PIQUA — Julie Fausey of Minster recently opened a new location for her boutique, JBoutique, in Piqua at 124 W. Water St.

Fausey originally started her boutique in Minster seven years ago by herself. She did all the shopping to fill the store, ran the register and did all of the day-to-day jobs such as stocking, cleaning and organizing the store were up to her to complete as she ran the store herself.

When Fausey first started JBoutique she had no previous retail experience. Her decision to start a boutique came from her love for fashion, designing outfits and bargain shopping. Before JBoutique was even an idea, Fausey had worked in human resources for 20+ years before taking time off when all five of her children were in junior high and high school. When her last two kids, twin boys, graduated high school and left home she knew she did not want to return to the world of business and HR and decided to follow her passion and start her of boutique.

When she first opened seven years ago, Fausey’s boutique was located in an upstairs converted office space that was owned by her parents. Then in 2016, less than a year after the opening of JBoutique, she found a new home for her boutique in a prime shopping location in Minster. Located at 111 N. Fourth St. in Minster, JBoutique has drawn customers from a 30 to 40 mile radius due to most shopping locations being up to an hour away in Dayton. For the first five years Fausey did everything herself with help only when she was on vacation and during black Friday. Now she has five part-time employees that help her run both locations.

The expansion to a second location in Piqua was something she had thought about for a couple of years. Fausey decided to bring JBoutique to Piqua because of the city’s lack of clothing store options. She also chose to bring her store to Piqua instead of Sidney or Troy because Sidney is so close to Minster it would not have spread her business very far and Troy already has a number of small boutiques that she would have to compete with.

JBoutique’s Piqua location was opened in under six weeks. Fausey had decided on the location in January, signed the lease for the building on Feb. 1 of 2022 and the store opened on Feb. 26.

“There’s a lot of racks and they’re always full. I cater to all age groups, I’m not pinpointing a certain look. It’s not boho, it’s not (just for) older people, it’s not juniors. I have people in here from 13 to 83. I have (clothes for) a lot of ages and sizes, small through 3XL, and more plus sizes in Piqua than I have in my Minster location. Lastly, there’s nothing in my store over $50 and I started that seven years ago and other than a couple winter coats, there’s nothing over $50 in this store,” said Fausey.

Keeping her prices low is where her experience and love for bargain shopping comes in handy. Fausey works hard to find deals and keep her prices low because she does not believe that clothes need to be that expensive.

The Piqua location for JBoutique is closed Sunday and Monday, open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, from noon to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Thursday and Friday and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday. Fausey expects her hours to change slightly as the Christmas season approaches.

For updates on the hours of operation and inventory at both store locations, visit her Instagram page, @JuliesJBoutique, or her Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/juliesjboutique.