Megan Weigand wanted to create a place where people could gather.
The Apollo woman’s ambition led her to open Indigo Market and Coffee, a cafe and personal goods shop along River Road in Kiski Township.
“I wanted to bring something to the community that wasn’t here,” Weigand said.
In her “past life,” Weigand, 53, was a pharmacist for 30 years. The independent pharmacy where she worked closed in 2021.
Rather than looking for another job in healthcare, Weigand decided to dedicate her full attention to her three children, one in college and two high schoolers.
She ended up joining the boards of booster groups and shifting her attention to those responsibilities before deciding her next steps.
Despite loving the time she was able to spend with her children, Weigand missed interacting with new people everyday and wanted to create that people-oriented space.
Once her middle child started college and her youngest became a senior in high school, she began thinking seriously about making her small-business dreams a reality.
Weigand brainstormed ways to get people out of their houses and began to outline a business plan. She wanted a place where people could gather and stay comfortably.
“I thought, ‘well if I sell strawberries, they’ll go bad. If I don’t sell coffee for a couple days, my coffee still stays good,” she said.
There was just one issue.
“I had never drank coffee in my life,” Weigand said.
Weigand reached out to Commonplace Coffee Co, a coffee roaster based in Indiana County. One of the roaster owners, TJ Fairchild, became Weigand’s “coffee mentor,” teaching her the difference between brews, how to make drinks and how to experiment with her own creations.
“It’s been fun because I wasn’t really a coffee drinker,” she said. “People say ‘but you don’t drink coffee and you’re opening a coffee shop.’ I mean, I was a pharmacist and I don’t do drugs. They always laugh when I say that.”
Weigand and her workers always ask customers for feedback since they’re new to the coffee arena.
The shop officially opened on Dec. 19 and offers teas, coffees and other refreshments. As the business develops, Weigand wants to extend the menu to include smoothies and grab-and-go items.
On the market side of the business, Weigand focused on creating a place where small-business owners working remotely could sell their products.
She stocks syrup made in Marienville, Flowers from a farm in South Buffalo, Commonplace Coffee beans and tea leaves, goat milk soap from Leechburg and soup packets of dried ingredients grown on local farms throughout the state.
Weigand has multiple partnerships with local home bakers and rotates the food menu to include different baked goods each week.
“It’s nice to have something so close by,” said Tanya Fitzroy, 47, Weigand’s friend and only full-time employee. Weigand is also at the shop on a full-time basis and has part-time help in the form of four high school students and three teachers.
Fitzroy, of Apollo, worked as a medical assistant at a local physician’s office for 25 years. When the doctor retired, the practice was sold to a larger company. She left to work full time for Weigand.
As the women’s approaches to prioritizing personable interactions with other people are similar, Indigo Market and Coffee is the perfect arena for them to form those connections.
“I never looked back,” Fitzroy said. “I’m very happy to be here.”