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KEENE, NH – After nearly three years in business, Chaos and Kindness, a retail store operated by the band Recycled Percussion, will be closing its location in downtown Keene.
The announcement was made on the official Recycled Percussion Facebook page Thursday afternoon by band founder Justin Spencer. The flagship store in Laconia, which opened in 2019, will also close in mid-May.
According to the post, the Keene store at 18 Main St. will close April 28. The band said it will host an event that day where all proceeds from sales will be donated to local charities.
Spencer said both stores will move to the band’s new performance venue, The CAKE Theatre in Laconia. CAKE, which is an acronym for the “Chaos And Kindness Experience,” will be “one epic location that brings everyone together, that exudes creativity, and becomes a must experience place,” according to the Facebook post.
“When people read stuff like this, they assume we don’t like the community,” he said. “… we’ve had nothing but an amazing experience in Keene. We’ll be back in Keene at some point, it just has to make sense for it.”
Chaos and Kindness sells branded apparel, accessories and other items. According to the brand’s website, the goal is inspiring “people to be kind and to live life to its fullest in this often chaotic world.”
Keene was chosen from among four communities considered for the second Chaos and Kindness store before its opening in 2021. The others were Merrimack, North Conway and Portsmouth.
“For us, it came down to wanting to have one location,” Spencer said of the decision to close the two stores. “Our company is small and having all these different locations, its tough for us to manage it and still have the experience we want to have.”
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