'It was a tough year': Downtown Fayetteville shop to close brick-and-mortar storefront

The owners of the apparel retailer PRESSED - A Creative Space have announced that their storefront on Hay Street will close later this month after an eight-year run, but the business will continue to operate online.

On Jan. 13, the store will close its doors for good.

"We kind of saw it coming,” said Ashley Thompson, 36, who owns the store with her husband, Jon, 35.  “It was a tough year this last year for brick-and-mortar stores,” she said.

PRESSED, where the most popular items are graphic T-shirts and crystals, saw a huge decline in in-person sales in 2023, Thompson said.

Business is booming, however, at newmoonminerals.com, an online crystal store that the couple started during the pandemic, she said.

The venture started in an apartment above PRESSED, where the Thompsons used to live, but it quickly outgrew the space and moved to a warehouse on Chicago Drive. In March, the business moved again to a 4,000-square-foot warehouse on Russell Street, Thompson said.

Without the physical store, Thompson said she and her husband look forward to the flexibility to travel to more crystal shows and mines to hand-pick merchandise and meet with suppliers face-to-face.

They plan to add some of the merchandise previously sold at PRESSED to the New Moon Minerals online store, where orders will continue to be shipped Monday through Friday and weekly Instagram live sales will continue on the @newmoonminerals page.

Closing PRESSED, which they operated alongside three employees, is bittersweet, Thompson said.

“We’re really sad to be out of downtown, we were there for so long,” she said. “The toughest part is saying goodbye to all the people who are such loyal supporters of us.”

Reporter Taylor Shook can be reached at tshook@gannett.com.  

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: PRESSED - A Creative Space in downtown Fayetteville will close Jan. 13