In Business of Home’s series Shop Talk, we chat with owners of home furnishings stores across the country to hear about their hard-won lessons and challenges, big and small. This week, we spoke with Alison Lange, owner of Honey Mercantile in San Antonio, Texas.
Since opening her shop in 2023, Lange’s focus has been on the small things—the bees and honeycomb that populate her brand imagery, for one thing, but also the little service decisions she’s incorporated, like offering customers a cup of coffee or personally delivering items to their homes. While the store’s tagline is “curated, cozy, a little bougie,” not all aspects of ownership are so easygoing. Still, she says, “Nothing that we’re doing is not fun.”
Ahead, Lange chats about teaching herself retail through podcasts, why she’s focusing on e-commerce this year, and why investing in social media is an immutable aspect of any modern business.
What was your career like before the shop?
I was in marketing. I had a lot of really interesting clients, from professional athletes to corporations. Most recently, I was the CMO for a plumbing and air-conditioning company. I thought I had no interest in that industry, but I was mistaken—it ended up being a phenomenal job! But then I got promoted to president of the company, and was fired.
I was devastated and adrift. I wasn’t in a position to live without a paycheck. I live about a mile and a half from my shop, and I would go on these little sadness walks. I passed by the location about a million times. I had a Pinterest board of this imaginary shop I might open, but I didn’t think it would be real. Then I thought, “Let me just call this number in the window and see if it’s a viable option.” So I did, in 2022, and here we are.
How did you begin to teach yourself the retail business?
I’m really transparent: My retail experience consisted of a part-time job in college. I felt good about my business and leadership skills, but with the retail stuff I was winging it. Everything in the shop is something I’ve used, worn, or eaten. It’s all things I feel really good about, that I would recommend to friends and family, and I built the inventory [that way]. Some of it we nailed from the beginning. Some of it was a total fail. But I’m figuring it out as I go. Some other boutique owners were kind enough to share knowledge with me, and the internet is a wonderful thing. I’m a student of podcasts. I’m still learning and have so far to go.
How would you describe the aesthetic of the store?
I wanted it to feel like a hug—warm and welcoming and inviting. A lot of us have had those experiences where you go into a boutique and it feels snooty. You can come as you are—just taking a walk, or you got done working out—and you’re welcomed. It's a general store, but a little bougie.
Tell me about “a little bougie.”
It’s a little bit elevated and luxe. It’s a “treat yourself” mentality. For example, our candles—they’re made by other small businesses, with high-quality ingredients. They’re not so high-end they’re out of reach, but the quality ingredients mean that when you burn them, they’re not bad for your house or your health.
Who is your typical customer?
We’re in a very residential location, so we have a lot of area homeowners come in. It’s primarily women. We work with designers, and I do interior design as well. I work with people if they need help picking something out—if they want art over their mantel or are figuring out how to style something in their living room. I’m working with a customer right now who is doing a complete bathroom remodel, and I helped her select paint colors, artwork and furniture.
Were you always interested in interior design, or is that something that came about because of the store?
It was my lifelong passion. I was the kid who redid their room and moved their stuff around. I really wanted to go to college for interior design, and that didn’t pan out. I’m obviously self-taught, without a formal education in design, but I have been helping friends and family, and had a referral business for over 20 years. That is my favorite side hustle.
What are your design offerings now?
I offer full-service interior design work, and we have an architect we consult. Or I’ll do [projects] as small as, “I want to create a gallery wall or pick out a new paint color.” It’s a lot of fun.
Tell me about your sourcing process, especially since it’s something you had to teach yourself from scratch.
I would love, love, love, love to go to markets, but right now that’s outside my budget, so it’s a lot of online sourcing. I’m fortunate that we’ve had a lot of vendors and reps come to us. It was incredibly difficult starting out, because nobody had heard of us, but now people send us stuff and say, “We think this would be a good fit for your shop.”
But my greatest source is my customers. They’ll come in and say, “Have you heard of these jeans? This candle? We think you’d love this.” They share products with me, and we’ve brought in a lot because of their recommendations. They’re often right!
What’s a vendor or vendor relationship you love?
I have so many. I'm really proud to say the large majority, maybe 80 to 90 percent, of the stuff in our store is from other small businesses. I know the makers or I know the owners. One of my favorites is from Los Poblanos, a little farm outside of Albuquerque. I tried some of their lotion, and it was the best-smelling lavender in the history of the world.
You can stay there—after my father died a few years ago, my husband took me, and it was very sad, but very healing. They have a restaurant on-site, I got to meet their team, and they have cats roaming around. It was a product I already loved, and now I have this connection. But for pretty much everything in the store, we have connections like that. Our beekeeper comes by and delivers our honey in a milk crate. Supporting small businesses doing good things, it just feels good.
What is your own favorite category?
Honey, always. I put honey in my coffee to get me started every day. I swear, local honey is medicine. And you can never have too many candles. I don’t care what anyone says.
What is your e-commerce strategy? I know it’s this giant albatross for every small retailer.
Giant albatross is a good way to describe it. Before we opened in 2023, we built our website, and it was good. I was proud of it. But it wasn’t as robust as I wanted it to be. So that is one thing that we have really committed to for 2026. Since January, we’ve made a ton of improvements. We’ve updated the functionality, made it a lot faster, and started offering curated collections. We ship out orders every day, but not as much as I’d like. We offer free delivery locally, which is me dropping it off on the porch. I didn’t know that would be as popular as it is.
You have a really great feed. Why did you want to invest time and energy in social media?
Well, it’s 2026, and that’s how people consume information. If you hear about a business, a great new restaurant, the first thing you do is check them out on social. If I told you about a person, the first thing you would do is stalk them on social. That’s just how we live now.
We’ve got a new partner we’re working with, and one of our staffers is a film student. Our team is so willing to make content, and they’ve got great personalities. It’s very much a team effort. I’m surrounded by people who are a lot smarter—and by smarter, I mean younger. I just do what I’m told. We had a social media content day yesterday, with all hands on deck at the shop, and shot videos for four or five hours. Gosh, it’s so much harder than it looks.
What is San Antonio’s design scene like?
In my area, the homes fall into two categories. There’s a lot of new construction, and people are looking to add customization to their builder-grade, cookie-cutter houses. The other [category] is a lot of older homes—’70s, ’80s, ’90s houses that are incredibly dated— and people want to make them more modern. People are embracing color, which is my favorite thing in the world. Color, personality and modern aesthetics—and by modern I just mean current. People aren’t afraid of having older elements with character and patina and history. I love that so much. And look, it’s San Antonio. We definitely have those nods to Texas, and people love their limestone and chunky brown wood and Hill Country decor. But people are willing to make bold choices to complement that.
You host a lot of events! Tell me about your event schedule.
I always say that my shop is a love letter to the community, and we listen to our community. Right now, we’re hosting mahjong lessons because it is so big right now. Everyone wants to learn how to play. We do themed events, like a Bridgerton one in March. We had a floral-arranging class with a local florist. Some we host ourselves, some we collaborate on with other small businesses. We’re hosting a book club soon.
Why were events important to you? From your website, it almost seems like part of your ethos—getting people to spend time together.
One hundred percent, it’s part of the ethos. I never wanted this shop to be “mine.” I always wanted it to belong to the community. These are my neighbors. Whatever we can do to help bring people together and have fun. Nothing that we’re doing is not fun.
You mentioned that pivoting to a new career came with some tough lessons. Could you share some of the things that didn’t work out in the beginning?
This could be a very long list. I have made so many mistakes, and I continue to make mistakes. We’re a general store: We have a little of this and a little of that. Trying to figure out that product mix has been a challenge. I brought in bedding at the beginning, and that was a total fail. It wasn’t something that our community wanted, so that was a bust.
And I budgeted based on the amount of money I thought I was going to make. That was delusional. I had pretend budgets based on pretend profits—I guess I thought I was Nordstrom, but I wasn’t. I thought we’d have a commercial cleaning crew, but yours truly cleans the toilets.
What are some of your hopes for the future of the business?
We just launched our own signature scent with a local candle company here in San Antonio. I would love to do additional fragrance and home care. I would love to develop some apparel. We’ve also started doing a lot of corporate gifting and custom gifts. We’re across the street from the JW Marriott, and a lot of conventions and events come into the JW. We’ve partnered with those events for attendee gifts, and I would like to do more.
In an ideal world, we would have additional locations. I feel I have the blueprint now. I’ve figured out what works and what doesn’t. And I talk to so many women who say, “I’ve always wanted to have a boutique!” I would love to be able to help them realize that dream. Here’s a playbook, here’s support.
What’s your favorite kind of day in the shop?
We have to have good weather, because if we have inclement weather, people stay home. So it’s a beautiful sunny day in spring or fall. We have a coffee bar, so I make myself a big coffee, and then it’s busy. Time just flies because so many people are coming in. I get to talk to people, help them pick out gifts. I usually get some juicy gossip, and I’m never mad about that. And then things just hum along. Maybe some cool new product comes in from UPS. Nothing too crazy—just a fun, full day, with no rain.
