St. Thomas pop up store highlights best of the VI

A new store in St. Thomas is highlighting all the US Virgin Islands has to offer.

The “Made in the USVI” pop up store on Main Street features all locally made products by 25 local manufacturers from across the VI.

The US Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority collaborated with the Virgin Islands Council on the Arts to create the store.

They hope to encourage Virgin Islanders to shop local this holiday season.

“This was a brain child of the a collaboration that the Virgin Islands Council of the Arts and the Enterprise Zone Commission endeavored to start out to do we really thought that it would be great to be able to have Virgin Islands made products available for the people of the Virgin Islands,” Nadine Marchena Kean with the US Virgin Islands Economic Development Authority said.

“It’s always been a dream of mine for my grantees to show their wares on a larger scale and when Nadine from the Enterprise Zone called and said hey let’s collaborate on a pop up we thought it would be an awesome, awesome things to do for our grantees as well as for her clients for the community especially around the season for Christmas people are always looking for local gifts,” Tasida Kelch, Executive Director of the Virgin Islands Council of the Arts said.

“So I don’t want the mass produced things that you can buy on any island so they just change the island so it’s St. Thomas, Barbados, whatever. I want something that is locally produced,” Tasida Kelch, Executive Director of the Virgin Islands Council of the Arts said.

The Made in the USVI Pop Up is open from now until January 19th. It is open Monday through Saturday from 9am to 5pm in the weekdays and Saturday 9am to noon.