Superior Merchandise Company

03/23/2025

Superior Merchandise Company 🪦 2015-2025

If you’re reading this you’ve stumbled upon the instagram of a former business, Superior Merchandise Company (SM CO). It was originally located at 147 4th St. in Troy, NY and relocated to 625 River St. in 2022. It was dreamed up, founded and operated by myself, Felicity Jones, and my partner Mike Romig, as a way to expand on our interests in design and coffee and to grow a community around those things in a city that was new to us.

I should note here that Mike (then 28, an air traffic controller) and I (then 24, a graphic designer) had only been dating for 1 year prior to buying the building that housed SM CO (a building that was set to be demolished and purchased from the city of Troy for $1, a building that took 2+ years to bring back to life and cost us many more thousands of dollars than we could have ever anticipated, truly a whole separate story on its own) and neither of us had a single ounce of professional bg in coffee, hospitality, retail or any similar field. We started from zero and with help from friends, fam, neighbors, strangers, colleagues, the internet, “Setting the Table” by Danny Meyer, and a stupid amount of visits to other coffee shops around the world, we taught ourselves everything that we know.

SM CO was so many things to so many people — there were so many different versions, pivots, expansions and contractions over the years. As we grew as people, as our interests shifted, as our minds expanded, as our community coalesced, as the world around us changed, so did SM CO. That was the best part.

We were a community hub, a third space, the first place you’d bring your friends from out of town, where you’d meet up with old friends and make new friends. I wish I could put into words how GOOD peak SM CO (and Troy in general) felt. There was no place you’d rather be than sitting on the sunny patio at Superior Merch washing down avocado toast with a blueberry lavender latte. Or cozied up to the bar chatting with while he made you a pourover. Or 3 beers deep listening yr fav records during Vinyl Club.

Thank you all for a decade of mems. RIP to a real good one ❤️

03/08/2025

Everything must go type vibes in the shop today! We’re clearing out a lot of kitchen small ware thingys, display thingys, organizational thingys — come thruuuuu! Cambros on the cheap tell yr friends 😘

03/04/2025

🧊 FRIDGES FOR SALE 🧊 Available for pick up in Troy, NY after March 9th! All have been well maintained and cleaned. Please share! DM with questions :)

03/01/2025

Thank you soooo much for yalls support during our closing sale — packed close to 150 online orders in the past 2 days!!! 😳 This was a very cute, very color coordinated one I had to document 🧡

Still some goodies to be got this wknd in store! Including a couple copies of our OG SM CO menu book I designed in 2023 🤫 Snag a coffee next door at .coffee n come clear us out! 🛍️

02/26/2025

Thank you so much for the kind comments and messages yall have been blessing us with since we announced our closure last week 🥺🥺 As promised, we are having a BIG SALE and it’s starting RIGHT NOW! 50% off sitewide (and in store this weekend) applied automatically at checkout, no code needed.

Help us clear out our inventory + snag some goodies for yourself or a friend 💙💚💙💚 Plz share with yr ppl!!

Two other things of note:
☝🏻we are looking to find a tenant to take over our space and be neighbors with .coffee!
✌🏻we will be selling our retail fridges and some kitchen equipment, send a DM if yr interested!

02/22/2025

Been trying to write this post for a week, been thinking about it for a month, and still, I don’t have a ton of words to share. There’s just too much else going on in the world to have a ton of capacity to write the obituary for a business, no matter how special it is to you.

🔵🟢 SM CO in its current form ~ our lil Superette in Troy as well as the webshop ~ will be closing for the foreseeable future. Our last day open will be March 16th and I’ll be sharing information about a big sale soon 🔵🟢

We’ve tried 100 pivots and unfortunately still the math just doesn’t math, we don’t make enough money to pay someone a living salary. In the past year I’ve watched so many of my very favorite shops all over the country close their doors and it breaks my heart! I don’t wanna live in a world like this but I’ve been doing this for a decade and have never gotten a regular paycheck. Time to try something new — I literally have zero clue what that is yet. As sad as I am about finally actually closing the doors on my first baby, I am extremely excited about the idea of creating / doing something new. Feel free to give a follow to my personal ig and our other businesses that are still going strong .coffee

We’ll be open regular hours (Sat+Sun 9-2) until March 16th, with a big sale forthcoming. Thank you for everyone who has supported us from day one (September 5th 2015), I’ll miss the s**t out of SM CO but will take everything I’ve learned (and that is a whole lot) and all the relationships I’ve built from it with me on my next creative adventure. Evolve or die, baby ❤️

Xoxoxo,
Felic

02/14/2025

Happy luvvv day sweeties 💋 We’ll be open in Troy tomorrow 9-2 for last min gifting needs! But CLOSED SUNDAY (2/16) bc of ❄️❄️❄️❄️

02/10/2025

A vase just waiting for some valentines flowers 💐

02/06/2025

Fresh drop of ceramics in the fresh snow!!! ❄️❄️❄️

Our friend Ester Kislin of fame has blessed us with a batch of custom porcelain ceramics, made by hand in her studio on the north fork of Long Island. These beauties are the perfect size to be used as a water (or iced coffee!!!) cup but could easily double as a vase. A SPOT ON valentines gift if I do say so myself ☺️☺️☺️ Online now and at Superette this wknd!

02/06/2025

02/03/2025

Who doesn’t luvvv a lil romance?! ❤️ Candles n flowers for yr cutie, .ware ceramics make it easy 😘 These beautiful pieces are available in the webshop!

01/31/2025

Sweet 4 yr sweetie! 💘 Valentine’s edit is now live in the shop with some special ceramics from still to come 🥰🥰