NEW HAVEN — A longtime ambition became a reality when Merieta Bayati opened her own business in the city’s Audubon arts district last August. Bayati’s Girlie Girl Shop is targeted to the needs and whims of fashionable females. Six months into the venture, Bayati couldn’t be more pleased that she took the entrepreneurial leap.
“It’s been a lifelong dream,” says Bayati about becoming a business owner. “It was the right opportunity. I saw the shop and couldn’t pass up on it.”
Located at 94 Audubon Street, the Girlie Girl Shop is an accessories store packed with dangling earrings, sparkling bracelets, colorful scarves, eye-catching purses, one-of-a-kind tote bags and other novelty items. Though a small space — 212 square feet — wall and floor areas are used to best advantage to display products.
Pink décor underscores the store’s theme. Pink curtains adorn the window, a pink-trimmed bench sits next to the cash register and pink shopping bags VERB customers’ purchases. Even the store’s sound system is complementary, with iPod-derived music by singer Pink constantly playing.
“Pink is my favorite color,” says Bayati, who remembers being called a “girlie girl” as a youngster. She opened an online store in 2005, and says the brick-and-mortar shop’s size makes the transition more manageable and less intimidating for a first-time entrepreneur.
“It’s my first store and I didn’t want anything huge. It’s the perfect size,” she says. “It’s something I could give a shot, and I took advantage of the opportunity. I saw great potential for this area as well.”
Bayati owns the store along with fiancé Raymond Hannah. She estimates their start-up costs were about $5,000, which came from the couple’s savings.
Bayati, who grew up in Mississippi, recently arrived in New Haven after spending time in New York. She works in Yale’s human resources department during the week, and at the shop on Saturdays. Salesperson Kellie Haymes tends the store on weekdays. Serendipitously, the two found they had much in common when Bayati was sifting through résumés and going through the hiring process.
“I’m a ‘girlie girl,’ so this was the perfect place for me to work, and we work well together,” says Haymes who, like Bayati, hails from Mississippi and moved to Connecticut from New York.
In addition to in-store items, Bayati offers Girlie Girl Shop “purse parties” for ten or more guests. Hostesses earn a percentage of sales, and the parties afford aspiring entrepreneurs an opportunity to become income-earning consultants, Bayati notes.
Although the Girlie Girl Shop focuses on items for girls, teens and women, Bayati says potential patrons who happen to be men shouldn’t be put off by the store’s name.
“Definitely, I want to target the men,” Bayati emphasizes. “If they’re looking for a gift for their girlfriend, this is perfect.”
For more information about becoming a Girlie Girl Shop purse party hostess or consultant, call 203-777-4475.
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