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Danette Wicker, a longtime licensed massage therapist and nail technician and boutique operator on Fort Worth’s Near Southside, continues to look for ways to expand her retail business. For the eighth straight year, Wicker temporarily closed her Danette’s Urban Oasis shop at 101 S. Jennings Ave. and ran a booth during the 2025 run of the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo, selling her assortment of dish towels, drink containers, bags made of recycled materials, stemware and scarves — and offering chair massages. Wicker buys the retail products from other vendors, but she can customize slogans on the dish towels. Not available at the show: aromatherapy products Wicker makes, and olive oils and honeys made by her husband, Alphas Wicker. The couple plans this year to start attending the Fort Worth Community Market, a periodic festival in the South Main Village, and will sell food and aromatherapy products there, Danette Wicker said. Her shop is open by appointment only, but Wicker also sells her products via the store’s site. Even with the focus on retail, Wicker isn’t interested in opening a bigger brick-and-mortar store. Why the retail emphasis? Wicker, 57 — who started in massage in 2000, added nail services and lymph detox, opened her first physical location at the YMCA, and then moved to South Jennings in 2018 — is looking ahead toward the time when massage becomes too physically demanding. “I’ll always do retail,” she said. “That’s how we grew.”Danette Wicker shows a customer an item for sale in her Danette’s Urban Oasis booth at the 2025 Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. (Scott Nishimura | Fort Worth Report)Contact information: Website: danettesurbanoasis.com Instagram: @danettesoasisPhone: 682-597-5653Scott Nishimura: What do you mean when you say you wouldn’t have survived COVID without retail?Danette Wicker: We were closed for 79 straight days by law. I was able to retail face masks, hand sanitizers, and my husband did delivery. We definitely wouldn’t have survived without it.Nishimura: Does your stock show shop have the full Danette’s retail inventory?Wicker: The only thing that is not here that we offer is gourmet olive oils and honeys that my husband makes. And aromatherapy we sell. We will have all of those available at the Fort Worth  Community Market.Danette Wicker plans to expand her retail business this year with regular appearances at the Fort Worth Community Market. (Scott Nishimura | Fort Worth Report)Nishimura: What do your folks do for a living?Wicker: I come from business. My father worked for McDonald’s and then owned some McDonald’s. He worked for Burger King and then owned some Burger Kings. We’re talking 1960s, 1970s, when African Americans didn’t own franchises. So I’ve always owned. Now that he has gotten old, he does one business. He does Farmers Insurance. My dad has been in business for as long as I’ve been on earth. He has taught me a lot.Nishimura: You’ve been at the stock show for eight years. How long did it take you to get in?Wicker: We were on the waitlist for six years. Now we get invited to the other rodeos. The State Fair (of Texas) came by and visited us the other day. This is the only long show we do.Danette Wicker enjoys a light moment during her 2025 run as a vendor at the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. (Scott Nishimura | Fort Worth Report)Nishimura: Massage is the bulk of the business right now, right? How does retail fit into your model down the road?Wicker: My goal is to have the retail be the bulk of the business. You’re going to be limited to the things you can do physically because of age. Doing an event like this expands me to people who would not have found Danette’s. There are people who are showing animals here, and we’re shipping items to them.Scott Nishimura is a senior editor for the Documenters program at the Fort Worth Report. Reach him at scott.nishimura@fortworthreport.org.At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.