Shoppers spurn crowded malls for unique shops

CHRIS KELLY staff Above, The Farmhouse, West Long Branch, sells vintage, consignment and a wide variety of clothing, home accessories, jewelry and other items. At left is a unique purse for sale inside The Farmhouse. Below, So Pretty, Shrewsbury, sells designer items at discounted prices. For those with an aversion to shopping malls clogged with holiday shoppers and cookie-cutter stores, there is an alternative besides the Internet.

Holiday time happens to be one of the busiest seasons for two area shops that have carved out a niche in upscale consignments, designer closeouts and unique baubles — all at prices well below retail.

“I hear it all the time, people are sick of mall shopping. So holiday time always is busy,” Anne Marie Elia said, proprietor of The Farmhouse at 952 Broadway in West Long Branch. “At the mall you just go from clothing store to clothing store.

“My store is very eclectic. If they’re not sure what to buy somebody they come here. I have everything and anything you can imagine.”

“You’re going to get something no one has seen anywhere else, something completely personalized,” said Megan McGarvey, co-owner of So Pretty, at 794 Broad St. in Shrewsbury.

“Customers love that we have things from $4 to $400. You can always find something in your price range.”

In addition to gifts, both stores are a source for formal and semiformal wear for special occasions sold at deep discounts.

The Farmhouse’s inventory ranges from new to vintage and from women’s clothing to architectural salvage.

“Here, you can get a vintage soap stand, soaps, vintage to new jewelry, baby items, gourmet cookies, teas and stationery.

“Shoppers can come in and buy scarves, embellished belts and all kinds of funky unusual Christmas ornaments that no one else has,” said Elia, Long Branch.

“I have brooches, a ton of them. They’re the hottest thing this season, and capes. I have new jewelry and there’s a whole case with consignment costume jewelry as well.”

At The Farmhouse, which opened in 2001, Elia mixes upscale consignment with new items throughout six rooms upstairs and six rooms downstairs.

“I have a lot of new things because I have customers who want new too,” she explained. The whole downstairs is new and vintage and antique clothing. Upstairs is all consignment.”

While the mix is eclectic, the focus is foremost on clothing, and Elia, who had a career as a buyer for New York stores, is fastidious about the clothing she accepts on consignment.

“Clothing can be no more than 1 year old and I turn away at least half of the clothing brought in. I just don’t take anything. I’m not a resale shop or a thrift shop. Consignment is completely different,” she noted.

Women’s clothing sizes range from 0-3X. “There’s a whole room for plus sizes,” she said. “There’s such a huge market for it.”

Home accessories are also accepted on consignment. Here, too, Elia holds them to a high standard.

“They must be very decorative and be on the vintage side,” she said, “no modern or contemporary items.”

The Farmhouse has a source of special occasion clothing through an arrangement with a consigner who works for a high-end designer line.

“He brings me all the samples: gowns, tops, skirts, pants,” Elia said. “They retail for between $300-$500 and I sell them for $80-$150.

In addition, there are the must-have Fendi, Gucci handbags and Louis Vuitton pieces that retail for $800, but at The Farmhouse are priced between $100-$250

“We sell a ton of those,” Elia noted

The Farmhouse formula of mixing new and old has proved successful. Elia said the store has a customer base of more than 5,000 drawn from towns nearby and throughout the county as well as out-of-towners.

The store is open Monday through Friday, 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m.

Elia launched her first consignment business in 1983 on East Main Street in Oceanport. Pretty Woman began with women’s clothing, and, over a 10-year period, expanded to two adjacent stores where she added children’s consignment and home accessories and furniture.

“I just kept adding on,” she said. “Then I had the idea to pull it all together.”

One day while driving past the circa 1800s farmhouse on Broadway, then serving as a rest home, Elia spotted a “for sale” sign and the rest is history.

In business for less than a year, McGarvey, Fair Haven, and partner Charissa Keavey, Red Bank, didn’t have a holiday track record for So Pretty, their boutique that carries gifts and accessories for women and children.

“Going into it both of us wondered what could we expect?” McGarvey said. “We knew as the year went on that we sold a lot of gifts, so we knew the holiday season would be big for us. We have a loyal base of customers who always think of us.”

So Pretty started out in February as a consignment shop focused on high-end designer clothing for women and children, but the partners have changed course.

“That was our original idea and we thought it would be nice to have some accessories too. It snowballed from there,” McGarvey said. “When we opened we took consignment, but we developed relationships with designers and other boutiques for overstocks and samples.”

That fact, coupled with the paperwork involved in keeping track of sales through 250 consigners, led the partners to discontinue consignment to focus exclusively on

BY GLORIA STRAVELLI

Staff Writer

new items sold at a discount of at least 50 percent.

“This is completely different; it’s the same kind of thing as stores where you find designer clothing at great prices.

“Everything is brand new, with the tags still on,” McGarvey explained. “There is nothing preowned.”

High-end clothing in sizes ranging from 0-16 include wedding gowns, formal wear and designer suits from former Red Bank atelier Mirella as well as overstocks of Lili Pulitzer casual clothing and accessories like handbags and shoes.

“We have wedding dresses that were $5,000 that are $2,500 or less, and Lili items selling at 50 percent of retail. A dress that sells for $125 is priced at half that,” she said.

At So Pretty, the back room is devoted to women’s clothing; and on a recent Saturday, items included a maternity line, outerwear and separates. Another room holds women’s accessories like shawls, scarves and handbags; another, accessories like rings, brooches, earrings, and engraved sterling silver jewelry.

“You can find formal wear in the back room and come up front and find a shawl wrap or funky earrings,” she said.

“Plus, we have one room of really extraordinary brand-new children’s gifts,” said McGarvey, pointing out toys like an imported circus play tent, hand-painted magic wands, reversible dolls and baby blankets. The store carries children’s clothing in sizes infant to 12.

At So Pretty, customers can order hand-knit, monogrammed sweaters for children in a choice of colors. The store also sells sterling silver engraved jewelry for women and children including a locket on a leather cord or grosgrain ribbon for $40, or a locket that can hold pictures on a double strand of freshwater pearls for under $400.

The partners are shaping the store to focus more on accessories, a trend, McGarvey said, reflected by large retailers.

“A month or so ago we saw an article that talked about accessories as a fast growing sector of the retail market,” she said. “Apparently, The Gap is opening a New York store for accessories only. When we saw that, we knew we’re on the right road.”

“I knew we were doing the right thing because we have such a loyal customer base. Already people keep coming back,” McGarvey said. “Customers keep saying this place is so different. We have a ton of gifts and personalized items.”

So Pretty is open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday noon to 5 p.m. and is open until 8 p.m. on Thursday.

Gifts they won’t find elsewhere, no fighting crowds and free gift wrapping are all factors that draw customers to So Pretty and away from mall shopping, McGarvey said.

“We pride ourselves on service,” she added. “One of us is always here and we know our customers by name.”