It’s hard to believe we’re approaching the first anniversary of Neighborhood Goods’ opening at Legacy West. But here we are, mere days away from that milestone and just weeks from the opening of our upcoming second location in New York.
Amidst the sheer chaos of building this concept every day, our team has found some (fleeting) moments to reflect recently. And, in doing so, we’ve uncovered an overwhelming sense of gratitude.
We’ve always talked about building a community with Neighborhood Goods. And, reflecting on the past year, it’s clear that we’ve certainly been doing so, one step at a time, with an incredible group of thoughtful, progressive, and exciting people in Dallas, Plano, and beyond.
When building a digital concept, it’s easy to lose track of the fact that each visitor to your website is a person. But, with our physical experiment in Plano, we see the faces every day. We see the effort and care that’s gone into each event from our team. We see the passion from the founders of our partner brands. We see the curiosity of our customers. And we see the everyday acts of kindness, support, and generosity of our friends, investors, partners, and otherwise.
To that end, we’ve decided it’s time to introduce an annual tradition to coincide with the anniversary of our first store opening. Rather than focusing on what we did this year, we’d like to focus on you. We’re going to celebrate the people who’ve helped, challenged, and inspired us over the past year.
We call it “A Year of Stories”.
In brief, in October, we reached out to a (highly incomplete) group of people asking for two things:
- A portrait. (Either taken today or a particularly memorable photo from the past year.)
- A story. (A meaningful one from the past year.)
Starting tomorrow, we’re going to begin sharing those stories at @ayearofstories.
And, tomorrow evening, we’ll be displaying those portraits and stories around the store at Legacy West in Plano. The event is open to the public — no RSVP required — and will feature complimentary drinks and bites from our menu at Prim and Proper, live music, and entertainment.
We hope you’ll join us to reflect on the past year, as well as celebrating some fantastic people and stories.
In writing this, as an aside, I realize it’s all a bit overwrought and self-serious. (I wrote several hundred words before even stating the name of the concept.) But, truthfully, we’re just incredibly proud.
Around this time last year, we were working almost 24 hours per day, as a small group of people who believed in the same unorthodox concept. We were surrounded by our partners — anyone from our architects at Droese Raney Architecture to Serena Williams — who spent time in Plano to help us get the space ready for opening. And it brought us all together, in so many ways.
Neighborhood Goods, as an idea, has always been devoted to people and storytelling. That can be seen from the earliest document about the concept. And it’s in these moments of support — whether quiet or loud — that we’ve felt most encouraged, ratified, and excited about our trajectory.
So, for it all, we hope you’ll come along to have a drink or two and catch-up. And, for those who can’t, we hope you’ll follow along with @ayearofstories to learn a little more about the human aspect of this company and some of the people who’ve helped make it possible.
