Merchant of the Month: July 2026

The Market at Caplan's is a local-goods marketplace and incubator administered by the Howard County Economic Development Authority. The Market provides a rotating selection of locally made jams, candles, blankets, crafts, and much more! We interviewed Katie O'Neill, the Director of the Market at Caplan's, who shared history of the project and how the Howard County Economic Development Authority can support local vendors and business owners.

Tell us about your business.

The Market at Caplan's is a local goods marketplace and small business incubator located in the historic Caplan's Building in the heart of Old Ellicott City.

Operating through the Howard County Economic Development Authority, The Market was created to lower barriers to entrepreneurship by making retail more accessible to local businesses. Rising rents, staffing costs, insurance, fixtures, and inventory have made opening a storefront increasingly difficult for many entrepreneurs. Rather than asking every business to overcome those challenges alone, we've created shared retail infrastructure that allows dozens of businesses to grow together.

At the same time, we wanted to help restore one of Main Street's most important functions: serving the people who live and work here every day.

The goal of The Market is to meet the practical, everyday needs of our community while offering visitors a meaningful way to take home a piece of Howard County's history, agriculture, creativity, and craftsmanship. Alongside gifts and artwork, you'll find locally produced pantry staples, flowers, personal care products, home goods, children's items, and other everyday essentials because we believe historic downtowns remain vibrant not simply because they're preserved, but because they're useful.

Today, The Market is home to dozens of local businesses, but it's much more than a retail store. It's a shared piece of economic infrastructure where entrepreneurs can test products, build customer relationships, collaborate with one another, and grow sustainable businesses without assuming the full cost of operating their own storefront.

What problems does your business solve for customers?

We make it easier to incorporate local businesses into everyday life.

Supporting local businesses shouldn't require driving to five different farms, studios, or markets. Whether you're looking for local honey, coffee, tea, flowers, pantry staples, home goods, artwork, or a thoughtful gift, we've brought dozens of Howard County and Maryland businesses together under one roof.

Just as importantly, we believe Main Street should serve the people who live and work here every day, not 1 just visitors on weekends. Historic downtowns thrive when they're useful, so we've intentionally paired handcrafted goods with practical, everyday items that give people a reason to stop in throughout the week, whether they're picking up a gift on their lunch break, grabbing a bag of flour on the way home, or finding a birthday card before dinner with friends.

Every purchase supports a local entrepreneur, strengthens our regional economy, and helps ensure that the creativity, craftsmanship, and agricultural traditions that define our community continue to have a place on Main Street.

What makes your business unique?

People are often drawn in by the history of the Caplan's Building, but what keeps them coming back is what they find inside.

The Market celebrates the worker, the people behind the products. Every shelf tells the story of a farmer, artist, craftsperson, food producer, or entrepreneur who has chosen to build something with their own hands. We think people are hungry for that connection. In a world of mass production and anonymous online shopping, they genuinely enjoy meeting the people behind the businesses they support.

Our success isn't measured simply by what we sell. It's measured by how many businesses grow because this place exists. Everything we do is built around collaboration. Our goal isn't just to help our own vendors succeed, but to strengthen the entire Main Street business community. Whenever possible, we invest in local businesses ourselves. Our Caplan's caps are made by Sunshine Trading Company. Our custom shelving was handcrafted by Shoemaker Country. Many of our fixtures and displays came from Antique Depot. Those choices are intentional because we believe strong local economies are built through relationships. If we don’t have exactly what a customer is looking for, we send them across the street or up the road. Supporting local businesses shouldn't stop with what's on our shelves.

We're also constantly looking for ways to create new opportunities. During the holidays, we welcomed former Main Street businesses that lost their brick-and-mortar storefronts after the floods back to town as pop-up merchants, reconnecting them with longtime customers and giving visitors another reason to explore downtown. Throughout the year, our rotating weekend pop-up markets introduce even more entrepreneurs to Main Street, allowing them to test products, build confidence, and reach new customers without the commitment of a permanent retail space.

The Market has also become a community gathering place. Beyond retail, we've opened the space for workshops, demonstrations, nonprofit events, meetings, and educational programming because we believe historic buildings are most valuable when they're actively used by the communities they serve.

Ultimately, what sets The Market apart is that we're not simply operating a store. We're building shared infrastructure that helps entrepreneurs succeed, strengthens Main Street, and creates lasting connections between the people who make things and the people who buy them.

Who is your ideal customer?

Anyone who understands that where they spend their money shapes the kind of community they want to live in. Our customers include local residents, people who work in town, and visitors exploring our historic Main Street, but they all tend to have one thing in common: they understand that every purchase is a choice. It's an opportunity to preserve a historic downtown, strengthen our regional economy, and invest in the people behind the products.

In the end, everyone benefits. Customers discover unique products they can't find anywhere else, small businesses gain access to affordable retail space and new customers, and our community becomes a little more resilient every time someone chooses to invest locally.

What has been your proudest milestone so far?

We're incredibly proud that The Market has received two National Association of Counties Achievement 2 Awards recognizing the program's innovative approach to economic development, along with a Preservation Maryland Heritage Fund grant that will help us research and share the rich history of the Caplan's Building. Those recognitions have been meaningful because they affirm that Howard County's investment in this model is resonating well beyond our own community.

But our proudest moments are the everyday wins. It’s when a vendor makes their first sale, or recognizes there's enough demand to begin thinking about scaling their business. It’s when a customer tells us we make it easier for them to avoid defaulting to a big box store. It’s when a former Main Street business owner returns as a holiday pop-up merchant and reconnects with longtime customers and once again becomes a part of the town they helped shape for so many years.

What challenges have you overcome as a business owner?

Building a brand-new program inside a historic building meant creating the plane while we were flying it. Every policy, every vendor agreement, every operational system, every inventory process, every partnership, and every event had to be built from the ground up while the doors were open and the program continued to evolve. Flexibility and adaptability have been key since day one.

Our biggest lesson is that meaningful economic development isn't something you do for a community, it’s something you build with community. The strongest ideas have come from listening, adapting, and creating opportunities for people to contribute their own expertise and talents. That's ultimately what has made The Market successful, and it's the lesson we'll carry forward as we continue to grow.

How do you support or engage with your community?

Community engagement is the work we do with The Market at Caplan's. We intentionally create opportunities for people to connect with one another.

From the beginning, our goal has been to create opportunities for people to connect with one another. Sometimes that happens through a sale, but just as often it happens through a conversation, a workshop, a pop-up market, or an introduction between two people who realize they can help one another.

One of the things we've loved most is watching businesses begin collaborating after meeting through The Market. We've seen farmers share land, makers share resources and supplier recommendations, artists connect with retailers, and entrepreneurs encourage one another through the inevitable challenges of building a business. Those relationships strengthen the entire local business ecosystem.

What products or services are you most excited about right now?

We're excited to continue expanding both our marketplace and our programming. One of the things we're most looking forward to is expanding our licensing to allow us to add refrigeration and freezer capacity. That will enable us to support even more local farmers and food producers by offering products that haven't previously been possible, while making it easier for residents and people who work in town to incorporate local food into their everyday shopping.

What's next for your business?

Our ultimate goal is to continue demonstrating what's possible when communities invest in shared infrastructure that helps small businesses succeed.

Strategic public investment has an important role to play in lowering barriers to entrepreneurship, activating historic buildings, strengthening local supply chains, and creating opportunities that the private market alone often can't provide. Howard County Economic Development Authority's investment in The Market at Caplan’s has shown what's possible when communities create shared infrastructure that allows dozens of small businesses to succeed together.

If our work encourages other communities to think differently about how they support small businesses, preserve historic downtowns, and build more resilient local economies, we'll consider that one of our greatest successes.

Because in the end, The Market at Caplan's isn't just about one building or one business. It's about demonstrating that when communities invest in people, partnerships, and shared opportunity, everyone benefits.

What do you want customers to feel when they work with you?

We hope people leave feeling connected to the people who made the products they purchased, to the history and vitality of Main Street, and to the idea that every purchase can help build the kind of community we all want to live in.

If someone walks in looking for a gift and leaves having discovered three new local businesses, learned something about Ellicott City's history, signed up for a workshop, or simply had a meaningful conversation with one of our makers, we've done our job.