The Space Store

A few months ago, the largest online retailer for space-themed merchandise opened its first brick-and-mortar location here in Chattanooga. The Space Store is located at 412 Market Street, owned and operated by Firecrown. Tim Dooner is Firecrown's executive creator. Tim, Thanks for having me, Ray. Why now for a physical location for the Space Store? The Space Store is an online brand that we've had. The owner of our parent company, Firecrown, Craig Fuller. He's very passionate about flying. He's very passionate about space. We have our studio, Freightwave Studios, over there. I operate out there. I do a show much And we used to have a physical team. We used to have a data team down there and everyt And were t Craig brings in all these new brands to We said, what better? Craig has kids. I have kids. We're t What better than to open a physical location as a showcase for all the awesome items that we have in the Space Store and bring somet Talk more about the items. Anyt They've got Earth Globes. They've got Moon-style ones. They've got Pluto, even if it's not considered a plan anymore. We still got Pluto. I was actually just down at NASA Kennedy Space Center. Were doing the Space Store that had sponsored a Space-themed event that we're doing up in the Freightwave Studio. And NASA has t Used to bring the space shuttle and everyt It's going to bring the Artemis II rocket to the launch pad. T So I went down there to do a segment with it and I got to wear one of the space suits from the Space Store on the base. I felt, I don't know, stolen valor at Kennedy Space Center when went to lunch. And I still have the space suit on, but they've got great items on there. You know, the jackets, like the blue and orange jackets you see the astronauts have on the podi You can go total dad swag with all those jackets. Those bomber jackets up there too. There's even little astronaut onesies for kids. You're always looking for fun gifts to get your kids. Stop being get-a-mal and infant onesie. What response so far have you and your colleagues and the store scene from space and astronomy enthusiasts? It's been fantastic. So a lot of my interaction with the store is I'm doing my show. So I bring guests down and they get to check it out. A lot of them are from out of state. They have kids. They say, wow, this seems And it's really cool because we do have that in the Southeast. We have plenty of space culture nurtured through Huntsville, through Kennedy Space Center. And I don't And me personally, Chandog has been adopted city for me. I moved here from Boston in 2019. And one of the t We got the aquari You got the Children's Muse You got the zoo. We used to have those festivals. We had River Bend and Moon River. We took a We lost our festivals. We lost some stores. We needed to get families back downtown. And I think stores What's one of your favorites at the store? So I'm a big Lego dork and we caught the bug during COVID with I mentioned my boys and we had a cancel trip to Disney. And Disney trips are expensive and we're going to be locked in. So I got them the Lego Death Star. Now, Graham's Not easy to convince the wife, but that And I love the Legos we have there, but we also have these really fine models that are of So I got So those ones are what I have my eyeball on. What plans are in the works at the space store for later in 2025? We had a seven year old who loves space. He stopped by and he was We hadn't really even considered doing events And I t And now, granted, we have t And, And one of the cool t We're bringing that down to Chattanooga. We're opening a motion muse It's going to include trains. It's going to include trucks and it's going to include everyt It's going to be awesome family friendly facility. So the idea obviously is to bring some of these brands to life and space is definitely our first foray into doing that and using that Visica location we have there. But you're going to see the following year. It's going to be even much more expansive. I don't know how much I can say on the motion muse And for people who want to learn more about the space store, turn out in person, working to go online. Yeah, well, 412 Market Street in person. Obviously, if you're here in the scenic city, you definitely want to show up in person. But if you want to check it out online, it's the space store. com. Simple enough, just go on the internet space store. com. You can see all the wares, but even better go down to the store, check it out There's plenty to check out wit Alright, Tim, thanks so much. Thank you so much for your time.