Owner of Herbal Oracle excited to occupy new downtown DeKalb location

DeKALB – Herbal Oracle, the complementary and alternative medicine practice and herb shop, is on the move with plans to occupy a new location immediately across the street from its current space in downtown DeKalb.

The relocation, once completed, will fill a vacancy left by Herbal Embers in July, when its owner closed up shop to tend to family issues and find another job.

Owner Dezarae Haley said she is looking forward to Herbal Oracle’s upcoming move from its existing establishment, 150 E. Lincoln Highway, to its new space, 161 E. Lincoln Highway.

“It’s a little nerve-racking,” Haley said. “It’s about four times bigger than the place I have now.”

On Nov. 28, Herbal Oracle will start operating from its new location. Haley said that space has about 1,600 square feet on the main level and a basement. She said she’s excited about what a new location means for her business.

“It’s also on a more desirable side of the street,” Haley said. “Where we’re at right now, there’s not a lot of things to attract or pull people to walk in front of the store. But on the side of the street that we’re going to be on, we’re closer to the farmers market, we’re closer to Back Alley Market. Everything will pretty much be at our backdoor. So, we will have more foot traffic, more people willing to come and check it out.”

Haley said her existing location has a basement, but it’s not easily accessible from the store’s main floor, which makes her decision to relocate make all the more sense.

“I have no space here,” Haley said of her soon-to-be old location. “I have no backdoor access to the building. I make the soaps, the shampoos, the lotion, herbs and remedies in-house. I need a lot of space to be able to carry all the oils and the ingredients for those items and the space to work it.”

With the upcoming move comes several new and expanded offerings for patrons of Herbal Oracle.

“There will be an area that is for education classes,” Haley said. “We’ll have the retail area. Also when it’s in season, the front part of the store is going to be a lot like a farmers market in the aspect of we already have pork from our farm and our beef goes out to slaughter on the 16th. We have farm fresh chicken eggs who are licensed and everything to sell. I also am partnering with other local farmers to be able to bring in more produce variety and even more eggs. We have honey. People will be able to come to the shop to get local farm fresh produce and meat because I know the farmers market is only on Thursdays and a lot of people cannot make that.”

The new establishment has already undergone a bit of a facelift since Herbal Embers vacated the premises.

“They just got done putting in new flooring,” Haley said. “They repainted everything. The landlord has revamped the whole place, brought it back to life [and] modernized it.”

Haley said she anticipates a seamless transition between relocating from her existing location, and setting up shop and opening the doors to her new establishment for business.

“It is not going to interrupt my daily hours of operation because I have some amazing volunteers and helpers,” she said. “We plan on doing it in two days.”