Changes in and around Kerrytown

Mackenzie Schuch calls her secondhand boutique, Nuuyuu Collective, “a modern version of consignment.”

For $35 a week, sellers book one of twenty shelved clothes racks to sell their

used apparel, accessories, jewelry, and shoes. The twenty-one-year-old Schuch (pronounced “shook”) runs the store upstairs in Kerrytown Market & Shops, returning sixty-five percent of sales to consignors, typically via Venmo.

“The vintage pieces are the more unique things that people find interesting, but the closet clean-outers get plenty of sales, because people are loving, like, the lululemons of the world,” she observes.
The store combines her longstanding passion for sustainability with contemporary social media savvy. Schuch previously helped raise the profile of another Kerrytown boutique, Bohmey Beauty, whose recent move within the center’s Market Building created her 615-square-foot opportunity. She describes her clientele as younger customers “who just love shopping sustainable and love wearing unique things.”

The Clinton native graduated last year from EMU’s marketing program and now lives in Ann Arbor, which makes sense, given the demands of running a retail business.

“I’m definitely looking into getting an employee for weekends, but right now it really is the one-woman show and the occasional family help,” Schuch says. “This is just my way of creating an alternative to the amount of donations that end up in landfills eventually, and everybody always has more than they need in their closet. So it’s just a good way to kind of pass those things along.”

Nuuyuu Collective, 407 N. Fifth Ave. (Kerrytown Market & Shops). (517) 366– 9618. Mon.–Fri. 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m.–6 p.m., Sun. 11 a.m.–5 p.m. nuuyuucollective.com

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With his N. Main St. passion project, Vacancy, Christopher Hack is “trying to be as grassroots and underground as possible from the start, letting artists kind of fill the void of what needs to be filled.”

Visible from the windowed waiting area of neighboring Culantro Peruvian restaurant (Marketplace Changes, January), Hack’s collaborative gallery, boutique, and studio fills the rest of the former Broken Egg space with a youthful, dynamic vibe. A tile installer by day, he’s flavored the eclectic enterprise with his own mosaic tile floor installations, vintage apparel he upcycles into unique streetwear, an electronic music station, and an ever-changing assortment of wall art, metalwork sculpture, and handcrafted wood furniture.

The aim, he says, is to provide a comfortable outlet for artists to make, exhibit, and sell their creations. A recent event featured several U-M Stamps School of Art & Design students. “A lot of these students graduate and they go other places to produce art,” he says, “and I think I have an opportunity to show some of them that they could stay here and be artists and be successful.”

The draws include a shared studio space downstairs, where Hack adds screen printing, vinyl, and dyes to preworn clothing that he sells under the brand Hasbeenz (he used to be a skateboarder). As a shopkeeper, he’s often assisted by son Jackson, a sixth-grader at Washtenaw International Middle Academy and a fledgling artist himself.

He describes the “Vacancy” name as part nostalgia, part invitation: “It reminds people of traveling across the country going to motels and hotels.” It also suits as a synonym for gap or opportunity.

“I want artists to know that if they are in a space where they would like to begin to monetize from their craft, there are places in town that are catering to that,” he says. “And we’re lacking—in the marketplace, in a gathering space, and also in studio space. So I think we’re filling all three of those voids in one, at least trying to.”

Vacancy, 221 N. Main, ste. 150. Wed. & Fri. 3 p.m.–8 p.m., Thurs. & Sat. 4 p.m.–10 p.m., Sun. noon–4 p.m., Mon. & Tues. by appointment. vacancya2.com

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Nearby on N. Fourth Ave., the People’s Food Co-op has closed its kitchen and café and is repurposing the space to expand its grocery offerings. The member-owned business had resumed offering a hot food bar, salad bar, and soups in late 2022 after closing during the pandemic, with the beverage café following last July.

“The team was great. They made great food,” says marketing/outreach coordinator Troy Clarke, but sales volume wasn’t sustainable. General manager Angie Voiles announced the decision March 20.

“It was hard, because we loved having the coffee shop and the food available,” Clarke says. “But what was really hard was the fact that this was going to affect people’s jobs. So yes, we did lose some employees.” He declines to give numbers but says that employees were encouraged to apply for other roles within the co-op’s unionized shop.

They’ve moved the bulk bins of herbs, grains, and nuts into the former café wing, freeing up space for an expanded selection of both unpackaged and prepackaged groceries. The co-op, founded in 1971 and open to the public, prioritizes locally produced, natural, organic, and socially re- sponsible products.

People’s Food Co-op, 216 N. Fourth Ave. (734) 994–9174. Daily 8 a.m.–9 p.m. peoplesfood.coop

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After twelve-plus years as a laid-back lounge, last call at The Bar at 327 Braun Court is May 11. Eric Farrell, owner of the Kerrytown district business and its two-story building, made the announcement on social media, citing recent personal challenges. A recent GoFundMe campaign for kitchen renovations raised more than $26,000, which will be returned, according to his Instagram post.

Farrell is also involved with Cold Comfort Ice Cream, a maker of frozen novelties which aims to share space with a bakery, Beara Bakes, in the former Go! Ice Cream space in Ypsilanti.

The Bar at 327 Braun Court, 327 Braun. (734) 666–2704. Through May 11 only: Wed.–Fri. 4 p.m.–midnight, Sat. 6 p.m.–midnight. Closed Sun.–Tues. brauncourt.com