A joke about building birdhouses during retirement has turned into a burgeoning business for Pitman retailer Tom Ronketty of Artisan’s Oasis in Uptown Pitman.
The co-op style retail store on the corner of Broadway and Pitman Avenue — which Ronketty co-owns with his wife, Beth — is now home to more than 60 crafters and vendors from the local South Jersey area, featuring a diverse mix of crafts, collectibles, vintage items, antiques, and more.
“When Tom told me that when he retired from his retail management career, he was going to start building birdhouses, I laughed,” Beth recalls. “I said, ‘I haven’t seen you pick up a piece of wood in 18 years. How are you all of a sudden going to start building birdhouses?’”
Then came the pandemic. Tom’s retail position went by the wayside, and he began building his birdhouses and hanging them outside of their Marlton home. And little by little, people began stopping by the house looking to buy the birdhouses. The couple began taking his creations to weekend craft shows, which led to them forming a company to host craft shows, and eventually brought them to Pitman, where they opened a small storefront in a former vape shop.
“It turned out to be one of those ‘Be careful what you wish for’ scenarios,” says Beth. “When we moved into the vape shop, all of the walls were painted black. I said to Tom, ‘This is a joke, right?’ But he flipped that place in about 45 days. It was amazing! We decided to open it as a co-op for local crafters and vendors, and the idea just took off.”
Tom and Beth opened their original Artisan’s Oasis store in November of 2023 with 30 local crafters and vendors, followed by Artisan’s Oasis Too shortly thereafter. Local artisans can rent space in the store for as long as they like, and the Ronkettys take a small commission from their sales to pay for overhead and supplies.
“We’re basically an incubator for 60-some different businesses, and we want to help them succeed,” said Tom Ronketty of Artisan’s Oasis in Uptown Pitman.
“We had already been doing craft shows and hosting craft shows, so we had a plethora of local crafters and artisans to approach and tell them what our concept was going to be,” explains Tom. “It’s like a craft show under one big roof, where people can come in and find a variety of handmade crafts and products, including jewelry, woodworking, crochet, sea glass, wreaths, soap and skincare items, sports jerseys and memorabilia, albums, antiques, vintage goods, collectibles, and more.”
With a steady supply of vendors looking to get into their stores, the Ronkettys quickly outgrew their original two spaces and, in May 2025, moved their operations to a 6,000 square foot store in the heart of Uptown Pitman, with easy access to local restaurants and the Broadway Theatre. In October, they acquired another 2,000 square feet when they took over the empty store next to them and joined the two storefronts together, making Artisan’s Oasis an 8,000 square foot shopping hub.
“The theater is the town’s heart and soul,” says Beth, “and Broadway is the perfect ‘Main Street USA.’ You can park your car, grab a bite to eat, shop, and go see a show. There’s always plenty of foot traffic and we stay open later on Friday and Saturday nights to accommodate the theater patrons.”
While the product offerings at the store are constantly changing, many of the crafters and vendors who sell their items at Artisan’s Oasis have been with the store since its inception.
Debbie McCarson, a vendor who sells vintage and antique items, has been with the store for about two years, and appreciates the family-like atmosphere and professional management at Artisan’s Oasis.
“I connected with Tom and Beth when I had a booth down in Vineland, but it was a half-hour drive and it didn’t have the same vibe and community feel that you find in Pitman,” she says. “It’s a nice place to shop, and Tom and Beth are extremely helpful and knowledgeable about how to display and promote your items to help them sell. I’ve also been able to build camaraderie with the other vendors. I do sell some items online, but I prefer maintaining a brick-and-mortar presence for the personal connections it brings.”
Kathleen Kortonick, owner of Glen Lake Soap Co., LLC, a plant-based skincare company, discovered Artisan’s Oasis at their original location and brought in a sample of her homemade soap to see if her wares would be a good fit for the store. At the time, the Ronkettys already had a soap vendor, but they reached out a few months later and invited her to join their group of artisans.
“Tom and Beth are great to work with,” says Kortonick, “and for someone like me who has a small business, it’s a great opportunity to have my own little store within a store.
“It’s an extremely supportive community, and it’s helped me to expand my customer base and my availability to current customers, because they can come in to see my whole product line and touch it, smell it and make a personal connection.”
“The Artisan’s Oasis serves as a bridge, connecting the skills of local talent with the hands of the community,” adds Matt Haught, the maker behind Three Labs Woodworking in Pitman. “By providing a home for crafters to flourish, [the store] enriches the cultural fabric of our neighborhood. While visitors can discover unique, high-quality goods, local artisans receive the fair compensation and visibility essential to their craft.”
In addition to providing a home to these unique crafters and vendors, Artisan’s Oasis recently began offering a craft classroom where members of the community can rent their downstairs space to conduct a class or sign up for classes run by various artisans.
“We thought it would be a great way for our crafters to connect with members of the community,” says Beth. “One of our vendors recently held a class on ‘junk journaling,’ where attendees could make their own unique journals with common items found around their house, like scraps of fabric, pieces of lace, cereal boxes, or cut-out words. When the class concluded, the participants were so excited to show us their creations. We’ve already added three more of those classes.”
In addition, Tom has also held classes for artisans and crafters who may be at the “hobby level” and want to move forward to actually start a business, offering pointers on where to start, what questions to ask, advertising tips, how to calculate sales tax, and other ins and outs of running a business.
“Our main goal is to support our artisans,” says Tom. “We’re basically an incubator for 60-some different businesses, and we want to help them succeed. Some of our vendors have even left the roost, so to speak, to go on and open their own brick-and-mortar stores, and we see that as one of our biggest measures of success.
“We truly care about our artisans and the community we serve together.”
