by Have you ever eaten Indian food for breakfast? Have you ever done renovation work on, or updated a house in Seminole Heights? If the answer is yes to both of those questions, you may have been inspired to create the same business as Danielle Ferrari, Valhalla.
Valhalla
Valhalla is a membership based consignment shop where clothes come to be refreshed and reused. It is a groundbreaking, environmentally-sustainable, fashion movement, started right here in Tampa, Florida. Located on Central in Seminole Heights, this cute shop offers a monthly clothing membership.
Valhalla stocks great clothes that members can come and use. Members can go into the shop and pick out three items to wear. When members are done wearing those items, they return them, and pick up three more items. All clothes are washed at the shop and ready to wear. It is like having a never-ending closet. On a side note, you can also purchase clothes that you love, as well as consign your clothes.
The Origin
At this point, you may be asking yourself, “What does Valhalla have to do with Indian food for breakfast?”
I’ll tell you! I had the privilege of interviewing Danielle. One of my favorite first questions I ask when interviewing business owners is, “What did you eat for breakfast?” Her answer was telling.
After she told me what she had eaten, Indian food, Danielle said, “I have always loved to eat leftovers, I think it was sort of ingrained from childhood. My mother had a very strict rule that she stuck by, that if she had to throw anything away that she would never ever make it again. So you would get sort of creative on how to eat all these left overs that this Italian woman made for the whole neighborhood when there was only 4 people in our family. So eating it for breakfast was an essential solution to make sure that she would make it again.”
I didn’t realize it at the time, but Danielle’s heart for the sustainable use of resources was established at an early age. Naturally, when she moved to Seminole Heights, she bought an older home that she could put a little love into. She had a few projects to do around the house. And that’s how she took the next steps towards creating Valhalla. She combined her heart for using resources wisely, with the intelligence to spot a need and fill it.
“I needed to buy all these tools for my house but I only needed them for a limited time or for a single use. So, I came up with an idea to create a tool membership/rental business. Turns out I didn’t know very much about the tool industry, so I took my love for clothes and combined it with my tool membership/rental idea.”
Boom!
Danielle Loves Seminole Heights
When you speak to Danielle, you can tell that she speaks from the heart. She has such a warm and bubbly way about her. So when she speaks about something she loves, you can’t help but to love that something too. Here is what she said about Seminole Heights.
“I have lived in Seminole Heights for 10 years and I knew the moment that I arrived in Seminole Heights that this was home. I arrived on July 4th weekend and I could see people going from their houses to their neighbor’s houses carrying dishes and everyone was having a party. Everyone looked like they cared for each other and they were having fun. And it has never proven opposite for me. People are really caring and looking out for each other. This neighborhood is my favorite neighborhood of anywhere I have ever lived or visited, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I’m so lucky that I’m able to have my business here too. It’s fantastic. It is different from anywhere I have ever lived.”
The Future
In the future Danielle hopes to become a member owned business and eventually hopes to add more locations in other cities as well. For now, Danielle is enjoying her neighborhood as a business owner as well as a resident. If you like to buy local and you love having a never-ending closet of fantastic clothes, Danielle Ferrari’s Valhalla is your spot.
Keep Loving Tampa
Would you like to know more about Seminole Heights or other local businesses and services like Valhalla? Would you love to live in or near Seminole Heights?
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