🥳 The Wait is Over - We Have a Website!

You can now shop Fancy Groceries online!

Today is a big day!

forget reading about it, just click here to check it out

Fancy Groceries finally has a real, working, e-comm website.

And! As you can see above, the site is live with the launch of our 2.0 version of the college crewneck! This design was originally made for us back in 2023 to celebrate our “graduation” from the barbershop, and I’ve been asked ever since if I would do it again. That run was super limited so I promised I would do another, but it had to be different from our barbershop edit.

Well, I’ve finally done it. This time it’s an 11 oz 100% cotton fleece that’s been knit, cut, sewn, and dyed for us at Roopa Knitting, one of the more transparent and renowned mills out there, located in Canada. (They make clothes for brands like Aimee Leon Dior 👀)

You can now be an esteemed alumni of FGU

The college crewneck was designed by local Winston artist Matt Cook, and also printed in Winston Salem by JKO Inks. (The tags were designed and sewn on by yours truly - sorry if the one you get is a little crooked 😵‍💫 )

As with everything we make that says Fancy Groceries on it, it’s limited and set to retire when it’s gone, so grab one now in store or online! (there is a pick up in store option at check out if you’re local.)

Why do a website now?

The brutally honest answer? Sometimes I worry that Winston Salem is too small. Which is a crazy thing to say about a city with over 300,000 people living there, but our store’s hometown of Winston is… seemingly cobbled together without a plan?

Not yet at critical mass, you never know if and when it’s going to be busy. There’s no predictability here. Up is down. Left is right. Winston is very spread out, and our downtown neighborhoods are unfortunately disconnected. Plus, I’ve noticed that a lot of folks don’t “go out” a ton around here, which, as someone who checks out every new thing that opens, it’s hard to wrap my head around always staying home. But the homes here are gorgeous, and old, and nestled closely together on oak tree lined streets. This is a great place to raise a family, have a garden, and spend summer nights on the patio with your neighbors. In that sense, I somewhat understand not going out much.

And not to disparage my downtown. There are many, many good things down here including an indie movie theater, a natural wine bar, a bookstore, a guitar shop, a flower shop, a record shop, a matcha and chai bar, a pizza spot ranked #21 in the top 50 pizzas guide, and plenty of rad vintage clothing shops. And while I am so lucky to have local, supportive regulars, I’d say half my customers are from out of town — visiting family, visiting colleges, here for work, conferences, and more.

Yet despite all of that, Winston is still sleepy. There are days down here where nearly no one walks through the door. Going online helps cover those days.

The FG customer base has grown beyond Winston Salem

A particular conversation with one customer visiting from Massachusetts really struck me. “My husband,” she said, “hates plastics in his clothes.” She went on to describe trying to research and vet brands that would match her husband’s standards. “Who has the time for that? I don’t,” she said, “but if you had a store online, I would just go there and know that you already did the work for me.”

When a man from England bought an FG hat from us then came back a year later to buy more to hand out to friends and family, I thought to myself “maybe we have something here.” This has also happened with returning customers visiting from Brooklyn, Richmond, and even France.

And finally when one of our regular patrons sat at a quiet bar in upstate New York, he overheard the bartender on the phone with someone pleading for the hat he’d accidentally left behind to be mailed back to him. Her phone dinged—she’d been venmo’d 50 bucks to ensure the hat’s safe delivery. After the call, she held up this precious cap to our customer and apologized, saying “sorry, some guy really wants this stupid hat back. What do you think fancy groceries means??" To which our customer quietly responded by withdrawing his own FG hat from his bag and placing it on his head, sending the bartender’s own head spinning. “What the hell is happening right now!?” she exclaimed.

I simply needed a break from the internet

When I started this shop, I had no interest in a website. I was staunchly against the idea of shopping for clothes online. It felt soulless and kept me inside, away from people. I wanted to create a space where folks could come and talk and relax, and actually touch the fabrics of the clothes they wanted to try on. I was still working as a video editor too. I loved editing, but hated computers. I couldn’t stand the thought of sitting at one for the rest of my life. I needed to weed out the need for a computer in any way I could.

I wanted to work with my hands and talk to people. I wanted to create and plan events people would remember long after they left. I used to work in hotels and loved it. I used to throw enormous parties at my home with themes and photo booths and games that 20+ people could all play at once.

It made sense then that my vision for Fancy Groceries was a living, breathing space to entertain and experience first-hand, not online. (joke’s on me how much time I would spend at a computer anyway, writing these newsletters and budgeting and scheduling and ordering…)

What started as a pop-up experiment on the weekends evolved into a 300 sq ft space inside a barbershop and evolved again into a 900 sq ft space downtown with a coffee bar, but one thing that remained stubbornly consistent was that we didn’t have a website. Not really. Just a landing page with some details.

Today, it’s time to evolve again.

I needed time to figure out that having a small online presence for folks who can’t get to Winston Salem doesn’t hurt the integrity of the in-store experience - it extends it to them.

I decided it was time, but only if there was a way to build a site that stayed true to the ethos of human connection that is essential to Fancy Groceries…

This meant live chats with a real person (me), extraordinarily detailed descriptions of the clothing and the fits, the use of the words “I” and “me” vs the more commonly collective, mysterious “we,” and stories of my own personal experience with washing and drying and wearing these clothes. Why I chose them, where they came from, and how I think they will fit and age with you. This is what ecomm is missing - personality & a personal touch.

And Allie at Alcove Studio delivered on that in spades. I am so pleased and proud to introduce you to the new fancygroceries.com.

You won’t find the whole store on there, but you will always find Fancy Groceries originals (like our hats and shirts, bags and mugs) as well as some of our shop favorites for sale, like the ones you can’t find anywhere else (wonder looper, ah-hem), book styling sessions, and even get into direct contact with me for fit advice and more.

I hope you’ll take some time to look around, share it with friends, and if you don’t live in Winston, maybe it’ll encourage you to make a special trip down here one day to not only check us out in person, but also visit the other cool shops in our neighborhood.

And if you can’t, well, there’s always the online shop ;)