Village People: The Little NB Box
About a year ago, the Container Village was still just an idea, and our team set out to meet with others who shared this vision of transforming the waterfront. Now that we’re well into the season, we reached out to our partners in the Container Village – affectionately known as the ‘Village People’ — to find out a little bit more about who they are and what they love about their businesses and being part of this challenging and exciting first year in the Container Village.
Up next is The NB Box. Or, more specifically, The Little NB Box. The original storefront is located in Millidgeville, and both bricks-and-mortar shops are extensions of owner Ingrid Munroe’s successful online business.
Q: What’s your favourite colour? Blue
Q: Where did you get the idea for your business?
The business idea came when I was trying to shop for a gift for my sister’s baby shower that was entirely locally made. I found it really difficult to find and source products. I was meeting women in parking lots and going to their homes to buy their high quality handmade goods and I thought that there was probably a better way to market and bring local goods to consumers.
Q: How did you come up with the name of your business?
Well, initially (for the first three years), the business was e‑commerce only and we shipped all of our orders, so The “NB Box” just sort of fit the whole idea. Boxes of New Brunswick products shipped right to you!
Q: Why did you want to set up shop at AREA 506? I absolutely love uptown, and I knew it would be such a fun place to have a little shop! And a bit of it was FOMO — I didn’t want to miss out on being part of something so cool and innovative happening in our little city.
Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? I’m actually probably one of those rare kids who didn’t want to be anything. No job sounded good to me – and that’s probably contributed to how I wound up working for myself.
Q: Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have done differently when you were first starting out?
I have been so lucky to not have made any catastrophic mistakes yet in this business. Any mistakes we have made have been great learning experiences, so I don’t think I would change our journey at all.
Q: What do you consider your biggest success?
Over the years, we have bought and renovated a large commercial space, we were able to start offering health insurance to our employees and we have worked on amazing dream projects with the likes of the Canadian Hockey League, TD Bank and Deloitte. There have been a lot of milestones for us along the way, but the biggest will always be when a supplier tells us how we have impacted them and the growth of their business. Or any time we get a referral from a past client. Those moments are so validating – like we are really making a difference and it’s tangible and important. What we do has value and means something to people, and it’s in those moments where we can really see it.
Q: What’s next?
We have experienced so much growth in the last few years, we are looking forward to perfecting our business until we find the next right opportunity. Growth can be difficult to manage and so we are looking forward to settling into our new normal.
