Mod Pod adds to local flavor

Like the Willamette River, Mod Pod’s eclectic style can’t be contained. The local business’ flavor is visible to all who pass by its Northwest Second Street locale from behind stylish metal doors and through gauze-curtained windows.

“It is colorful and fun, some retro, some contemporary; it’s just kind of a mix of functional too,” said Jessica Klein.

Klein, who graduated from Oregon State University eight years ago, owns Mod Pod along with her parents Heidi Henry and Paul Buchheit.

Klein added, “The opportunity just came to open the store.”

According to Klein, Mod Pod, which started in June of 2009, is different from other shops. She explains this as “the array of fun items ... you won’t find anywhere else in Corvallis.”

Depending on the season, jewelry, artwork, pillows, and other merchandise from local suppliers are featured in the shop. From flamingos to pillows, cards to jewelry, furniture to lamps, Mod Pod has a variety of colorful merchandise. Even Fatboy beanbags are among the merchandise sold at the shop. The bags come in many different colors, and are small enough for dorm rooms.

“They don’t shrink down in size,” Klein said. “They’re very sturdy.”

The merchandise in the store is priced and scaled to “smaller-size living.”

The shop caters to customers aged eight to 70, but Klein said it’s hard to reach the college crowd — a problem she attributes to their busy schedules and limited budgets.

This Tuesday, Mod Pod was the site of the first in a series of “cash mobs” planned by the promotions committee of the Downtown Corvallis Association (DCA). In cash mob, people bring money to spend at a business during a particular time.

A cash mob is a way to “have fun, bring in people and support our locally owned businesses,” said Joan Wessell, executive director of the DCA.

Wessell said the DCA is currently planning the next cash mob.

“If you shop locally, most of the money stays in the community,” Klein said. She added that local businesses keep jobs in the community.

Mod Pod currently has some online ordering on its website that includes gift cards, and is “expanding over the next year to hopefully include up to 50 percent of what we have in store,” Klein said.

Mod Pod is a member of the DCA and has one part-time employee.

“I’m pretty much the main, full-time go-girl,” Klein said.

McKinley Smith, news reporter
news@dailybarometer.com