Kavita Reddy’s Buy Hand shop serves as a local, handmade marketplace that is also helping some schools with fundraising projects.
Reddy’s vision is to help generate community support for local businesses and artisans as well as the uniqueness in each of us, a gift, she notes, that lasts all year.
Reddy says her shop gains inspiration from ShopSmall.com and Small Business Saturday’s and the 3/50 Project, which report that of $100 spent in locally owned independent stores, $68 returns to the community through taxes, payroll and other expenditures, compared to $43 spent in a national chain, and zero spent online.
Reddy would like to see more shopping stay in Laguna and has created a plan and a pledge to do so. Buy Hand hosted a “holiday boutique” for Laguna Beach schools, where 25 percent of sales go back to the school in fundraising. Last weekend, Anneleise Schools was the beneficiary.
Customers can find one-of-a-kind gifts and treasures in Buy Hand, 670 S. Coast Highway, among a wide variety of unique handcrafted jewelry, art, pottery, accessories, clothing, pet goods and home goods many of which are from Laguna Beach ArtistsLocals can do their part by remembering to look for opportunities to give back to the community by shopping and spending local, which Reddy maintains supports the town’s character.
