Carrefour Marché, a newly opened art market, apothecary and creative space at the crossroads of Kickerville and Bay roads, is Lily Emmerick’s dream come to life.
She initially bought the property at 7300 Kickerville Road, on the edge of Birch Bay, with her father in 2021, with the goal of turning it into a communal living space. Part of the property, where the market is located, used to function as a gas station.
“My best friend, Rain and I, we wanted to be two old biddies sitting on our front porch with all our rescue cats, and drinking our tea and talking crap,” Emmerick said. “We were going to have our little bookstore and our house was going to be purple.”
Upon finding the property, she immediately knew it would be perfect.
“It feels like a lot of stuff just kind of happens on this property. Like, weird stuff. Kismet stuff, stuff that doesn’t happen in a lot of places,” Emmerick said. “This place felt like magic.”
She worked at turning it into a home; moving in her items, painting the walls of their room — purple, of course — when she got an unexpected call from Rain’s stepmother.
Her best friend had died.
Emmerick had hoped to surprise Rain and hadn’t even had a chance to tell her about the property yet.
“I think I just got kind of depressed for a few years after that,” she said.
A few years later, she met her partner, Tristan, and they began working to rebuild the area where the market now sits after a previous tenant left it in disrepair.
The two wanted to create a space for artists to show and sell their work, so they began repairs, transforming it into Carrefour Marché after about a year.
“I feel like Rain is a part of this still,” Emmerick said. “We have her little bookcase here, and some of the books on that shelf are hers.”
The market sells items made by local artists, ranging from paintings to clothing to jewelry to whimsical trinkets, offering them an opportunity to showcase their work in a judgment-free environment. Emmerick isn’t interested in policing or censoring anyone’s work, as that’s something she’s seen enough of in the art community — even experiencing it herself.
Artists choose how much they want to sell each of their items for, and Emmerick puts a small markup on them, always ensuring that artists get to keep the amount they decided to sell for initially.
Unfortunately, it’s not enough to keep the lights on. Emmerick works as a Community Reinvestment Act officer, which is a professional that helps ensure banks or credit unions address their community’s needs, and said she loves her career, and that it “mirrors” her work at Carrefour.
Tucked away in the back left corner of the shop is a working apothecary, with a back wall full of shelves holding ingredients that can be used to make teas, soaps, tinctures and more.
“Healing is a big part of what we do here,” Emmerick said.
Carrefour is open Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. A third day of operations could be added in the future. The market also sometimes hosts events or opens up the space for other people to use at no cost.
Carrefour constantly gets new inventory, and will soon feature items that set the tone for fall. Another addition coming soon is the kids corner, which will carry free art supplies for children.
“Poor kids deserve the highest quality that we can give them. That is our job, is to take care of our future and they are our future,” Emmerick said. “I believe that, so I want to make sure that they have access to the tools of creativity.”
