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Photo provided shows the facade of the new location of the Blond Boutique at 125 E. Main Street.
LOCK HAVEN — Ashley Garbrick knew the risks.
But dropping out of college during the pandemic to pursue her dreams was a risk she felt she had to take.
And the risk paid off. Originally located on Grove Street in downtown Lockhaven, the owner of his boutique, Grand He’s scheduled to open on Saturday, Jan. 28, at 125 E. Maine. He’s already moved to a larger location on St. I’m here.
The store opens at 10am with specials, sales and gifts for shoppers.
Life is new for Ashley. She just celebrated her one year anniversary as the owner of the business after opening her boutique in November 2021.
“When I was a kid, the downtown area wasn’t very lively and there weren’t many attractive shops, so it was very exciting.” Ashley said. “I’m optimistic that Lock Haven is like a brand new city at this point, and I’m excited to see how it grows and changes for the better.”
Before venturing into entrepreneurship, Ashley created content for social media platforms. Her first content was her own YouTube channel, where she posted videos about her daily life and other topics she was interested in. Viewers of her channel were captivated by her lifestyle vlogs and beauty tutorials that she regularly posts. Ashley’s her YouTube channel quickly gained quite a few followers and she gained so many followers that she started making her profit from YouTube while she was graduating from high school.
Her YouTube following eventually carried over to other social media accounts.
Garbrick, who grew up in the Mill Hall area, said he felt he had a flair for retail sales since he was a teenager.
A few years before she graduated high school, she became famous for selling high-end clothing and accessories on Facebook Marketplace. When she was 16, she started working part-time at her former Co2 The Unique Boutique, gaining valuable experience in retail sales.
With his familiarity with social media marketing, a Business and Marketing Management major at Lock Haven University seemed like a good fit for Garbrick.
Between “shut down” During the COVID-19 pandemic, Garblick found himself not particularly enthusiastic about promoting other companies on social media platforms. She felt that if she was going to promote her business, it should be hers.
It was a dangerous time to start a business, but Ashley made plans and started looking for a location.
Ashley recently gave an interview to The Express.
Did COVID-19 restrictions influence your decision to take the risk and open a physical store?
“Stuck at home with nothing to do and spending more time than usual scrolling through social media, I would say the shutdown inspired me to pursue entrepreneurial ventures in a strange way. Then my employer announced that they were closing the business, so I could have more time to search my soul.
“During that time, the more I saw other people running their businesses successfully on social media, the more I felt the urge to do it. It was inspiring to see, especially since I have a background in sales and already had a following on social media that I can use to promote my business, so I felt I could do the same successfully. I was.
“During its closure, I majored in Business and Marketing Management for as long as I was a full-time student at Lock Haven University. I didn’t want to use social media to promote someone else’s business or dream…I wanted to promote my own business.”
Were you apprehensive about starting a business in a time of great uncertainty and volatility in our economy?
“When I decided what I wanted to do, there was a movement to support small business owners, and people in this community started shopping locally instead of supporting big box stores, so I decided to go downtown Lock Haven.” I saw all the businesses downtown, old and new, really starting to thrive as people spent more time attending events and shopping. Seeing what was starting to look like a business district inspired me to take risks and open my own shop.”
What makes Blonde Boutique unique?
“I think my niche is finding very unique clothing and accessories. It’s about offering the latest trending styles, sometimes even before they’re popular.”
Despite the high unemployment rate due to COVID-19, do you think our addition to the downtown Lock Haven shopping district had a positive impact on our community?
Yes, but it wasn’t just me and my boutique. The mitigation of COVID-19 has affected all businesses in downtown Lock Haven, but smaller businesses seem to be the hardest hit. I think people in our community wanted to keep the downtown retailers from closing their stores, so I started shopping locally more often to support them. With so many shops to choose from, what started out as a bad situation for business owners turned out to be actually beneficial for downtown Lock Haven. ”
Has the pandemic impacted your ability to purchase inventory and sustain your business?
“It was difficult at first. I placed an order through one of our vendors and it was supposed to arrive within five business days, but it actually didn’t arrive for another three weeks. Then I had to come up with a plan to keep the shelves stocked.My strategy was to order regularly, so basically I had to start contacting the vendors I was buying from at least twice a week. And if I wanted to have seasonal items, I had to plan ahead. So I ordered those items shortly after I signed the lease in October of that year, and since I had no way of knowing exactly when the order would arrive, I set up a boutique to serve my customers. I actually ordered it before I was ready for the .”
How has your business evolved over the past year?
“One of the things that has changed in our boutique is that we have expanded our inventory to include more gift items than we originally planned. We added choice. We wanted to include a variety of styles that would appeal to a wider range of clothing tastes.”
Do you see a sense of camaraderie between yourself and other businesses that have opened in downtown Lock Haven?
“That’s right. We are all more focused on community than competition. We believe we can all be successful and there are so many businesses around us. We are all in the clothing and gift business. We offer a wide variety of variations, which is beneficial downtown because we now have more options that appeal to everyone, regardless of what they are shopping for.”
Could you tell our readers about the future of Blonde Boutique?
“We are excited to expand our boutique to accommodate a wider range of inventory, so we have plans to move our store to a larger space on East Main Street. We hope to eventually add more members to our sales team.”
Ashley’s store is open until 5pm Monday through Friday and 3pm Saturday. Her store also has her website www.blondeoutique.net.
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