FARMINGTON – A popular downtown store specializing in footwear and gifts found that business was so good it had to expand into a second location.
Divine Inspirations shop owner, Tammy Parsons, has found much success in offering shoppers a combination of quality footwear for the family and home decorative items and gifts at 283 Front Street.
As her collection of footwear grew, though, the space for her gifts and home decor got smaller and smaller.
“We want to expand our men’s and kid’s footwear but didn’t have any more space,” Parsons said. So she looked at various empty buildings and, decided she had to separate her inventory and open a second location. She found the perfect space for her home decor and gift shop in the former Trask Jewelers shop.
Trask Jewelers closed its doors after 159 years downtown on Dec. 31, 2014. Since then the shop in a prime Main Street location has been vacant. Until now.
Trask Jewelers’ proprietor and the building’s owner, John Anderson, worked at the shop for 40 years and decided to retire from the 60-hour weeks at the store that offered jewelry, gifts and a fix-it shop specializing in the increasingly rare watch repair service.
At the time of his store closing, Anderson said he wanted to “slow down, catch up with projects, do a little traveling” and have time for his Model T Ford passion. He also said then that he may consider starting up a part-time jewelry repair business on the side.
And now, with a Divine Inspirations Gift and Home Decor opening up in his former shop, he will be doing just that.
After not finding a large enough space for all of her expanding plans, Parsons decided to offer footwear and other similar product lines at her flagship Divine Inspirations store on Front Street. She intends to add more men’s and children’s footwear, handbags, coin purses and shoe products like shoelaces to the inventory there.
The Divine Inspirations Gifts and Home Decor shop at the Main Street location, which opened in time for Farmington’s Summer Fest on July 25, offers an extensive inventory of “country primitive” decorative pieces for the home and gifts.
Anderson will once again be providing jewelry repair service at the shop on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“Everybody’s been so encouraging and happy to see us opening up here,” Parsons said. Opening the new second store during Summer Fest turned out to be a really good idea. Well wishers packed the new store throughout the day and business was brisk.
It was a real push to get the store open on time, Parsons said. The store was repainted, new carpets were put down and the entire space updated into a warm and inviting place. Besides the renovation work, Parsons had to make a quick trip to Pennsylvania and bring back a full load of decorative inventory and various gifts to make sure the store would be filled in time for opening day.
“People have come in and have said, ‘we’re happy you’re here,'” Parsons said with a smile.
Congratulations Tammy!
How exciting to read about another local business flourishing and expanding onto Main Street…congratulations, Tammy!
I have never stopped their before, but with the holiday season cropping up, and wanting to do more local shopping I will definitely need to check this out finally! Congrats to the Business Owner!! :)
Congratulations Tammy! The store looks awesome!
I’m psyched about the jewelry repair coming back in :)
Good for you Tammy!
And John too!
Fantastic, Tammy!!! Love you store. Can’t wait to see it!
So happy for Tammy — she’s worked really hard! It’s inspiring when a local business thrives & expands.
I stopped in to the new store and it looks great! Hoping our community rallies behind this local business and we get to keep this one for a while! Congratulations Tammy! To the citizens of Franklin County, please remember, If you don’t stop and shop at our local businesses they won’t stay open, We have lost some good stores in the past ten to fifteen years that I miss very much, Please show your support of our community and at least stop in them to see what they have ….before you shop on line.
Best of Luck to Tammy in her new endeavor. Praise the Lord for His Help. We’ll have to stop in and check it out, and were glad to hear that John will be able to serve the community again.