Eco store educates as well as sells

[attach]6628[/attach]When Kym Klopp opened Ecoexistence three and a half years ago, she had a hard time stocking the store with environmentally friendly products.

“I actually had to build out my cash desk because I couldn’t fill the store,” she says. “Now, it’s such an amazing improvement. The product selection has opened up dramatically.”

The eco-friendly lifestyle product store, which recently moved from Vaughan Road to St. Clair Avenue W. at Arlington Avenue, specializes in unique products and gifts for all ages.

“I was a destination store, so conscious people found me no problem. But the general population, which I was hoping to educate, did not,” she says.

Now she has whole new audience — who have never considered what’s in their medicine cabinet, what’s on their skin or what they’re cooking with — coming in to the store.

In addition to educating customers and holding weekly seminars about topics like sustainability or electro magnetic frequencies, she helps customers who are being forced to make changes to their lives for health reasons.

“Sadly I get a lot of people who come in when they’re diagnosed with multiple chemical sensitivities,” she says. “I’m happy to be here for those people to help them make the change. I feel at least I’m helping out some people going through some really rough times.”

Although it’s easy for shoppers to feel overwhelmed when they start to think about how bad certain products are for themselves and the environment, she hopes customers think about their purchases and what’s in the products they use, whether it’s mascara or a cooking pot.

“I think about everything I purchased, where it was made, what was used to make it and where it will end up in the end because the planet can no longer be a garbage dump,” she says. “I always hope that people pause for thought.”