This profile is in active compilation — some details are awaiting a cited source.

The Sunflower Market is a family-run handmade-goods shop and in-store graphic-tee bar at 5847 Merriam Drive in downtown Merriam, Kansas — a 2022 brick-and-mortar that grew out of a 2016 backyard and pop-up business.

Description

The Sunflower Market occupies a storefront at 5847 Merriam Drive in historic downtown Merriam, Johnson County, Kansas — not Merriam, Indiana, and not the Saturday farmers’ market a few blocks away at Merriam Marketplace (5740 Merriam Drive).123 It is a gift and apparel shop, not a grocery and not a sit-down restaurant. The business calls the Merriam shop its “home” store and “the heart of The Sunflower Market,” and describes itself as “Kansas City’s first permanent T-Shirt Bar”: customers pick a design and a shirt, and the shop presses the graphic in-store while they wait.24 That “first” claim is the shop’s own marketing language; no independent ranking or contemporaneous press item confirming primacy was located. “

Tees are made on site. The FAQ states that every Sunflower Market tee is handmade in the Merriam store — designed, printed, and pressed there, with specialty shirts also hand-bleached and dyed — in sizes from infant through adult 5X, generally $15–$30.1 The about page adds a clearance rack inside the shop named Lu’s Clearance Corner, kept “in memory of my mom.”4

The rest of the floor is a small makers’ market. First-party copy lists handmade goods from Kansas City vendors, home décor, accessories, books, and weekly new arrivals, with named vendor lines including Helianthus Books, Lex Moderne, Diva-Licious, Zodan Merchandising, MBW Gifts, Rose Jo’s, Creativity With Tracey, and Mr. Sunflower’s Workshop.25 Helianthus Books is a separate business: Kelly Stromberg founded it as a Kansas City pop-up bookstore in 2021; as of 2026 it still keeps a book corner inside The Sunflower Market and has held events at 5847 Merriam Drive.65 A 2022 vendor-application form on the shop’s behalf offered month-to-month tenancy at $2.00–$2.50 per square foot plus a 10–15% commission on gross sales, depending on booth size.7 Whether those rates still apply is “.

The shop also stocks tees at other people’s boutiques under an “On the Road” wholesale program (Independence, Blue Springs, Crown Center, Joplin, Overland Park, and shops farther afield). Those addresses are partner locations, not additional Sunflower Market–owned storefronts.21

This is not Sunflower Farmers Market / Sprouts, not a Chicago or Topeka grocery named Sunflower, and not Merriam’s city farmers’ market.

Ownership and history

The owner is Sarah Orozco. She is named as owner in a March 2022 Johnson County Post report on the storefront opening, in a 2021 VoyageKC interview, and in a 2021 vendor-profile video whose description calls her “owner and founder.”389 The shop’s about page is written in the first person and matches that biography, though it does not print her name.4 Kansas Secretary of State filings were not retrieved during this research (the search form returned 403); the registered legal entity name is “.

Orozco has said she lost her mother in 2014 and turned to crafting — furniture painting, bath bombs, cups, vinyl — as a way through the grief, working at first with her two oldest children. The business that became The Sunflower Market started in 2016, first as an online boutique and then, by the Post’s account, out of a backyard she-shed, before concentrating on hand-bleached and pressed graphic tees.348 The shop’s own site still dates the “handmade dream” to 2016.104

Two dates, printed separately — do not collapse them. 2016 is the year Orozco started selling. The Merriam storefront opened on 26 March 2022 at 5847 Merriam Drive, in the space formerly occupied by Total Comfort Heating and Cooling, with a grand-opening day of food trucks (Taco Via and Doleicious), not in-house dining.3 The shop’s Instagram treated March 2026 as “TSM’s 4th year Anniversary in Merriam,” which matches a March 2022 opening and does not move the 2016 founding.11

At opening, the Post identified Maegan Standridge as manager. Orozco and Standridge had been working pop-up markets around the metro; a 2021 video has Orozco saying “Megan” (sic) helps design the shirts and was “opening up her own store here in a couple months.”389 Standridge’s current role, and whether she still works at the shop, is “.

VoyageKC (August 2021) records a female-owned family business. Orozco credits her husband, referred to only as #MrSunflower, with pushing the line toward shirts; she thanked Maegan, family, and friends who helped at events; and she said that by the previous winter she had quit a full-time job to grow TSM.8 The vendor directory includes a line called Mr. Sunflower’s Workshop.5 His legal name, and whether that workshop line is his, is “.

The 2022 Post preview described a “modern general store” with apparel, home décor, body products, gifts, and one corner of teas, coffees, candies, and confectioneries.3 Current first-party pages lead with the t-shirt bar, maker goods, and books. The FAQ still treats “food products and items sold by our independent vendors” as final-sale, so some vendor food is still in the mix, but the confectionery-corner layout of 2022 is not confirmed on the live site. “ — whether that corner was built and whether it still operates.

Address conflict, not merged. First-party pages, the 2022 Post, and 2026 Instagram posts all give 5847 Merriam Drive, Merriam, KS 66203 as the retail store, with phone (913) 281-6466.1311 A MapQuest listing still shows 3128 S 37th St, Kansas City, KS 66106, a different phone (913) 832-0565, and an Etsy URL.12 VoyageKC’s 2021 interview is titled as Sarah Orozco “of KCK,” which is consistent with a Kansas City, Kansas home address before the storefront, but no first-party page currently names 3128 S 37th Street as a shop. Do not treat that KCK pin as a current storefront. “ — whether 3128 was ever a public retail address or only a home / she-shed listing.

Services

  • In-store t-shirt bar: pick a design and a tee, pressed while you wait24
  • Handmade graphic tees, including hand-bleached and dyed specialty shirts; infant through adult 5X1
  • Custom orders (original designs or existing designs on a different color or garment)1
  • Local-maker goods, home décor, accessories, and gifts sold from in-store vendor booths25
  • Book corner operated by Helianthus Books, a separate business56
  • Online store, local pickup at the Merriam shop, and gift cards1
  • Wholesale to other boutiques (Faire.com and direct)1
  • Pop-ups and metro events13

Sources

Footnotes

  1. “Frequently Asked Questions,” The Sunflower Market (official site), accessed 2026-08-28. URL ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  2. “Where To Find Us,” The Sunflower Market (official site), accessed 2026-08-28. URL ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  3. Juliana Garcia, “The Sunflower Market, a general store with some modern twists, to open in downtown Merriam,” Johnson County Post, 21 March 2022. URL ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  4. “About Us,” The Sunflower Market (official site), accessed 2026-08-28. URL ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  5. “Our Vendors,” The Sunflower Market (official site), accessed 2026-08-28. URL ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  6. “A Local Pop-Up Bookstore Plans Book Fair for Adults,” IN Kansas City Magazine, 3 December 2021. URL ↩ ↩2

  7. “Call for Artists & Makers,” The Sunflower Market vendor application (Jotform), accessed 2026-08-28. URL ↩

  8. “Life & Work with Sarah Orozco,” VoyageKC, 4 August 2021. URL ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  9. “Meet the Vendors: The Sunflower Market in KC,” Marketing Solutions & Events, YouTube, 15 March 2021. URL ↩ ↩2

  10. The Sunflower Market (home page), official site, accessed 2026-08-28. URL ↩

  11. The Sunflower Market (@thesunflowermarket), Instagram, 24 March 2026 (fourth Merriam anniversary; 5847 Merriam Dr). URL ↩ ↩2

  12. “The Sunflower Market, 3128 S 37th St, Kansas City, KS 66106,” MapQuest listing, accessed 2026-08-28. URL ↩

See also

  • Registry
  • Owner-And-History-Research-Toolchain
Categories

On the record — ks.city/registry/sunflower-market-merriam · record updated 2026-08-28