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The saying goes that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Martha Grover would be inclined to agree.
After all, she watched a customer of hers beeline straight toward a pink and green sparkly shrine she made featuring a little ceramic cat and rose-colored candles and purchase it. “He just went straight to it like a magnet,” Grover says. “He goes, ‘My mother would love this!’”
A bookstore and artist collective, Grover’s Curiosity Shop is certainly a place for moms. But it also speaks to the inner child in all of us. For sale on a recent drizzly Saturday? A grater in the shape of a dress (which this writer bought for $3) and a wolf diorama, just to name a couple of things. Add in a prize wheel for purchases over $25, mystery bags, and racks of vintage clothing, and you have your own version of an I Spy book.
The colorful walls and crammed shelves in the curiosity shop are reminiscent of another time, a far cry from the beige tones and basic designs that have taken over many modern homes.
“I have never understood minimalism; that is just not my vibe,” Grover says. “This is joyful,” she adds, waving her arms around the store.
Grover, a folk artist and author, runs the shop as a side project outside of her day job. Ten years ago, she was trying to decide what to do for her birthday and decided to put on a garage sale. “This is like having a garage sale every week,” she says. “It’s great. I love it.”
Like the typical garage sale, the curiosity shop tends to attract wanderers. It’s tucked out of any major traffic on a corner between Southeast 14th Avenue and Clinton Street. That means the typical customer base consists of people wandering off Division Street, bikers who stop and give the shop a glance, and those trying to wait out the MAX line. (Grover jokes that the train is great business for her.)
When Grover outgrew a space in Troutdale and made her way into Portland in December 2021, she cringed at the idea of becoming a boss. Perhaps her solution—turning the space into a cooperative where artists split shifts as well as earnings—has only enhanced the charm.
And when you have a semi-permanent garage sale, the store becomes a home. Grover’s Curiosity Shop has hosted musicians and speakers, collage nights and book releases in a warehouse next door. Grover looks forward to regulars who bring their friends from out of town and tell them this place doesn’t exist anywhere else.
A customer once told Grover “there’s no accounting for whimsy” as he bought a mask. Grover likes that. “You may not find what you’re looking for,” she says, “but you’ll find something that you weren’t looking for.”