Olivia Hanna
The High Springs Emporium Rock Shop will hold a grand opening celebration on Saturday to welcome its new owners.
The event will be held from 1-5 p.m. at 19765 NW U.S. Highway 441 where customers can meet new owners Max and Helene Mpoyi.
The grand opening will feature a ribbon-cutting celebration by the High Springs Chamber of Commerce, music by local bands Quartermoon and Sistar Drummers, and some refreshments.
According to their website, The High Springs Emporium Rock Shop is the oldest shop in North Central Florida. The store sells jewelry, tarot cards, crystals, singing bowls, incense, and gifts. Additionally, the store features a labyrinth, located outside the back of the store. The labyrinth is composed of chert and agatized coral from local waterways, and it is dedicated to the health of the Florida aquifer.
Former owner Sharron Britton retired after 20 years of running the shop and sold the store to the Mpoyis in February. The Myopis have been wholesalers for New York’s Malachite & Gems of Africa for many years.
According to the release, the friendship between the Myopis and Britton started when Britton was rebuilding her store after a fire had destroyed the previous location. She and Max Myopis met at a rock and mineral wholesale show where he sold her some merchandise and Britton began to seek him out at all the shows she went to.
“Max was able to keep me well supplied and brought many more amazing Congo mineral specimens to this country as his business grew,” Britton stated in an email. “Mine was growing as well. There was a wonderful synchronicity in the way our businesses grew side by side over the next decades.”
Though Britton has retired, she will still teach classes and workshops.
“We want to keep the shop as it has been,” Max Myopis stated in an email. “We have a good, trusted team. Our plans are to keep up the good work with the things we bought from Sharron and add new things from our mineral business to bring new rocks and minerals to High Springs.”
For more information, check out the Facebook page.
