On June 12 the grand reopening of The People’s Emporium took place and it was simply the starting line for a very busy and tiring race that culminated with an end of summer party in Elizabethtown.
EOS PARTY IN E-TOWN
Lawn games including “stick soccer” and “corn hole” were a part of the end of summer party at The People’s Emporium.
Face Painting With Miranda is always a popular event for the kids at every function that The People’s Emporium sponsors.
Most of the participants in The People’s Emporium Foam Pit were fully visible, but a few you had to locate from the laughter and the shrieks of enjoyment.
Dwayne Miller manned the foam machine and did a pretty good job of making sure everyone was having an incredible time at the End of Summer Party in Elizabethtown.
Driving down the main drag in Elizabethtown held some interesting memories as cars slowed down to see all the people enjoying the foam pit on a very warm Saturday in Elizabethtown.
ELIZABETHTOWN – The EoS party for the People’s Emporium is in the books.
They threw a going away party for a Bladen County season that was brutally hot, stormy and moody at times and extremely enjoyable.
The business didn’t have much time to enjoy the fullness of the summer as they were still relocating, remodeling, reorganizing and making sure that their move was a successful one for their family, their friends and their customers.
Sometime working 12-hour days and more, battling some health issues and bouncing around about a million thoughts around their heads, they had come to the point of exhaustion more than once in the last three months.
Who has ever moved a home, a family or a business in short time and then decides in the midst of the insanity, “let’s have a party?”
The People’s Emporium packed up, cleaned up and organized in a very short time, making the move from a downtown leasing situation to 408 W. Broad Street in Elizabethtown where they own their own building and room to grow.
Once nestled in the heart of downtown E-town was a shop that tested the limits of eclectic. It continues to do that today – but from the different location.
I believe it was Horace Greely “Go West…” Somewhere along the way Dwayne and Mary Miller must have heeded the word as they packed up the eclectically fashioned wagon train and took their wares westward.
“Moving a house is one thing, but moving a business with all your inventory is another,” Dwayne Miller said. “It came with cleaning and painting and building this and building that. So, it’s been a process, but it’s a labor of love. We couldn’t be prouder to have our business right here in Elizabethtown – alongside a lot of other great businesses.”
Actually, the trip wasn’t that long as far as miles go – in fact, it is just about 0.2 miles. Instead of renting a space, they now own their own building with a possibility of one day utilizing the attic, two lots and a cool outbuilding that will be remodeled into an Dwayne’s woodworking shop. Presently the house has 1500 square feet not counting the attic or the outbuilding.
“Terri (Maria), who owned the mermaid castle went out of business,” Mary Miller said. “Our employee sent me a message telling me the building was for sale. So, we came over here and we looked at it and we knew that the possibilities are much better than where we were. The parking will be better, we’ll be able to hold festivals or activities or food trucks or birthday parties or whatever in the (vacant) back lot.”
After the official grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony, the Millers didn’t rest on their laurels, which means by the Oxford Languages definition, “be so satisfied with what one has already achieved that one makes no further effort.”
Actually, they picked up the pace and finished strong the race that they both believe in with every fiber of their being as it is stated in I Corinthians 9:24. Ah, but they simply finished a season and already they are looking forward to what magical things will come in the next quarter of 2025.
When people come in, I want them to have a happy experience,” she said. “I would like it to be more than just shopping. I want it to be a fun experience. As for the opening, all we can say is sometime in May.”
The People’s Emporium is a shop that has everything from dishcloths that never grow sour to handmade woodworking creations that will never wear out.
Emporium. It can mean many things from a center of trade to a store carrying many kinds of merchandise to a grand center of trade as a bazaar. Perhaps Fortune.com best sums up the great trading center of Elizabethtown owned by the Millers.
“Those who endure will understand that the key to success, as it was for the great emporiums of old, is building lasting relationships, customer by customer.”
Nailed it. Not only the shop itself, but the way that the Millers treat their customers. One at a time. Like family. A member of their gang. They want, very simply to bless their community – and have given back when fatigue told them they had no more to give.
And the party which lasted long before and after the published hours had ax throwing, corn hole tournaments, giant yard games, free face painting with Miranda, food and drinks and the cherry on top was the foam pit operated by, who other than Dwayne Miller… the head gangster.
“We wanted to showcase some of the small businesses at our end of the summer party,” Mary Miller said. “We had food trucks, we had the Cornhole at White Lake, ice cream, lemonade, ax throwing, foam pit and we just are trying to bring the community together. Just a fun day and saying goodbye to summer.”
She said that she absolutely loves the new place, the new inventory that mixes well with the old and the new people that have come and filled their home.
“We’re enjoying the different rooms, the big outside grounds, and I have big plans for the backyards,” she said.
Noticing that she said, “I have big plans for the backyards,” and as spectacular at this summer celebration was, she was saying that we haven’t seen anything yet.
Their plans include car shows and weekly food trucks to just mention a few of the upcoming surprises.
Once you meet the Millers and visit their “abode,” you feel as if you’ve known them all your life.
They both know by the unfolding of this dream that they are right on time in the calling to open their shop and to be a ministry to Bladen County. It is still a work in progress and God himself only knows what it’s going to look like when it has come to fruition.
In the meantime, the world inside the Emporium is spinning fast and changes are happening. The dream is coming true for the Millers and their work.
The unique, the eclectic, the things made by the hands of man under the watchful eye of the creator. The shop is divine!
Mark DeLap is a journalist, photographer and the editor and general manager of the Bladen Journal. To see more of his bio, visit him at markdelap.com or email him. Send a message to: [email protected]