Cyndy Camp and Sarah Holden-Remick are so devoted to the mission of their new, eco-friendly store at 68 Main Street that they even considered the name with care and ingenuity.
The Tip Toe Eco Market.
You likely recognize “Eco” as an abbreviation for “environment.” So whence did the concept of Tip Toe originate?
Holden-Remick said, “Tread softly on Earth.”
In other words, decreasing your carbon impact on the world. Tip-toeing.
Creativity abounds in the store’s kitchen and workshop, as well as on the shelves, which include natural items from local consignors. Next, customers will be able to observe Holden-Remick creating her bath and body products and enroll in classes.
Mid-February saw the soft launch of Tip Toe, with the formal grand opening scheduled for May 1. There will be a one-day seminar on silk-scarf painting on March 25 and a ribbon-cutting event with the Kennebunk-Kennebunkport-Arundel Chamber of Commerce on March 31.
Today, the store is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursday through Sunday. The business will maintain these hours seven days a week beginning on May 1.
Tip Toe is a “hub for all things eco-friendly, natural, and sustainable,” according to Holden-Remick, while Camp considers it a “one-stop shop for everything that makes it easy for individuals to be sustainable.”
The new proprietor of the Waldo Emerson Inn: “We’re here to have fun.”
Cooperating to establish Tip Toe Eco Marketplace Holden
Remick and Camp met in the farmers’ markets where they had sold their respective products for the past few years. After they began communicating, they realized they had the same objective.
“We both desired to build a store without plastic and with a refill station,” Holden-Remick explained.
Each individual felt it would be difficult to pursue the concept on her alone. So they joined forces.
More than 20 consigners from Southern Maine and New England now stock the shop with their wares, which include bath and body products such as soaps, shampoos, lotions, salsa, artwork, stained glass, and birdhouses, among others.
Camp stated, “We’re ecstatic.” “Many of the consignors went the additional mile to replace their own packing so that they could be here with us… We have removed the requirement for plastic wrap and other similar materials.”
More consignors are forthcoming. For example, a beekeeper in Eliot will shortly sell his honey.
The studio at the rear of the store, according to Camp and Holden-Remick, should be completed within days, in time for the 25th silk-scarf painting class that Dawn Burns, owner of The Creative Soul in Kennebunk, will instruct. Other workshops will thereafter focus not just on product creation but also on physical and mental health.
“One of our consultants is interested in taking a Reiki class,” Holden-Remick explained. “One of our consignors wants to conduct a lesson on herbal medicine.”
Holden-Remick moved from England to the United States in 2014, where she founded her own firm, Serendipity Soap Company, and began manufacturing her own bath and body products.
Camp has worked in a variety of industries during her career, including government, education, and tourism, in order to “understand many diverse perspectives.” She has been the proprietor of Leave No Trace Refillery for three years. Instead of discarding their empty containers, Camp’s clients call her and request that she refills them.
Camp stated that she modeled her character after the milkman of bygone eras. But, Camp brings cleaning vinegar, hand sanitizer, makeup remover, and other refillable goods in lieu of milk.
“My business has served as my vehicle,” stated Camp. “I go door-to-door and refill my clients’ containers with Earth-friendly items I’ve researched so they may reduce their usage of single-use packaging.”
A new kitchen, a rooftop bar with beach views, and further renovations are planned for The Front Porch in Ogunquit.
Items not available elsewhere in Kennebunk
In order to avoid “stepping on the toes” of other companies in Kennebunk, Holden-Remick, and Camp request that their consignors do not sell their items elsewhere in the city.
“This is so we don’t compete with one other and remain distinct,” Camp explained. We are simply doing our best to assist everyone.