Living the Dream
Colleen Bohen -- Gifts and Dec, 3/11/2011 11:13:32 PM
How Vintage Rose Emporium's owner turned her childhood fantasy into reality.
Sarah Jones bought the Vintage Rose Emporium in Murray, KY, in 2001. At the time, she was a lawyer and a regular customer of the gift store. But when the then-owner approached her for legal advice about selling the business, Jones decided to take a risk and buy the store herself. "The store appealed to me on many levels. The former owner had done a great job of creating an atmosphere of helpfulness and had several great core lines in place, such as Crabtree & Evelyn, Lenox, Vera Bradley and Gail Pittman," she says. "However, it needed more inventory in core lines and a chance to really grow."
Ten years and two location changes later, Jones has tripled the size of the sales floor, added multiple product 
categories and developed a bridal registry business that's responsible for a quarter of the store's business each year. In all, Jones says the store sees just under $1 million in sales annually.
The store is housed in a former office building. "[It] is divided into rooms," she says. And Jones chose to leave some of the walls between the offices to make it easier to delineate each type of product. There is an open lobby which holds home fragrance and feature displays, and an atrium divides the store down the middle. Various other rooms house categories including gift, candle, personal care, china, casual dinnerware, home accessories and kitchen items. The store also features a Vera Bradley showroom and a showroom for On A Personal Note Stationery. Jones bought the stationery company in 2005 to compliment her growing bridal business. "It allows us to serve a bridal couple from save-the-date cards, all the way through their registry, reception merchandise, and thank-you notes," she says.
Indeed, the bridal business has been a priority for Jones from the start. She worked hard to promote the registry by setting up booths at bridal expos and by establishing a Registry Rewards program, 
through which each couple receives 5 percent of the store's profit on all of the items purchased for them. "We give them that amount in a gift card, which allows them to [buy] some of the items on the registry that they didn't receive," she says. "The reason I believe in the bridal registry is simple. Not only does it bring in the obvious business of the gift purchased for a couple, it often generates additional sales while the shopper is in to get that gift. The bridal registry is basically recession-proof as well: People don't stop giving wedding gifts."
When it comes to choosing products, Jones prides herself on providing her customers with merchandise that can't otherwise be found locally. "We've had some trouble with local retailers who want to buy all the items we have," says Jones. "But thank heavens, many good vendors still protect territory!" She says that these exclusive relationships with companies, including Vera Bradley and Pandora, have been mutually beneficial. "We commit to those brands with vigor as they have committed to us," says Jones. "We work with their marketing departments on ad design and specific promotions, both 
company-wide ones and the ones that are specific to our store. [In fact,] most of our dinnerware lines are territory protected, so we have the benefit of being the only place in town where you can register for those things."
Jones says the secret behind her success is her willingness to take risks and her conscious effort to never underestimate her customers' ability to recognize and appreciate unique, high-quality products. "This past year, I kept walking by these gorgeous huge acrobatic reindeer in a showroom at market," she says. "They were going to retail for around $400 for the set. I hesitated because of the price, but I ended up buying them and of course they sold because they were so over-the-top and unusual. People are willing to pay for something really special."
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BORN TO BE A GIFT RETAILER The leap from lawyer to gift retailer may seem unusual, but Jones has always had an affinity for retail. "Not long after I bought the store, my mother found an old three-ring binder where I had sketches and floor plans for a store, including what merchandise I would carry and how it would all be displayed. I had done that when I was nine," she said. |
At the Customer's Request Exclusivity isn't the only thing that keeps customers coming back to Vintage Rose Emporium. Jones also pays close attention to the needs and desires of her patrons. She provides bottled water and an abundance of seating so that customers can feel at home in her store. She also expands her product offerings based on customer requests. "We actually got Robert Rothschild Farms products because a customer brought in [its] Raspberry Honey Mustard Pretzel Dip and wanted to know if we had it or could get it," says Jones. Today, "It's our bestselling gourmet food line." |
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