It’s been a booming year for Jacksonville’s small business scene with multiple shops opening around the city to add to an already vibrant local business landscape. From a vintage boutique in Springfield to multiple new bookstores in Jacksonville’s urban core, 2023 has seen an uptick in business openings similar to the number of new shops that also opened ahead of holiday shopping last year.
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Now, they are getting ready for their first holiday shopping season and the promotional weekend that is Small Business Saturday. Here are a few new shops to check out and patronize while searching for gifts for friends and family:
Books and gifts
It has been a busy year for independent bookstores with two opening in Jacksonville and another, Femme Fire Books, hitting the one-year milestone of having a physical location. Happy Medium Books Cafe opened in July on Park Street, and the Literary Lounge opened a few months later in September in Murray Hill. Both offer a selection of books and other items.
![Books lie on a shelf to be organized Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023 at The Literary Lounge, the former site of Do Good Beauty women’s boutique salon, in Murray Hill, Jacksonville, Fla. In the last decade, there's been a steady decline for independent bookstores, but two have opened/will open in Jacksonville this year. Glitz works full-time for U.S. AutoForce, a tires, parts and lubricant distributor in the region but said this is her creative side hustle. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]](/gcdn/authoring/authoring-images/2023/09/12/NFTU/70836508007-jki-090723-bookstore-trends.jpg?width=660&height=440&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp)
Local boutiques
Purple Mangrove is a pre-owned and vintage clothing store that also sells beverages and plants alongside a collection of T-shirts, tops, blouses, dresses, jackets, Jaguars gear and bottoms.
Closer to the beach, Sunhoney went from an online-only shop to a storefront at Jacksonville Beach in the spring. The store, founded in 2019, sells “modern, bohemian items,” made to be “cute and comfortable,” and includes a men’s section for another boutique business, 8103 Clothing.
Miscellaneous items
Advertised as plants, home decor and unique gifts, Planet Circle opened in July in Riverside. It offers everything from stickers themed to different neighborhoods around the city to coffee, mugs, totes, candles and coasters.
Greenhouse just celebrated its first anniversary in the Brooklyn neighborhood earlier in November. The bar, coffeehouse and shop triple threat offers a variety of plants, pots and trinkets for those green-thumbed people in your life.