“At the core of it, I like small batch things,” said Gunn. “I like to know where stuff comes from, know the people who make it, and then they know what’s in it, you know what’s in it. It’s just a much better system.”

The idea for the store was born from the couple’s love of farmers markets and a shared frustration with the limitations of access to local goods. “I never understood—why can I only get this at a farmer's market?” said Gunn. “The big box stores have a little [local product display] on the end cap, but I just always thought it would be so cool to have a central place to be able to get all this stuff.”

From that desire came Ecusta Market, which now features more than 3,500 products—around 1,000 to 1,500 of which are regional, making it, by Gunn’s estimate, “the largest selection of Western North Carolina and Southeastern products you could get at a single store anywhere.”

The benefits of this approach are both personal and professional. “There’s definitely a demand for it,” Gunn said. “The demand for local, I think, is higher than ever.” While he and Emily opened the business without knowing for certain how it would be received, it quickly became clear that they weren’t alone in caring about where their food and household products came from. During a generally divisive time, Gunn appreciates that buying local is something almost everybody can get behind. “It’s kind of nice to have something simple that we can agree—this is pretty good,” he said. “This is generally a good thing.”

But sourcing local products also comes with challenges, particularly for a small, independent operation. Gunn currently manages around 150 direct vendor relationships on top of working with a few select distributors. “Even at our small scale, to get all the products we have here… it’s not just like going through the checklist and clicking the order,” he said. “It is so much work. I understand why this store didn’t already exist.”

Working directly with so many local vendors also means that Gunn ends up mentoring some who are selling through a retail store for the first time. “We have a lot of products in the store from people who we are the first store they've ever sold,” he said. Gunn provides guidance to help them understand sustainable margins and scalable production. “It’s a really cool relationship. We’re all kind of growing together.”

To help customers navigate the store’s unique sourcing ethos, Ecusta uses a color-coded system of shelf tags to denote product origins: blue for North Carolina-made goods, red for Southeastern regional products, and gold for “hand-picked” items from further afield that meet their clean ingredient standards. “It’s weird now when I go into another store and I'm just looking at this wall of products and I don’t know anything about it,” Gunn said. “It’s a totally different way to shop.”

Local sourcing also allows for flexibility in price point and variety. “For any product you can think of, we’re trying to have at least a couple options,” said Gunn, describing shelves that carry both a high-end small-batch pasta and a basic organic option. “We’re a grocery store through and through…where you can get a ton of local stuff.”

Ecusta Market has also become a showcase for makers like Alicia and Kevin of Stump Farms, a couple who lost their retail location after Hurricane Helene but continued production, thanks in part to Gunn’s support. “We just started buying anything we could from them, and it was selling like crazy because people really liked them,” said Gunn. “They have their own display with 25 different products on it. My family eats their products all the time.” In addition to produce, Stump Farms produces pickles, salsas, and even body products, all made right down the road at their farm. 

Other local products you’ll find at Ecusta Market include infused and creamed honeys by Hendersonville’s Honeybee Bliss, Sitto’s Hummus from Weaverville, and nut butters from Big Spoon Roasters in Hillsborough. 

Gunn gets just as excited about the people behind the products as the goods themselves. “From our vendors to our customers, I feel like everyone just gets it,” he said. “They just get what we’re trying to do. We’re just all super excited about this.”

While Gunn doesn’t expect to see his model scaled or franchised easily, he believes deeply in its importance. “Local just turns everything,” he said. “It’s the way we make decisions about what we’re bringing in—local above all else.”

Ecusta Market is located at 877 Lennox Park Drive, Hendersonville. Learn more at EcustaMarketandCafe.com.