16:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T11:16:24","slug":"st-pete-store-open-for-10-years-1m-in-local-art-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/60031\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete Store open for 10 years, $1M in local art sales"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The St. Pete Store<\/a> has sold more than $1 million of handmade merchandise from local artists over the past 10 years, according to the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce President & CEO Chris Steinocher.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really wanted to prove out to people that art is economic development,\u201d he said. \u201cWe really want to let people know that in St. Pete we value the artists, we value the jobs they create and we value the way they make us feel.\u201d<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

The St. Pete Store<\/a> celebrated its 10 year anniversary in October\u00a0
\n
The store has\u00a0sold more than $1 million of handmade merchandise from local artists \u00a0
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The St. Petersburg City Council awarded the Chamber of Commerce $30,000 to get the store going\u00a0\u00a0
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Currently 113 local artists have merchandise for sale in the store<\/p>\n

Steinocher said the store was only made possible thanks to $30,000 in seed money the St. Petersburg City Council awarded the Chamber to start the business in October of 2015. The CEO said he wanted visitors to leave with souvenirs from Tampa Bay artists, instead of corporations.<\/p>\n

\u201cStart to really be creative about what would people from around the country and the world want to buy from St Pete and that’s local handmade art,\u201d he said. \u201cSell things from St. Pete.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the store first opened there were only 21 artists signed up. This year there have been 113 artists, according to St. Pete Store manager Shelli Hemans.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years, it’s just increased. Now artists come to us and want us to take their information,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are vetted. It is a juried process and we don’t just take anybody’s art. We take really nice stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hemans said the St. Pete Store works on a consignment model which the artists love.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey get a split on it. We don’t charge them rent, we don’t even charge them an admin fee to keep up with the art coming in,\u201d she said. \u201cSo they’re very happy with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Steinocher said it makes him feel good to write checks to Tampa Bay area artists every Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose resources go back into the artist’s pocket themselves,\u201d he said. \u201cWe’re cutting checks to families that are going to be buying groceries and going to Publix and other places.\u201d<\/p>\n

The best seller in the store for 10 straight years has been the world tour t-shirt which lists the cities: Paris, London, Tokyo, St. Pete, and was created by artist Chad Mize, according to Hemans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will buy it for their entire family and\u2026 they’re all going to Paris,\u201d she said. \u201cTake a picture in front of the Eiffel Tower\u2026 I just think it’s become a thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearwater artists Keith and Debbie Watson, the co-creators of\u00a0PVC figurines\u00a0Nauti-Birds<\/a>, said they have been selling their merchandise in the St. Pete Store for more than two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople come and say we saw you at the St.\u00a0Pete\u00a0Store,\u201d said Keith. \u201cIt’s an honor to be in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Debbie said the exposure had been good for business and feels privileged to be included in the store.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re a part of something and all these great artists that are in there and you were picked as one of the artists to be in there,\u201d she said. \u201cSo it’s just tremendous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hemans said the store is popular with locals, she estimates more than 60 percent of the traffic comes from locals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve kind of become St. Pete niche,\u201d she said. \u201cIf somebody is moving out of town to the Midwest or something and they’ve lived here a long time, their friends will come and do a little gift bag for them of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hemans is an artist herself and has her jewelry for sale at the St. Pete Store. After working at the Chamber for 12 years and managing the store for the past 10 years, Heman wrapped up her tenure last Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a wonderful team of volunteers and three part time paid people,\u201d she said. \u201cIt’s just been a real honor to serve the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The St. Pete Store has sold more than $1 million of handmade merchandise from local…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[274,558,2968,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,835],"class_list":["post-60031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-top-stories","tag-business","tag-josh-rojas","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}