Diary of a Boutique Owner

Shoplifting

Yesterday afternoon I had 3 people come into my store.  One of the men had been in to look at an Ed Hardy shirt 3 or 4 times.  As one of the men were talking to me, the woman stole the shirt.  It had a retail value of $145, but emotionally it feels like a lot more then that.  I was so angry and pretty sure I knew where I could find them.  So off I went with my 40lb white puppy & a can of pepper spray to dispense justice. 

Let me pause for a second and give you a brief background about where my store is located.  It is within 2 blocks to the Gaslamp in downtown San Diego.  So right about when you reach the end of my block the drugs and homeless pick up the slack. 

These horrible excuses for human beings have a buddy that works for the barber shop a block away.  I stomp down there with every intention of showing them what happens when you get a  5'7'' white girl angry.  So I walk up to 5 or 6 men and women hanging out in front and proceed to unleash the fury on them.   Needless to say they started to scatter.  One of the guys told me he didn't know "white woman could get so mad"  well guess what we do & it's not pretty!

After hearing that they didn't know where they were I told them very matter-of-factly I had a can a pepper spray & a taser and was just itchin' for an excuse to use them.   I was dead serious too, it still infuriates me that someone would steal, how are theses people being raised?  Where are the morals & values that are supposed to be instilled within each of us? 

I was raised with a crazy Italian family and we lived by 2 rules.  Don't mess with our family, and don't mess with our business.  SImple rules to live by.

Book Club

This month the Book Club elected me to pick the next book.  It is really quite a task.  There are currently 10 -12 women counting on me to pick a book that is interesting, provocative, humorous, and thoughtful all within 300 pages.  It also has to be a book no one else has read.   So this month I choose Dancing Naked at the Edge of Dawn, by Kris Radish.  It is looking to be a promising read.   

I invite you to join us in this on-line discussion. 

Who is this so called owner?

I would like to take a minute to introduce myself.  I am a 28 year old woman business owner.  It will be a year this April since i opened my store called The District.  We carry men's & women's clothing and accessories, most of our items come from more independent designers just hovering below mainstream.  We were  voted best men's boutique for 2006 in San Diego's 944 magazine. 

I usually work 5-6 days a week accompanied by my faithful puppy Bella, who without fail barks at everyone who walks though my front door.  The store will be open one year in April, people say it gets easier after the first year I can only hope so.   We will be launching our on-line store in April so until then please take a look at our website www.thedistrictsd.com. 

I never was one of those girls who dreamed of owing their own clothing store, actually I was completely on the other side of that equation.  My mother opened a store when I was a little girl, so I spent much of my childhood in her store.  When I was "lucky" enough I went with her to LA on her 15 hour buying trips.  She passed away in 1992 from Cervical Cancer and my cousin took over the store.  I worked there for about five years, which I thought was enough retail to last me for years to come. 

After the land of retail and I parted ways, it was a tough struggle for me.  What else was there?  After much job searching and scheming I landed a job doing marketing in a real estate office.  This was the begin of my career in the San Diego real estate market, sadly my reign as Real Estate Princess was a short one.

In March of 2005 my father passed after a 6 year struggle with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.  I quit my job and had absolutely no clue what to do with myself.  I had taken care of my dad for so long I didn't know how to focus on myself.  So I took 6 months off, cooked a lot of food, did yard work and worked out.  I became so busy I didn't know how I would ever fit in working again.  As we all know that lifestyle is hard to maintain not being independently wealthy.

I came across a new line of clothing and loved what they were doing, within 2 weeks I was meeting with the CFO working on opening their 1st franchise store in San Diego.   That turned into my current store The District. I can only hope this is the beginning of something great.  Stay tuned for updates. 

Cheers   

Jennifer