“We work with studio artists all over the country,” she said. “We do a mix of a lot of jewelry, a lot of handmade pottery, some wood items, gifts, home-decor type things, and then we also do a lot of clothing, and a lot of our clothing is domestic, as well.”
For things that are not domestic, the shop tends to focus on fair trade groups, Megginson said.
“It’s an ever-changing collection,” she said. “I mean, we have artists that we’ve carried longer than I’ve been here, but then there’s always new things coming in.”
The shop’s new, 3,600-square-foot location at Suite 154 of Cross Pointe Centre is nearly double the size of the 1,900-square-foot space it vacated nine doors down, said Megginson, of Kettering.
Having a new, larger location is “like buying a new house and being able to take the best of what you had and move it into the new space and tweak the things that were a little tighter and weren’t working as well,” she said. “It’s just a chance to kind of spread out and regroup things so that you can see things better, and see things in a different way.”
That additional “room to breathe” also gives the shop the ability to highlight additional new artists and their work, Megginson said.
Zig Zag Gallery was founded in 1980 by Tim Patterson as the Fifth St. Gallery, which was located in the Oregon District, to exhibit the work of local artists. After a few years, it was moved to Washington Square in Centerville and the name was changed to Woodbourne Gallery. It has been in the Cross Pointe Centre since 1987.
Megginson started working for the business in 1990, then she and her husband, Brad Abbey, purchased it in 2003. It opened in its new, larger space Aug. 13.
She said her landlord approached her earlier this year about moving.
“I think the plan is to ... incorporate our (former) space into the Dot’s Market space, so my landlord made me a wonderful offer to kind of entice me to move and it’s worked out great for everybody,” Megginson said.
Megginson said the community has been “wonderfully supportive” of Zig Zag Gallery over the years, including customers that have shopped at the business longer than she has been there.
“Through these past couple years that have been really tough on all businesses, but particularly small business, people really see the value in supporting small business, in supporting American made,” she said. “We’re incredibly grateful to be here. We’re only here because of our community.”
Megginson lauded Don Wright Realty for making “a real commitment” to focus on local, independently-owned businesses at Cross Pointe Centre.
“That has evolved even more so over the years,” she said. “It’s not that everyone here is a local independent (business), but a large percentage of us are, an that’s also created a really wonderful sense of community within the shopping center itself, which is, I think, a little unique.”
About the Author
