Community Highlights: Meet Kelly Johnson of KAMP

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kelly Johnson. 

Hi Kelly, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
Starting KAMP has been a lifelong dream. I like to say I grew up in the four walls of a retail store. I fell in love with working on the floor, meeting new people, helping them to find what they needed for that night or a special occasion. I worked my way up through the ranks over the course of 20 years from managing stores to overseeing several stores and then transitioning to the corporate side where I have had various leadership roles all with retail at the core. 

After transitioning from working for very large brands, I went solo and starting consulting. After having my son, I was ready to start back with consulting when the pandemic hit at the beginning of 2020. Week after week, I pushed back my new contract to start with a new client and then ultimately, put the consultancy to bed and became a full-time stay-at-home mom to ride out the pandemic. This was the opportunity to really assess what I wanted to do next when the world opened up again. The thought of going back to consulting and/or working for a large corporate company just didn’t light me up anymore. Over the years, my husband and I had always imagined we would open up a version of what KAMP is today, but the timing was never right, and/or the courage to make that big transition was not there. 

Finally, we made the decision that the time was now and that we were going to go full force with the vision of KAMP and bring it to life. Once we made that commitment to move forward, things started falling in place and KAMP was finally born in August of 2021. 

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Anything worth having certainly takes a lot of work! Nothing is ever easy, however, working on something that you love and have wanted to do for your entire life makes it less like work and more like making something flat become 3-D. From the build-out of our store and the various contractor challenges and wood shortage to COVID protocols to working every day open to close for the first 8 months straight by yourself, all of it was worth it and all of it was challenging 🙂 

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about KAMP?
KAMP is a natural wine store that also sells snacks, flowers, gifts, and other goodies that are intended to make good days great or bad days better. Our goal is to curate a mood, help to demystify the world of wine and make every aspect of purchasing more enjoyable, easy, and ego-free. We provide people with a really good experience talking in ways that people can understand and being approachable in terms of personality and price point. 

Our favorite things about wine? The diverse people that make it. The conversations that it starts. The connections that it makes. The instantaneous nostalgia of tasting a small-batch harvest— perfect, but never the same twice. Enjoying these moments with friends, new and old. Rooting, connecting, and cultivating community. 

Consider us your quintessential neighborhood stop for amazing, unique, natural, and organic wines. We also carry cold beer, artisanal chocolates, fresh flowers, alongside other gifts and provisions. Come for the wine, leave with new friends… and also wine. 

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
The irony of being a shop owner today is that my favorite thing to do when kids came over to my house for a playdate when I was young was to put price stickers all over my room and pretend to play store. It’s no surprise that this was something that was a long time coming 🙂 

Pricing:

• We keep our prices fair and approachable with most wines being under $30

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shopkamp.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shopkamp/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shopkamp

Image Credits
https://www.instagram.com/daniellegadams/?hl=en