Meet Benita Smith — master curator, gifted gifter, and owner of the gift shop Adorned Abode in Tacoma, Washington. Located in historic Freighthouse Square, Adorned Abode is the perfect place to go for thoughtfully curated gifts for the holiday season. Check out their website for unique presents or set up a private shopping appointment with Benita so she can help you find the right gifts that suit anyone’s personality.
Get to know more about Benita in this weeks Business Spotlight Q&A, and stay tuned for our feature on her and Adorned Abode.
What’s your favorite part about the neighborhood/community your business is in and why?
A lot of my community are advocates. Advocacy is really high on a lot of our radars, and I really love that. Advocacy for people, underrepresented groups, small businesses, entrepreneurship, education — it’s a very advocacy-driven community that I’m a part of. We’re in Freighthouse Square, which is such a loved old and historic building in Tacoma. I feel like it’s one of the best kept secrets, and I feel like it’s an introvert’s dream [she laughs]. They can go there and have the halls and shops to themselves. It’s a unique place. It’s an easy place to start a business.
What’s your favorite way to #SpendLikeItMatters right now?
I think it’s a progression for a lot of people. If you don’t grow up in a family that owns a business or are friends of business owners in that community, people don’t really have that understanding of how to go to small [businesses] first. My way is to think, “Is this something I can get at a small business?” before I turn to big box stores. For coffee, I always make sure I check out a small [coffee shop] when I go. Local has more personality, more family recipes, and things like that.
Why is it important to you and your business that people #SpendLikeItMatters?
I work really hard to bring a well-curated shop, and I like to make shopping easy for people. As an African-American woman, there were a lot of times in my family where they pursued being entrepreneurs but hit roadblocks. So I know the struggle of my relatives and even extending to other people of color — we have a struggle with people respecting our brand and seeing us as an authority. It’s just important for me to represent for future generations to let people know you can build something out of nothing. I’m a part of the Tacoma Women of Color Collective, which Krista Perez founded, and one of her quotes is, “We create out of thin air.” And it’s essentially what I did with my business.
