People’s Market of Lansing celebrates local

If you’ve lived in Lansing for a while or visit often, you’ve likely noticed a small, red storefront on Atwater Road visible from East Shore Drive. If you ever got curious enough to stop by and take a look inside, you’d find a store filled to the brim with antiques, along with a variety of clothing and even food items like bread and eggs.

That unassuming business is the People’s Market of Lansing, which has prided itself on its local focus since opening over a decade ago. And even through the past two years of the pandemic, that focus hasn’t wavered.

When People’s Market owners Jay and Carol Engels came to Lansing in 2000, they raised alpacas on their farm on Scofield Road while Carol taught at Lansing Central School District and Jay ran his accounting business, Engels Accounting (engelsaccounting.com), out of their home. A small booth at their farm sold products made from their alpacas’ fur as well as a smattering of products made by some fellow local producers.

As Jay’s business and the popularity of the alpaca products grew, the two began looking for a place to do both — somewhere to sell local products while Jay worked with his clients.

“I decided to leave my accounting firm — I was willing go out on my own,” Jay explained. “That was part of the reason we got an office too is because I was working out of the house. And that gets old after a while, having people through your house all the time. I said, ‘Well, it’d be better to have an office, and we could combine the two.’ I had my office, and we had a store.”

They managed to find a spot just across the street from their current location, and the People’s Market was born.

“We started gathering friends that had crafts,” Carol explained. “We knew someone who did crafting with tied lights. We knew someone who did sandals, someone who did weaving. And we had an alpaca farm at the time, so we had our fiber. So, we figured, ‘Oh, let’s put it all in one place.’ And at the peak over there, we had about 40 or 50 vendors. Each person just specialized in their one little area, so there really wasn’t competition, but just creating a place for people to sell their goods.”

As far as how antiques became the main product focus, Carol said that passion started with her parents.

“Their house was full of antiques,” she said. “We had Leisure Time Antiques and Collectibles, and the four of us did it together. And we would go to flea markets, and … we ended up with all these bins and bins of things. … [At the People’s Market], the antiques made it so that we didn’t have to invest in inventory. We were using what we already had in our passion for antiques and collectibles.”

About eight years ago, the building across the way went up for sale, and the two decided to jump at the chance to expand their business.

“We just have more flexibility [at our current location],” Carol said. “We were able to have a certified kitchen. So, the building didn’t have these things when we came. We had to modify it, paint it and we put up the barn board and kind of created a store atmosphere and then we turned the kitchen into a certified kitchen. And then out back, we have offices and storage space.”

Overall, the two prioritized making shopping at the People’s Market an “experience” that was, as their Facebook page puts it, “truly local.” Even though the artisans featured over the years have changed a bit, the People’s Market still features products from about 50 local producers, so it’s no surprise that the business attracts a wide variety of clientele.

“It’s all different,” Jay said. “We get people [who] come in strictly because it’s local, and they want to buy local if they can. … We do the bread three days a week, so that has a certain following at this point. And then of course, Christmas, everybody comes in for gifts. And we’ll get a lot of people that their relative has moved away, so they want to come in and get something from Lansing to send to that relative, wherever they happen to be.”

And many customers start as Jay’s accounting clients.

“My clients will come in, they’ll get their tax return, and then they’ll shop,” Jay said.

While the People’s Market is their passion project, it’s Jay’s accounting business that has largely kept the two afloat over the years, even more so since Carol retired from teaching last June. That was especially true during the beginning stages of the pandemic.

When the pandemic first hit the county, the People’s Market had to temporarily close like so many other retail businesses at the time, but Jay’s accounting business was considered essential. Once the People’s Market reopened, business was slow at first, but it’s picked up considerably in recent months.

Besides a slight dip in 2020, the People’s Market’s popularity has steadily grown since opening, and Jay and Carol have responded by expanding their offerings.

“We’ve noticed within the last few months — especially since the pandemic, but in the last five years, I would say — that the antique business is kind of evolving and that the generation that’s coming up isn’t as interested in antiques, per se,” Carol said. “But they are interested in more modern. So actually, in the last few years, we’ve added in some new products and modern products.”

Some more recent additions include alpaca socks, photography, fresh eggs and milk and even things like honey and cookies.

“We are trying to meet everybody’s needs by offering foods,” Carol said. “We work with a Mennonite family over on the other side of the lake to get root beer and jams and jellies and goods. And then, we also have the local baker and then we have local cookie people that provide us with really amazing baked goods. We have pickup orders so they bring — instead of also having to work out of their houses — nice goods here.”

Despite the popularity and variety, the People’s Market often gets people who say things like, “I drive by here every day and I finally decided to stop,” Jay said, which is why customer attraction is still a struggle.

“People drive by here, and they don’t think about stopping or they don’t know what we have,” Jay said. “Our biggest issue is getting people through the door the first time. Then, they realize what’s in here, and then they go, ‘I’ll be back’ or ‘I’m going to bring my wife, I’ll bring my aunt, I’ll bring somebody else back.’”

Since they’ve seen that reaction so many times, Carol and Jay encourage readers to stop by and see all that the People’s Market has to offer. Visit the market at 45 Atwater Rd. or check out its Facebook page at facebook.com/PeoplesMarketLansing.

Lansing at Large appears every Wednesday in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com.