“Every time you walk in, you’re going to find something different, something that wasn’t here the last time, something that you won’t find anyplace else,” said Joni Palmer, owner of Alma’s Attic, now located at 201 E. Locust Street in Wilmington. The store features a variety of items, including farm toys, furniture, artwork, Christmas items, candles, jams, and more. All items are organized similar to a traditional retail and grouped by categories.
Following her childhood on a farm in Kansas, Joni moved to Missouri for college and began working at a local Walmart. Through that job, she “fell in love” with retail and was transferred to Ohio where she met her now husband, Brad.
Joni has always enjoyed antiques and maintained antique booths in various places as a hobby, calling them ‘Palmer’s Antiques’. Upon the elimination of her position at Walmart in 2018, Joni and Brad decided that they would finally open their own brick and mortar store.
When brainstorming a name, Joni determined she wanted to use an alliteration. After playing with several options, she ultimately chose to use her grandmother’s name, “Alma”, and pair it with “Attic”.
In addition to their physical store, Alma’s Attic also sells items online, which makes up 50–60% of their total sales. Still, Joni emphasized the importance of local businesses, acknowledging while big companies and events bring people to Wilmington, it’s the small and unique businesses that keep the people here.
Joni is also a Certified Estate Appraiser for the couple’s other business, Palmer Appraisal Services. According to Brad, this license is rare and provides extra comfort to customers.
Joni stressed the importance of community and shared hopes to partner with Kava Haus. She stated, “The only way that we’re going to make our community a better place to live is if we can just embrace each other as humans and see 0ur likeness instead of our difference.”
Listen to Joni’s full story on episode 60 of The Real Change Podcast.