Bliss Marketplace, a local vendor marketplace where booth renters sell vintage furniture, handmade goods and artisan jewelry, is opening a 35,000-square-foot location at 8509 Bond Road in Elk Grove, taking over a space long occupied by craft retailer Joann Inc. before its nationwide closure last year. Co-owner Sydnei Kelly said the Elk Grove opening wasn’t originally part of the company’s plan.
Earlier this year, Bliss ran a social media guessing game asking followers to predict its next location. The intended answer was Folsom, but an overwhelming number of comments pushed for Elk Grove instead, catching the team off guard.
According to the Sacramento Business Journal, Kelly said in an email to the outlet, “We didn’t realize there was such a demand for Bliss Marketplace there.” The Elk Grove site will become Bliss’s largest location yet, surpassing the 22,000-square-foot Folsom Premium Outlets store the company announced in May. Its size and layout will also let Bliss offer something new: a dedicated vendor storage area in the back of the building, letting vendors store extra inventory on-site instead of renting an outside storage unit, an option not available at any of Bliss’s other locations. Kelly expects the space to accommodate around 250 vendors.
Kelly had previously pursued a similar former Joann space in Citrus Heights before those plans fell through, making the Elk Grove opportunity, inside the Elk Grove Marketplace center at Bond Road and Highway 99, especially welcome when the property owner agreed to lease it. She’s financing the expansion through a mix of personal cash, business cash on hand and a business line of credit. Bliss is also looking to relocate its Rancho Cordova store when that lease expires in January, with Citrus Heights the top target for a new spot.
