Writer: Hailey Evans
Photos: Leah Heagy
When Mallory Halverson (pictured) started Pop & Nod as an online boutique in 2021, she didn’t really expect it to be successful. It was just a side hustle.
“I had been a therapist for years, and when COVID hit I was staying home with the kids,” she said. “During that time I realized I didn’t want to go back to work full time. I wanted to be able to spend more time with my kids.”
In November of 2022 she moved the business into its first physical location, in the Shops at Roosevelt on 42nd Street, in a space she said was “small enough to get started in.” She curated items like coffee table books, tea towels, cards and clothing that she felt fit with her own lifestyle. Her motto: “cute and fun, but not juvenile.”
In March of this year, she moved the shop a few doors down to a bigger storefront. Business was doing better than she had expected, so expanding felt like the next step. “I want to take it more seriously and grow,” she said. “The universe gives you little nudges.”
Halverson hopes to create something more than just a place to shop. Borrowing from her time in social work, “this is a no-judgment zone,” she said. People can browse or buy or stop by just to chat. She’s had ideas to host movie nights and other events in the store after hours to bring together a community.
The name is a mashup of the shop’s two defining characteristics. “Pop” comes from the pop of color in many of the items Halverson sources. In fact, she partnered with the House of Colour color analysis team in Ankeny for help sourcing and labeling clothing for each season. She gives a “Nod” to her favorite charity by donating a portion of every sale to Count the Kicks, a fetal health program from Iowa-based nonprofit Healthy Birth Day Inc. that teaches expecting parents how to track fetal movement to increase the chances for successful births. It’s a program that personally touched Halverson’s life when her own son stopped moving in utero, and Count the Kicks teaching encouraged her to go to the hospital. The trip saved her son’s life.
It’s important to Halverson that her time in the shop and with family feels balanced. After all, that’s the whole reason she started out. “I still very much needed something else for me as a stay-at-home-mom,” she said, but she wants to keep it fun. She knows that people can get caught up in hustle culture, building bigger, working more hours. That’s not her style. “I follow what I want to do,” she said.
Halverson initially rejected the idea of selling items for babies and kids, but the mom of two ultimately decided she wants her store to have something for everybody, even the smallest of shoppers.
Mugs, cards and shirts emblazoned with “Make it stop” and other sardonic phrases hint at Mallory Halvorson’s own sense of humor and make great gifts.
