SHARING RETAILERS’ STORIES AND EXPERTISE

Terresa Zimmerman, founder of Wood Underwear 12 years ago, had a recent brainstorm evolving from her love of working with independent menswear stores. She is now founder and host of a podcast series featuring the stories of independent store owners. In these podcasts, she interviews top merchants and industry experts in order to share tricks of the trade and insights from each expert’s history, successes, challenges and changes.

“Through my own experience and conversations with store owners, it became obvious that these are untapped and important stories and that a wealth of information and expertise resides with them. I launched Main Street Matters to capture these sometimes-multigenerational stories, to give independent retail owners and allies a place to share, grow, and build as a community.”

According to IBIS World, there were more than 154,000 specialty retail stores in the US in 2023, a slight increase over 2022. National Retail Solutions (NRS) identifies their importance as stories, values, and community connections that are lacking at the big retail chains.
As Terresa explains it, “Main Street Matters’ mission is to help amplify those stories, connections and voices for the greater strength of independent retail and the benefit of our communities.”

You can find Terresa at the Chicago Collective, booth #1047. Or check out mainstreetmatters.co.

The Main Street Matters’ platform is now live with 30-45 minute episodes broadcast biweekly.

You can subscribe and listen on your favorite podcast platform by clicking the appropriate link below.

Apple Podcasts
Spotify
Youtube