MINSTER – Julie Fausey, owner of JBoutique in Minster is expanding operations to open a new boutique in Piqua. The grand opening for the store is Friday at 10 a.m.
Fausey is originally from Minster and has 20 years of experience in human resources. She took eight years time off to raise her five children, three daughters and twin boys. After her children graduated in 2015 and went away to college, she says she experienced “empty nest” syndrome.
She was motivated for a change.
“I was not interested in going back into the corporate world, but I love to shop. So I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to open a boutique?’” Fausey said.
Her parents owned a commercial spot in Minster in a building, but there were no windows, no shopfront. Nevertheless, Fausey decided to give it a try.
“I loved it. I loved the buying aspect, the marketing, the social media,” Fausey said, but she knew they needed to relocate before the first year was over to a new location in Minster. Within days a storefront became available and she and her husband, Dan, bought the building and opened the new store in September 2016.
While small, the location is packed with clothing merchandise, and customers come from within a 20-mile radius — including Sidney, Fort Loramie, Versailles, Coldwater, Delphos, and Wapakoneta — to find unique items that cannot be purchased in large chain stores or malls.
“When I bought this, I wasn’t sure what shopping was evolving into. The malls at that time were just starting to go on the decline. So it just has been a great opportunity for people from Minster to come and get a dress for a wedding, something for their daughter’s birthday party, or find an outfit for the weekend,” Fausey said.
The dream to expand began around three years ago. But it was not until Fausey was on a family vacation to Florida, she was walking on the beach and made the decision to open another store in Piqua and, while in Florida, she started reaching out about available properties. One day after returning from vacation, she and her husband decided to undertake the new project, and began making plans about how she could juggle her time between the two locations. That’s when she found two employees to hire, one for the Minster location and another for the Piqua location.
Fausey anticipates her downtown Piqua boutique will help to fill the shopping “vacuum” after stores like J.C. Penny, Sears, and in the Piqua Mall left. Customers from Minster may also want to visit Fausey’s Piqua location as well, because in addition to dresses, the Minster store also carries more plus sizes, candles, baskets, pictures, jewelry, food items, and giftware.
The Piqua location’s grand opening at their new location at 124 W. Water in Piqua will begin at 10 a.m. Friday and will continue until 6 p.m. on Feb. 25, 2022. Their existing location in Minster is 11 W. Fourth St.
Follow JBoutique on social media: juliesboutique on Instagram and Juliesjboutique on Facebook.
