Burning Bright
The Candle Booth brings warm, good feels to Columbus
Many local business owners are feeling immense pressure to make important decisions as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Whether they decide to close their doors or to change their format in order to reach their target audiences, it’s hard to know what the right choices are during a period of ever-present change. Some even view the pandemic as a growth opportunity. Stephanie Booth, the owner of The Candle Booth, is one of these local business owners who decided to find a new path amidst a crisis.
Taking a chance on the unknown, Booth left her job at the State of Ohio after 13 years to open her cleverly-named store, The Candle Booth.
“It is more than just a scent, it is about creating a memory,” said Booth, an avid candle lover who wants to provide her customers with an experience, not just a candle to take home. “Not just a memory of what you smell once the match hits the candle, but what you were doing at that moment.”
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Taking it a step further than just the memory-inducing smell, Booth used her out-of-the-box creative mindset to create for her customers something that looked just as good as it smelled. All of her candles are made to look or smell like your favorite food, cocktail, or morning drink of choice.
“At one of my early pop-ups at a dance studio, one woman walked past my booth and said she was ‘on a diet’ thinking my candles were food, not only because of their look but their smell. Funny enough she is one of my best customers now,” Booth said.
In the early days of the pandemic, Booth hosted a soft opening in hopes that a little optimism and hard work would show people that the pandemic couldn’t keep us down. It was at this soft opening where The Candle Booth’s original goal took a positive turn.
“Customers asked if they could come into The Candle Booth to make their own candles—an option I had never even considered in my planning process,” Booth said.
It was at that moment where Booth felt she was starting to build her mini-community in Olde Towne East. Not only with her customers, but other local small business owners in the area.
“I think The Candle Booth was a reason for people to get out of their house, in a safe environment, to do something different, something fun, something where they could safely create in their own, personal space.”
For more information, head to thecandlebooth.company
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