Love, Pittsburgh owners expanding to Market Square location

PITTSBURGH — Some business owners frightened by an uptick in violence have left Pittsburgh city limits, but that’s not the case for at least one shop.

Love, Pittsburgh has locations in Mount Washington, the Strip District and a location on Liberty Avenue downtown. Eighteen months ago when they started to think about locations for a new shop, they chose Market Square.

Monica Grunick and Kelly Sanders have been business partners since 2017.

That concept evolved into Love, Pittsburgh, a gift shop that uses local vendors for its goods.

“We get to meet people from all over the world and everybody comes through downtown when they’re visiting here,” said Sanders.

The nostalgia proved to be successful for the Pittsburgh natives. They were able to expand to three locations within the city, and now plan to open up another location on Market Street ― just “Love” ― in Market Square.

“We do believe in downtown and we love it down here and we see the efforts that are being made,” said Grunick.

“I am very romantic about downtown. My parents worked down here, I grew up going down here so I love it down here,” Sanders said.

This is part of the reason that they’re keeping their businesses within city limits. And while a heavier homeless population and rising crime have prompted many businesses to lock their doors permanently, these entrepreneurs say they feel hopeful about the future of retail downtown.

“Personally, I like the idea of filling another empty storefront because there are a lot of those downtown,” said Grunick. “I think the more that you can bring retail wise it just gives people more and more reasons to be down here to be enjoying downtown.”

Love is slated to open its doors the weekend of the Pittsburgh Marathon, which is May 7. It will be open during daytime hours.

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