The Retail Whisperer

Meghan Wagner is the owner of The Go Girl Shoppe, a unique retail store located in Mebane, NC. She began her entrepreneurial journey in 2012 with a mobile shop on wheels, offering a curated selection of home décor and gifts. In 2014, she opened a brick-and-mortar location in Raleigh, NC, and after 8 successful years, relocated to a larger store in Mebane in 2019. As a local to Mebane, Megan wanted to bring a little happiness to the corner of downtown, with a shop that constantly evolves with new décor and seasonal items.

The Go Girl Shoppe prides itself on offering one-of-a-kind pieces that bring a smile to customers’ faces and foster a sense of community. Megan believes in the importance of relationships and connections, ensuring that every customer feels like they are walking into a place where they belong. Whether you're entering as a stranger or a longtime customer, Megan and her team are dedicated to making everyone feel like family.

In this episode, Meghan shares how she built a thriving retail business rooted in connection, creativity, and customer experience—along with the real behind-the-scenes of running a store through every season.

We are incredibly grateful for everyone who listens to and shares this podcast! If you’ve found value in our episodes and want to help us keep creating, we’ve made it easy through Buy Me a Coffee. Any contributions from $5 up to $200 help cover the real costs of podcasting—editing, hosting fees, and everything else that goes into bringing you quality content. It's a way for you to invest in the conversations and topics that matter to you. Head to buymeacoffee.com/retailwhorb, and as always, thank you for your continued support! 

What’s inside:

• How to create a loyal customer base through genuine relationships and community-building
• Smart merchandising, buying strategies, and adapting to trends while knowing your customer
• Creative ways to drive sales through in-store experiences, events, and storytelling

Mentioned In This Episode:

Episode 206: Creating Connection and Community through Retail with Meghan
Instagram
Facebook
Go Girl Shoppe

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Tori Dahl’s passion for scent began when she was a little girl growing up on three acres in the Texas hill country. In the spring, Mountain Laurel would bloom with fragrant purple blossoms. On Saturday mornings she would wake to the sound of her father mowing the lawn and open her window to breathe in the scent of freshly cut grass mixed with Mountain Laurel. Years later, that scent still triggers memories of comfort and home.

Smell and emotion are stored in our brains as one memory. This is why fragrance has the powerful ability to influence our mood and well being.

With a background in business, design, and home decor, Tori understands the importance of curating beautiful spaces not only through art and furnishings but also through fragrance. In 2019 she began developing a line of home fragrances and perfume. Her collection is built around custom blended signature scents made with carefully selected ingredients. Each fragrance is thoughtfully named to reflect the emotion or feeling it evokes.

The signature fragrances Love, Clarity, Refuge, Shine, Serenity, Escape, and Tranquility are available in wax melts, linen and room sprays, reed diffusers, and perfume.

With every breath, her hope is to help people reconnect with meaningful memories while creating a beautiful atmosphere within their homes.

In this episode, Tori shares the story behind her fragrance brand and the inspiration that came from childhood memories, creativity, and a passion for designing meaningful spaces. She discusses the process of creating signature scents and how fragrance can shape the emotional experience of a home.

We are doing our first-ever open call! You can submit your store or favorite store to be on the podcast because every store has a story behind it! Go to theretailwhorepodcast.com, click on SUBMIT YOUR STORE, fill out an easy form and we’ll see you on the mic!

What’s Inside This Episode

• Why scent and memory are so strongly connected in the brain
• The process behind creating custom signature fragrances
• How fragrance can transform the mood and atmosphere of a home

Mentioned In This Episode:
Instagram
The Dahl Farmhouse Website

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Emily Webb is the owner of Emily's Garden. She is 69 years old and lives three miles from a town of 154 people in the northern Sierras of California. She comes from a family of artists and designers who are all good with their hands. She started Emily's Garden in 1981 as a manufacturing company in her laundry room, beginning with a scented hot pad. Over the years she grew, acquiring sales reps and show rooms across the country. The scented hot pads quickly gave way to personal care, with fabric microwavable products like aromatherapy neck wraps, booties and eye pillows sold to high end hotel spas and gift shops like the Pebble Beach Resort, Ritz Carlton and Fairmont.

In the early 2000's she created custom designs and private labeling for stores and national catalogs like Smith & Hawken, Red Envelope and The Wedding Channel, shipping large volume orders from a 150 year old building in Taylorsville with a team of seven. In 2009 she stepped away from mass production and opened a 270 sq ft. retail store in Quincy, CA. She loved it even though she made almost no money. She sold beauty. She sold pretty. She sold nature. Her window displays became known throughout town and after she left, Main St. never felt the same.

At 67 she was burnt out from a lifetime of go, go, go. She closed her store and retired. Today she keeps a small display in the Made in Plumas County store and an active website, spending her time hiking and foraging with her dog, working in her garden and creating flower arrangements from the flowers she grows.

In this episode she shares how she built a national wholesale brand from her laundry room, why she chose creativity over scale when mass production no longer felt aligned, and what burnout, reinvention and retirement look like when you choose beauty, nature and quality of life over constant growth.

We are incredibly grateful for everyone who listens to and shares this podcast! If you’ve found value in our episodes and want to help us keep creating, we’ve made it easy through Buy Me a Coffee. Any contributions from $5 up to $200 help cover the real costs of podcasting—editing, hosting fees, and everything else that goes into bringing you quality content. It's a way for you to invest in the conversations and topics that matter to you. Head to buymeacoffee.com/retailwhorb, and as always, thank you for your continued support! 

What’s inside:

• Growing from handmade beginnings to national wholesale accounts
• Staying true to your retail identity instead of chasing trends
• Redefining success through simplicity, creativity and quality of life

Mentioned In This Episode:
Pinterest
Facebook
Emily Garden Website

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In this episode I recap a busy show season, share lessons from designing and buying for multiple showrooms and stores, and explain how reports, floor plans, and thoughtful merchandise windows can revive retail sales and creativity. I also talk about testing categories, moving away from what doesn't work, building seasonal delivery windows, and tips for keeping stores fresh and inspiring.

We are doing our first-ever open call! You can submit your store or favorite store to be on the podcast because every store has a story behind it! Go to theretailwhorepodcast.com, click on SUBMIT YOUR STORE, fill out an easy form and we’ll see you on the mic!

What's inside

• How using sales reports transformed buying choices and revealed what to stop or grow.
• Practical merchandising moves: four big store flips a year, cross-merchandising, and delivery windows to keep inventory fresh.
• Trend highlights and product ideas: bright fruit and Mediterranean vibes, food-themed kids' items, men's gift growth, and giftable personal care.

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In this episode, we’re fresh off the Gift Show and gearing up for ASD as we unpack why “treasure hunt” buying might be the smartest margin move independent retailers can make right now. From under-the-radar vendors to bold color trends and food-inspired merchandising, we’re sharing what excited us most on the show floor and how to turn it into sales.

We also dive into why bright, joyful product is everywhere, how heritage ornament buying differs from trend-driven holiday, and how thoughtful storytelling, yes even with pasta and ribbon, creates moments customers remember and buy from.

Ask Michelle and Susan for Shelf Talk! Michelle and Susan will be co-hosting an episode every month! We’re diving into all things design, display, and merchandising—and we want to hear from you! Got a question? Submit it by going to theretailwhorepodcast.com, clicking on SHELF TALK, and we’ll answer it in an upcoming episode. Let’s talk shop and bring your ideas to life!

What’s Inside:

• ASD as Hidden Margin Goldmine. Why this show flies under the radar, what categories are surprisingly strong including fashion, beauty, licensed, and regional, and how treasure hunt sourcing can increase profitability.
• Trend Takeaways from the Floor. Chartreuse, lilac, cabana stripes, Mediterranean vibes, sardines, citrus, farm to table displays, pressed florals, and bold joyful color everywhere.
• Storytelling That Converts. From charcuterie inspired displays and tomato vine candles to ribbon bars and heritage ornament strategy, how to merchandise with intention, not just product.

We also talk about Dallas being up, independent retail momentum, education at trade shows, and why wrapping paper and ribbon might be your most underrated marketing tool.

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Stephanie Beringhele is a mom of two amazing kids, the creator and host of Retail Revelations Inside the Deal, and the VIP Buyer Relations Director at ASD Market Week. She builds and leads high-impact programs that connect retailers with the most on-trend wholesale products from around the globe because great merchandising should not be boring or overpriced.

In this episode, Michelle sits down with Stephanie to unpack how buyers and small retailers can find unexpected profit, merchandise smarter, and use trade shows like ASD Market Week as a strategic advantage. Stephanie shares real-world tactics for sourcing high-margin on-trend products, practical ways to merchandise high and low assortments, and how to navigate international sourcing and tariffs without getting overwhelmed.

We are incredibly grateful for everyone who listens to and shares this podcast! If you’ve found value in our episodes and want to help us keep creating, we’ve made it easy through Buy Me a Coffee. Any contributions from $5 up to $200 help cover the real costs of podcasting—editing, hosting fees, and everything else that goes into bringing you quality content. It's a way for you to invest in the conversations and topics that matter to you. Head to buymeacoffee.com/retailwhorb, and as always, thank you for your continued support! 

What’s inside:

• How to hunt for high-margin pet rock finds, where to look on the show floor, and why the unlikely booths often pay off the most
• Practical merchandising tips to fuse low-cost and premium items for bigger markups and a stronger store story
• How ASD’s neighborhoods, matchmaking, and buying tours help independents navigate international sourcing, container versus small-batch options, and tariff challenges

Mentioned In This Episode:
Instagram

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Jessica Rennard is the President of NuSource, a female-led micro-wholesale platform powering the demand side of resale. With 15+ years in circular fashion, she partners with leading brands to turn excess, returned, and take-back inventory into scalable resale channels—bridging sustainability goals with real revenue. Known for building from the ground up, Jessica brings a pragmatic, operator’s lens to how brands can unlock value, visibility, and longevity in the secondhand economy.

In this episode Jessica walks us through how NuSource sources, sorts, and redistributes returns and excess inventory to resellers and retailers — creating predictable secondary channels that protect brand value and reduce landfill. We dig into operations, pricing strategies, merchandising one-offs, live selling, and how resale can become a true acquisition channel for brands.

We are doing our first-ever open call! You can submit your store or favorite store to be on the podcast because every store has a story behind it! Go to theretailwhorepodcast.com, click on SUBMIT YOUR STORE, fill out an easy form and we’ll see you on the mic!

What’s inside

• How brands can turn returns and take-back programs into revenue streams — real examples and pricing tiers (Lululemon, OGL, and others).
• The warehouse playbook: sorting tech, grading, fulfillment flows and how to scale one-off inventory operations without breaking margins.
• Retail tactics that work: merchandising one-offs, department takeovers, and live selling strategies to drive urgency and higher sell-through.

Mentioned In This Episode:
Instagram
Facebook
The NUSOURCE Website

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Natalie Kracht is the owner and creative force behind Natural Grind and The Collective in Grundy Center, Iowa. What started as a small coffee shop dream has grown into a thriving community hub known for its warm atmosphere, inspired merchandising, and deeply personal touch. Natalie has built her businesses with an artist’s eye and an entrepreneur’s heart—curating clothing, home décor, gifts, and coffee experiences that make people feel seen, welcomed, and connected. She brings together quality craftsmanship, trend-forward style, and intentional storytelling, earning Natural Grind recognition among Iowa’s standout coffee shops and establishing The Collective as one of the area’s most thoughtfully curated boutiques.

In this episode, Natalie returns for part two of her conversation with Michelle, diving deeper into the realities of modern retail. From shared brick-and-mortar spaces and POS challenges to selling apparel online, staffing, live sales, and knowing when to say no, this episode is a candid look at what it really takes to keep a retail business moving forward in today’s climate.

We are incredibly grateful for everyone who listens to and shares this podcast! If you’ve found value in our episodes and want to help us keep creating, we’ve made it easy through Buy Me a Coffee. Any contributions from $5 up to $200 help cover the real costs of podcasting—editing, hosting fees, and everything else that goes into bringing you quality content. It's a way for you to invest in the conversations and topics that matter to you. Head to buymeacoffee.com/retailwhorb, and as always, thank you for your continued support! 

What’s Inside:

• How shared retail spaces, staffing, and separate POS systems can actually work
• The truth about selling apparel online, discount culture, and customer bartering
• Why consistency, live selling, and trusting your instincts matter more than ever

Mentioned In This Episode:
Instagram
Facebook
The Natural Grind Website

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Natalie Kracht is the owner and creative force behind Natural Grind and The Collective in Grundy Center, Iowa. What started as a small coffee shop dream has grown into a thriving community hub known for its warm atmosphere, inspired merchandising, and deeply personal touch. Natalie has built her businesses with an artist’s eye and an entrepreneur’s heart—curating clothing, home décor, gifts, and coffee experiences that make people feel seen, welcomed, and connected. She brings together quality craftsmanship, trend-forward style, and intentional storytelling, earning Natural Grind recognition among Iowa’s standout coffee shops and establishing The Collective as one of the area’s most thoughtfully curated boutiques.

In this episode, Natalie walks through the leap from healthcare to hospitality and retail, how she turned a coffee shop into two thriving retail concepts, and the pivots that kept her business growing through COVID and personal tragedy. She shares practical buying and merchandising lessons, how to set the right price points for your market, and why community-first service fuels repeat business.

What’s inside

• How Natalie went from healthcare administration to opening a coffee shop—and eventually a boutique—with no prior retail experience
• The lessons she learned from blending coffee, apparel, and gifts under one roof (and when it makes sense to separate them)
• Honest insights on pricing, merchandising, buying apparel, and adapting your business to your market and seasons

Mentioned In This Episode:
Instagram
Facebook
The Natural Grind Website

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In this episode, Michelle walks through how she tackles post-holiday blues in-store and as a buyer—sharing practical merchandising strategies, sale philosophy, and ways to reinvent existing inventory to keep stores fresh and profitable through January and beyond.

We are doing our first-ever open call! You can submit your store or favorite store to be on the podcast because every store has a story behind it! Go to theretailwhorepodcast.com, click on SUBMIT YOUR STORE, fill out an easy form and we’ll see you on the mic!

What's inside:

• Reset fast: Run a decisive post-holiday sale (Michelle’s go-to is 50% off) to recover cash, then reinvent remaining stock instead of dumping everything.
• Reinvent and recolor: Use “coloring out,” regrouping, and cross-department moves to make random or low-stock items feel new and abundant.
• Seasonal strategy shift: Adapt buying cadence for local demand (e.g., strong January sales in tourist markets), keep bread-and-butter SKUs, and take creative risks to avoid complacency.

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