Coastal Home Store

Join me for a conversation with Jill Clark, the owner of the Coastal Home Store in Hampstead, North Carolina! We’ll discuss her beautiful products, her little cottage at Cedar on the Green and how she keeps her coastal home decor affordable in a time when that can be quite difficult.
 
Jill introduces us to the store's Seasonal Style Boxes, an idea born from customer feedback, as well as the Style Services she and her team offer.

Jill also shares her dream of expanding the store while keeping its roots firmly planted in the local Hampstead community.

Find and Follow Coastal Home Store on Facebook and Instagram!

Or visit this little gem in the heart of Hampstead at:
17007 US Hwy 17 N
Hampstead, NC 28443

Phone: (910) 821-1390
Email: coastalhomestore@gmail.com
Website: coastalhomestore.com

Enjoy!

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Thanks - I’ll see you around Topsail!

Transcript

Intro, Coming Up, and Saltwater Suites

Speaker 1 0:01

Welcome to the Topsoil Insider Podcast, where you can hear all about the businesses and events in the beautiful coastal towns of the greater Topsoil area of North Carolina.

Speaker 2 0:14

Coming up. Get ready for a conversation with Jill Clark, the owner of the coastal home store in Hampstead, north Carolina. We'll talk about her coastal cottage at Cedar on the Green, the beautiful coastal home decor, more seasonal style boxes, styling services and so much more. Stick around.

Speaker 1 0:40

Hello everyone and welcome to the Topsoil Insider Podcast. My name is Krista and I am your host. Today I am interviewing Ms Jill Clark.

Speaker 3 0:51

She is the owner of one of my favorite stores in Hampstead the Coastal Home Store.

Speaker 1 0:56

It is the cutest little cottage in all of greater Topsoil, and I am fortunate enough that I live about five minutes, so it makes my shopping for my friends and family super easy. Not to mention, I get a little retail therapy for myself.

Introduction to Jill Clark and Coastal Home Store

Why Jill Opened Coastal Home Store

Speaker 3 1:10

So welcome, Jill, and thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having me Tell me a little bit about your store, what you sell and why you decided to open it here in Hampstead. Sure, we opened three years ago, just celebrated our three-year anniversary and we sell home goods, home decor and unique gifts, and it's very specific in what we sell. We, like many people in our area, are not local, meaning we are transplants. We found our way here and we found our way here because of the coastal community that we live. So we love the community, we love the being near the beach, we love having access to what we have access to, and so the home itself, while it's home goods, home decor and unique gifts, it's all centered around that coastal community. So the colors you see in the sunsets, those cotton candy skies in the summer, the textures in the store, it's all based on that coastal community where we live. Yet it's transitional. So you don't have to have a coastal home by definition, you don't have to be whales and seashells and all those things, but you're still inspired by the beauty that is in those sunsets and those sunrises and, again, the textures in the sand and the marsh. You often overlook the marsh. How beautiful the marshland is around here. So that's kind of what the store is based on and what we sell. I mentioned we opened three years ago. It's so exciting to say that, but your question about why we opened so we opened September 2020. So, if you think, close your eyes and you think back to where we were at that time. It was a time of shutdown. We weren't allowed to gather, we weren't allowed to be in large groups, you weren't going out with your friends, you weren't celebrating weddings or milestones, birthdays, things of that nature, and so we felt like we needed some of that in Hampstead. And one of the things for me that I noticed when I moved here four years ago is we didn't have a store that had the items I just talked about the home goods, the home decor and a unique gift. I had to go to Wilmington or I had to go to Jacksonville. So, kind of thinking back to that time, it was this wonderful opportunity of we could bring something beautiful to the community that allowed people to gather, but just maybe not in the way that we were gathering in September of 2020 and still celebrate all the things that are life, but do it in a way that was safe, and so that's kind of how the store came. We saw a need within the community for this type of offering and just really felt like the community could use it. And as we'll talk about, I mean, it's just been nothing a business plan could have written it's the return on all things has been phenomenal, wonderful.

Speaker 1 3:41

You 100% correct. You definitely needed that store here, and I love what you sell in there.

Speaker 3 3:49

It's very coastal chic. It's got some not it's definitely got the nautical touches, but not kitschy.

Speaker 1 3:57

It's got. I love the colors, too, and these are the colors I want to use in my house because it feels kind of soothing, like a spa almost.

Speaker 3 4:03

I love crisp whites and blues and greens, like the colors of the ocean here, and those soft beiges on their pillows and whatnot and just everything in there just makes me feel calm. It's very soothing. I also want to talk about that cottage you're in because the cottage is so cute and it's on the outside, it's everything.

Speaker 1 4:26

Coastal cottage you know like I, you know something you would see, like waterfront is what I dream of retiring in one day.

Speaker 3 4:33

And so it's got that, the coastal green color on the outside with the white trim. And I mean, who doesn't love a front porch and rocking chairs?

Speaker 1 4:40

It's just really white and pretty, and if you drive down 17, you, you couldn't have missed it. It's next to the road on Cedar, on the green, and such a cute little.

The Cottage

Speaker 3 4:51

There's got all those little cottages lined up. It's really cute. And do you know when that cottage was built? You know I don't know so, but I will tell you. We've had lots of customer share information with us so I don't know what's real. But I will tell you what I have heard. I have heard that all of those little cottages were relocated to that location and that it was the original shopping center. Quote unquote of Hampstead once upon a time. So that's the once upon a time is not. That's what I don't know. So I know it was relocated. Someone told me once it was the original post office, or maybe not that cottage, but the original post office was there, and I would say, based on, like the flooring and the size of the doorways in that place, that it's probably 80 plus years old but definitely relocated, and I think for sure. That's my best guess. But yes the floors are those the original floors original floors.

Speaker 1 5:39

Yeah, it's got that feel when you walk in and you know it's got some stories in those walls, yeah, and that's character right.

Speaker 3 5:46

So even as us, as homeowners, you know, we go in a home and we're looking for a home or we're building a home, we always look for character and so, even coming into that place and finding it the way that we did, it was like, okay, she's got some character. I mean, she's gonna need some polish, but she's got some character. And so did you have to do a lot of work. To it. I would say not a lot. I mean, like most things, she had the bones and the porch and all the things that you just talked about. We did some paint, we repaired some walls, we threw some shipwrap up because that's popular in our community. We did some cedar shake, because again, we're talking about coastal and textures and we wanted those colors. But beyond that we left the ceiling just like it was, I should say. We added some outlets because we have lots of lights, so we needed some extra electrical power. But we left the ceilings just like they were, with all their kind of decorative accents. So the bead board that was on the wall. We left all that, the floors you spoke about. So we just threw some rugs on top and just kind of let her bring what she brought to the house. The smaller, like four rims or smaller rims and that's how the homes were back then. but you get to walk into like a different little I feel good section in every little room is something different, you know. Well, thank you for saying that too, because that was our intent with the store. Every room is different for that reason, like you're walking your own home and you can turn around and go the other direction and kind of lose your partner that way. But it's fun. You look up, you look down, but every room is intentional. There's one that's set up kind of like a living room or an entry when you walk in, and then we have one that could be more of a bedroom or a younger audience, more like a teen room, and then we have a bathroom with a sink in it so you can wash your hands and really like, when we say, make yourself at home, you want you to make yourself at home, wash your hands at the sink, the teen room. So when you walk in the front door and then you go towards the left and straight back, there are some. Yes, that makes sense to me now because there are a little bit. there's a bit of a Bohemian touch in there and I know that the teens are using a lot of the Bohemian looking to feel for their dorm rooms and such so, exactly so we try to make every room different and then, as you continue your journey around, then you end up in the kitchen, which again just we intentionally try to do that the rooms themselves don't change in the intention, but what we have in them, of course, always rotates. Because we've got such a small space, we always like it to look different.

Speaker 1 8:00

So that's a good thing.

Speaker 3 8:01

It does look different every time I walk in there, and you were saying that people tend to move things around all the time, all the time, which is great, but it kind of sends us on a scavenger hunt and you haven't been to the store in about a week. You're like I know we've got those coasters, but they weren't where they were last.

Speaker 2 8:16

Saturday. Somebody's picked them up and moved them around, but it's kind of like your house too, right?

Home Decor Roots and a Dream

Speaker 3 8:21

Yes, it's fun, it's fun. So before you moved to Hampstead, did you already have this idea that you wanted to open up a home good store? I had like a dream. I would say yes, this idea, this vision in my head, that it would always be something I'd love to do. I would say for me, if I like, reflecting back when I grew up. I was a young. When I was a young girl, my parents both worked two jobs, and one of the jobs my mom had in the evening was she worked for Home Interior. Well, if those listeners maybe aren't familiar with Home Interior, this was like the beginning of home shows in the early 80s. So every night after she got done with her full-time job, she'd load up the car and take me with her, because that's where was I gonna go, was a young girl, and so she had these Styrofoam boards with handles on them and they would have wall decor and sconces, and then you draped them and you pinned them in and you took them out and you took them in and you had home shows, but you showed people home decor and candles and all the things, and so I think part of me had that kind of like rooted. As a young girl. We were always moving stuff around and we were always creating wall, you know, decor, and because we had to sell it, and even though it was my mom I say we because I carted it in and out- I received the inventory at home. She made me work, you know, for my allowance, and so I did all the things and that's probably somewhere rooted in me that I just loved that idea of always, kind of, you know, having a space that looked different. So that, coupled with, you know, just being a grown adult now and loving to do that in my own home I had done that for friends and family just kind of rearrange things. And so, yeah, you know, you fast forward into your adulthood and relocate into a place like this and you kind of have that dream rolling around in your head and know how you would ever execute it if you had the opportunity to do so. So then, what triggered you to execute? I think driving down 17 that day, seeing that place, knowing I had that idea, and then knowing that the community had it. So you know, they say luck happens when preparation.

Speaker 1 10:11

Seeing the cottage available.

Speaker 3 10:12

Yeah, yeah, and I just I had a vision, I saw it and I'm like that's perfect, that would be that thing. So they say, when luck happens, preparation meets opportunity. And I think that day I just got really lucky because I had this vision or this dream in my head but I knew I could execute on. And then there was this opportunity, but I didn't know it was gonna happen at first. Right, you know, you call the number and you say I'm really interested, but you're not first on the list, and so you just kind of wait and lucky for me, I wasn't first on the list, but I was the one who ended up getting it, just based on circumstances. So for me, I think I just got lucky, Wonderful. Well, I'm glad you did, Thank you. Let's talk about the products that you are selling. I know that this is relative.

Speaker 1 10:51

They're affordable and I'm speaking like you have really nice quality items and I can get that same quality at a pottery barn, but you're selling them for a lot less than pottery barn. So when I say you're affordable.

Affordability Efforts and “Shop the Look"

Speaker 3 11:05

I mean that you are less than other people are selling those same quality items. How are you managing your pricing? Such a great question. I appreciate you saying that, because that's exactly what we try to do and what we call shop the look. So and I'll tell you about that in a minute but I would say how do we do it? It's taken a lot of practice, three years in the making but we have had to find that sweet spot on learning your vendors. You know which vendors are gonna give you the quality that you're speaking of. You know that takes time. You have to order and you have to receive and you have to get feedback from your customers. We market test all the time. We're our own customers, the team and I. So you know that takes time to figure out the quality component. But then over time, I think the thing that we have learned and you guys, you and all the listeners can relate to this you know, as consumers, in the last three years we have had to absorb a lot of the increased cost specifically related to shipping and freight, and so what we have had to do is think about our partner vendors globally and domestically and say, okay, where do we know the quality is Like, sort through the vendors, and say here are quality vendors that you know that trial and error if you will and then the sweet spot becomes and which one of those vendors are domestic number one and on the East Coast Because if we can source from a close location it's gonna be less cost to get to us than if we were sourcing from California, as an example. So we might love our vendors in California but because the cost of shipping and freight was so high we might, you know, turn away from them and then reprioritize. So that's the sweet spot that I speak of. We're still learning, but we are getting so much better about finding those goods. And your comment about the quality pieces again appreciate you saying that we do try to shop the look so we get all the catalogs, like you do, in the mail. You know they stack up and we look through them and we see the ones that you know. We pick out the pieces that we think are transitional. So they've got that, those coastal textures and those colors that resonate with our customers in the store, and then we try to find something that looks just like it but at a more affordable price. And so that's where that shop the look concept comes, and if you follow us on socials you'll see we do that quite a bit. We'll do a shop the look, we'll show it to you and then you can usually kind of attach it to where it came from. Tell me who selects the products that you're selling in the store Everyone.

Speaker 2 13:24

Quite frankly, yeah, everyone quite frankly, is your team.

Jill’s Team and Store Motto

Speaker 3 13:27

Yeah, it's everybody does. So no, to break it down, it's, you know, our whole team does really. I mean, we go to market twice a year and we that's where we source from, or we get a lot of our new vendors, that's where we find them, and everybody on the team kind of has a different style. So just because I like something, I might be partial to, you know, pewter, let's say Someone else on the team might be partial to the golds and the antique brass. And it's just that's. You know, that's how we all work, right, we're not the same, and so everybody on the team has a say. We rotate people through market, often on the teams, they get a chance to experience it, and then oftentimes my team will bring new vendors to me that they find and say, hey, I think this would be great for the store. So when I say everyone, that's what I mean. I'd also say our customers. If a customer comes in and they see something that they like, we will see if we can find it. We'll see if we can find it at the affordable price, like you just mentioned. If we can, it's a win-win for everybody. So everybody gets to kind of have a say in what we buy. Sometimes that's not the case. Sometimes we can't find it for an affordable price and or we know that it's just not something that's going to sell across our customer base. But most of the time we have some good finds from our customers. So that's why I answered very quickly. Everybody has this, everybody, everybody. And while we're talking about your team, tell me about your employees and how many people work there and how you find them. Are they designers? I have just again. I think I've just been lucky. They have found the store is what I would say. We haven't had any sort of formal recruitment that's ever happened. When we created the store or when we developed the store rather three years ago, we started with a certain team and we've had a couple people roll off here and there. Just one of them, for example, went to get a grad degree and so we all got to celebrate her. But really our team has found the store. They're from all different backgrounds I mean, I mentioned the transplant word earlier. We kind of all found our way to Topson, so we're from all over the country, which is really nice, some of which is a military families, which again, for our community is so important. That's why we offer our military discount, because we so appreciate all the sacrifices that that military makes. And we're all ages too, which is really fun. We had talked about how we have different styles, but we're all different ages and so it's just, I would say the team is the heartbeat of the home. Really, without them, the coastal home would be what coastal home is? From just everyday customers walking in and then greeting them to the items that we sourced, like we had just talked about. I think about that team and again, the three years we've been together and it's that team. They've been the heartbeat for sure, and we have this motto. I'm going to talk about it, if you don't mind, for just a minute. I would love for you to talk about this motto because it makes me think of it when I talk about the team. So the store motto is grace, love and gratitude, and so you'll see that a lot, too if you follow us on social media. We'll do hashtags, but what it means is first you have to have grace, and when you think about grace, most people think it's polite, you're pleasant, you have a certain image in your mind, but there's also a divinity behind it, a forgiveness. The next word is love, meaning you love everybody that comes through the door. There's a no judgment zone. That comes with the store. I love that With the grace and the love you have to be able to give grace to people and you have to be able to give grace to yourself. The same with love you have to be able to love yourself before you can love others. And so, just speaking of those two words, first, it's very important that, no matter what kind of day you're having as a team member, or what kind of day that you don't know what kind of day the people are coming through the door having, but if you face it with grace and love, it's going to make the day much easier. And then the last word is gratitude, and that's just in everything we do. We do gratitude gifts. It's not saved for November, which I know is a gratitude month, but it's just really rooted in everything that we do. And being grateful is a choice. You have to have that attitude of gratitude and if you do then you'll find joy. But you've got to start with being grateful for something and then the joy comes. And so that motto of grace, love and gratitude to me the team embodies it wholeheartedly, which is why I said they're the heartbeat of the home. And I think about those last three years, I mean in that little cottage with all that character again, you just think about your own life. We've been through so much so in those walls of that store we have laughed, we have cried, we have held hands in prayer, you know, when hard diagnoses came or we've lost loved ones, we have celebrated marriages and new babies and just all kinds of milestones. So I'm just, you know, I'm so blessed to have the team. I could go on and on.

Speaker 1 17:58

That's wonderful, I'll stop there.

Personal Motto and History

Speaker 3 18:00

Grace, love and gratitude. I love it. And speaking of mottos, you also have a personal motto. Let's talk about that. I do. Obviously, mottos are pretty important to me, but I think they are tenets to every day, and so, for myself, one that I've lived with always is believe, love and inspire. Believe is important to me because I believe that's. I believe that's where the impossible becomes possible. So with anything that you do, you have to believe in it first. You don't believe it's gonna happen, it's not gonna happen, right? It's that whole self-fulfilling prophecy thing. So if you start with believing, that's the first step Then love comes into play, because you have to love something in order to do it well. So you have to put passion into it by love. But by putting passion into it, you also have to have compassion, right, so you can believe anything. But if you go about it with passion and you're ugly about it or you treat people unfairly, that's not gonna end well. So you have to believe. And then you have to love bringing passion and being compassionate, and then maybe somewhere along the way, if you do those two things, you will find inspiration or inspire somebody. And so for me, that's my personal motto. If you come in the store and you see the back office door open. You're gonna see it on the wall and metal letters with all of our thank you cards from people that we've sponsored over the years, kind of tucked within the words. But it's just what keeps us driving, Believe, love, inspire Just a way of life for me. Let's talk about your personal history a little bit. I would love to hear where you're from and just about how you grew up and how you landed here. Sure, well, you know I'm not from Topsul. I said I was a transplants.

Speaker 2 19:47

So I originally grew up we all are, that's right.

Speaker 3 19:50

I originally grew up in South Texas I'm actually from Born and Raised in San Antonio and then I moved out west to California. After my undergrad, met my husband who was from Baltimore. Because he's from Baltimore, we moved back east very quickly after we got married in California and then we landed in Pennsylvania for 15 years before moving to Topsul, finding Topsul at our home. So we landed here only because it started for us as a vacation destination Not four years ago, excuse me, maybe seven years ago. We was the first time we'd ever landed on the North Carolina coast and we landed in Topsul Never been to North Carolina before and we showed up in Topsul and I'll never forget the moment. We were sitting on the beach just thinking, ok, this is where we need, this is where home's going to be yeah, and then of course, those wheels start turning in my head about how the planner and me just start saying how are we going to make this happen?

Speaker 2 20:41

And then fast forward.

Speaker 3 20:42

Here we are. So we've lived here for four years but I feel like I've kind of been on this whirlwind tour across the United States. But that's a little bit about how I got to Topsul. As far as my family, I have been married for 20 years. I have two teenagers 15 and 17, that are both in Pender County schools, and I'm super proud of. I have one brother who lives overseas and because of marriage I inherited another brother and two lovely sisters. So I just feel like we've got a really great family. That's a wonderful system, wonderful. What do you like to do outside of running the coastal home store? Oh gosh, I'm a busy body. So there's lots. Aside from just doing all the things with the store and always redecorating my own home, I do love to volunteer. So all my life I've been volunteering in some way, and I would say professionally. I volunteered at the regional, state and national level. I've sat on boards 501C3s, 501c6s, and then when we relocated here to the area four years ago, I kind of pivoted in my volunteering and kind of hung up the hat, if you will, on the professional side, and tapped into the sea turtle hospital. So that's something I do on this side.

Speaker 2 21:55

Of course.

Jill’s Volunteering Efforts - Sea Turtle Patrol

Speaker 3 21:55

Yeah, I volunteer one day a week, made it August and walked the beaches as a member of the Topsul Island Sea Turtle Patrol and that again brings so much joy and it's inspirational itself because I get to look at that sunrise every day and walk the beaches and that island is incredible.

Speaker 2 22:11

It's different every single morning.

Speaker 3 22:13

But yeah, I know we actually did an interview with the sea turtle hospital, and I work with someone who also walks a mile on that beach. One morning each week and she comes to work and she sends us pictures of the sunrise that she took that morning and she didn't find turtle tracks, though, which is really sad. Any turtle tracks for you? Not this year. Now we had a couple false crawls, so no nests. I should say, yes, we found tracks, that's the false crawl, but no nests this year, not for me. Lots of nests down the island, just not for me this year, but that's OK. Again, I feel very lucky to be able to be on the patrol. Are you going to continue with that Absolutely as long as they'll have me? Yes, I love it. When I was talking to you in the pre-interview, you talked to me a little bit about when we were going through COVID, how you observed the community handling COVID.

Speaker 2 23:02

Can you just sort of retail that?

Memorable Customer Experiences

Speaker 3 23:04

Yeah, again, I feel like we are very blessed in this community because we, in your tier question, we handled COVID very differently than a lot of communities did across the country. What I noticed is the community coming together. For me, it just made me so proud to be a, you know, live in Hampstead, live in the Topsail area, live in Pinder County, but so I just wanted to watch people come together. I watched people want to give, I watched them want to celebrate milestones. You know, if people would come in and maybe someone would be struggling, or maybe they knew that there was a wedding that got canceled and you know, got postponed, or the stories go on and on and on, but to come in and find a little something that would either, you know, make that person smile for that day that maybe had to, you know, bought the wedding dress and didn't have the wedding and didn't want to wait a year, or lost money on the deposit I mean you again. I just I'm thinking about the wedding scenarios. There were so many. But they might come in and find that special gift, you know, as a community member, coming in and then sharing that forward. It's just an. It was an incredible part. To be part of. That story is really incredible. Where I think about it, that time, in COVID too, so many people were in their homes because they couldn't gather, and so they were redoing their homes, freshening up the space or what have you, and so they come in and they might find that you know that one piece that just set everything off and then it became, you know, a huge project for them. And then we get to see the pictures on the backside. So you might have bought a light, for example, that you just loved, this pendant light. Then you put the light up and now you need Walmart to go with it and you need all that. So to see it all come together like that for somebody is just it's inspiring and yeah, just I mean I would just say the way the community wrapped around us and supported us all these years and then to see, like I said, how it kind of transferred into their homes and into their lives was really cool. Right To be a part of that. And can you tell me about any success stories or memorable customer experiences?

Speaker 2 24:49

that you've had, that were that touched you in any kind of way.

Speaker 3 24:53

I mean there are so many people that come in and out of the store that feel like family. You know it's like I told you before. The team is just so great when people walk through the store or walk through the doors and we know that they're a loyal customer. We watch their kids grow. You know they might have had a baby in the last three years and now the toddler's walking in the store and so there's a lot of those stories that are just really heartfelt for all of us. But you know, I mentioned the weddings Like that's one that that were. There was a lot of that that happened right around COVID where they were postponed or they lost money and not everybody waited and had to do these things. So I think about one story in particular where the gal came in and wanted to get hostess gifts for the wedding that was kind of going to happen in her backyard all of a sudden, you know just, you had to punt, you had to pivot and you had to figure it out. And she came in and she bought. This is right around Christmas time and she bought hostess gifts for all the people that had helped her in that pivotal moment. And so for me that's really special, because you're choosing our store to give a gift to somebody that's gonna be with them in a memorable way and a practical way. It was a charcuterie board shaped like a Christmas tree and marble. You know so you know they're gonna use it season over. Season over season and it came from our store and every time they see it they're gonna think of that moment. And so those are. I'd say that's one most recently become the third year anniversary. I'd mentioned someone came in we'd gotten new stock and she found this little coffee cup that just said strong and courageous, simple coffee cup, simple couple of words. And she was just so tickled to get it cause she was telling us a story about how her friend had just beat cancer and she was buying that coffee mug, strong and courageous, for her friend. So it's those little moments. They're kind of all peppered throughout our three years, but that just validates everything that we do. You know, we pick up a coffee cup and you think it might serve one purpose and it ends up serving a completely different one and it's special.

Speaker 1 26:47

And so that's what we do, and so that's what we do. Let's talk about your seasonal style boxes. I think this is such a great concept for what?

Seasonal Style Boxes

Speaker 3 26:56

for your store, and can you just tell the listeners about your style boxes? I'd love to. This was actually a new offering that we introduced in 2023. And to your earlier question, was an idea that came from a customer. So see, everybody gets to contribute. Oh okay, as I had mentioned to you, many folks are, many folks are local, but many folks are not. And so we had a customer come in. She's from the West Coast. She lives here kind of half the year by coastal, I think she calls herself, which is such a cool word. I want to look at the coastal. But she was talking to us about how she loves our products but she misses a lot. She follows us on social but we don't post everything. And so she said, gosh, it would just be great to get like a little drop every once in a while. So that's where the kind of the light bulb moment was. We all know about subscription boxes. This isn't a new concept. We just thought, well, that would be kind of a fun thing to do for our customers that live, I think the clothing style boxes, I guess. But yeah, I like this is a, really, so it's that same concept, it's just with home goods, and we knew we couldn't do it every month. It would be too much of an endeavor. But we thought, what if we did it for the season? So once a quarter, and so you have one for fall, you have one for winter, you have one for spring and you have one for summer. So it's four times a year. It includes always a variety of different products for your home. It's usually about $100 worth of retail in the box, and then you get a discount, obviously for subscribing. You've got three different ways you can purchase. You can purchase one month, two months or four months, which would be a full year of seasons. And if you do purchase online, you can give us little notes. We've had people order them as birthday gifts and so then we'll just note a tuck a little note in there that says happy birthday, jill Nice, and so we can have a little hand-personal note in there. So you can use them for all type. You can use them for yourself, gift yourself, as this bicoastal customer did. She ordered them for herself, or you can give them as a birthday gift and all kinds of stuff.

Speaker 1 28:45

I do want them for myself.

Speaker 3 28:47

All kinds of fun stuff. And I will say every box, like I said, it has a little collection of products that are curated especially for that season. We always will drop them drop the seasonal box towards the end of the second month of the quarter. So, for example, in the fall box we dropped it at the end of August. So the intention there is or it's intentional the way we deliver it, because we want it to inspire you to get ready for fall. So the same will happen in winter. We'll drop the boxes at the end of November, right when we're wrapping up Thanksgiving, because we're gonna inspire you to get ready for the winter ahead. So that's how all the items that we would find in the box. Sure, so every box will always have a candle and every box will always have a shell. Candles are really important to us. You mentioned the Seasult one. That's a store favorite. You can get it year round. But scents are really important. You think about your home. It's not just the colors that you see, the textures that you feel, but it's the scents right of your home are really important. So that's why every box will always have a scent and it always has a shell, because that's just our special touch to it. But to your question, what you can find is I'll give you some examples. In our summer box this year that was our first release we had one of our store favorites, which is a sand cloud towel. These beach towels where they're supposed to be beach towels but they repel sand really well. But they're not just beach towels. They can be as strong. You can wrap around yourself after the beach. They can be a blanket If you're cold. Sometimes we get a little chill on the beach, so you can use it as a blanket. Or if you're hiking, it's really great because then you can throw it on top of a picnic table as a tablecloth too, or just to kind of make a picnic. So it's got lots of uses. But we had a sand cloud towel in there. We had a candle, an outdoor candle, so Trinilla helped repel those mosquitoes that we get here on the pesky coast of Carolina. We had a coastal bar of soap and a little bamboo dish to match, so on and so forth. So that was a summer box, and then in fall, our candle for fall was pecan pie.

Speaker 2 30:41

So it's a little. I like that. That smells so good. It's a sweeter scent.

Speaker 3 30:44

You have to like a sweet scent, but again kind of an honor where we live. It was a pecan pie candle. We had a little wool felt pumpkin, a little garland with an embellishment on the end that's specific to fall. So some got a squirrel, some got an acorn, some got a pumpkin. So just pieces like that. They're all decor items that you can put together. The fall box even had a beautiful embossed base with some Magnolia leaves, but the Magnolia leaves weren't green, they were that fall transitional color. So again, you'll get the box, you'll get all the items in it, you get the fun little shell and then you also get a card in the box that tells you how to style. So, just in the way I articulated to you, a sand cloud towel. It's not just a sand cloud towel, it's kind of that kind. So you can think of it and go, oh, I didn't think about using it that way. So we give you some ideas for how you can style it in your home too. Very helpful. Let's talk about the gift cards. I know I saw them in your store. So we can get the gift cards there. Yes, you can get them physical in store, you can get them online, online as well, and you can use them online as well, correct? So again, as I mentioned, there's folks all over the country. So if you have a friend in California knows that you love Coastal Home, they can buy a gift card online, email it to you and you can bring it in the store and use it, or you can just go online and use it yourself. It's instant so you can email the card and then they can turn right around that moment and go shopping.

Speaker 1 32:03

Exactly wonderful.

Gift Cards

Style Services

Speaker 3 32:04

And it's so fun. It's like you see it, with any other retail site, I'm sure, where you can personalize the gift card too, so you can do a wedding, you can do a friendship, you can do good luck. You know You've got little options so that when you send it electronically it'll kind of come up with that message. So the e-cards are fun and then, like I said, we always have the physical cards too. So if you just have something to celebrate, in a way, gift cards are a great idea, especially if you just don't know what the other person would like, or you just want them to have fun shopping in store, we can help them, that's for sure. Okay, and let's talk about your styling services. Yeah, so again, this was another item that came forward. We didn't really start promoting it until this year, although we had done it in year two. That was kind of an expansion we did in year two, but this can be anything our customers want it to be. So even if you go to the website and you look at the styling service, you're not gonna see pricing online, because it is special to whatever the customer needs. It just requires an email and then I get to work with you and kind of find out what you need. But some examples are we had somebody that had relocated from the Northeast which I could relate to. And she had a lot of darker furniture, but in a coastal home, and so it was just. She was kind of stuck and like got my old furniture in my new home and I don't know how to meld the two. And so we were able to just kind of help her, take away all the things and then put it back together in a way that you can merge the old and the new. It doesn't all have to be new and it doesn't all have to be whale tails and seashells, it can be whatever style you want, but we just gotta make it work together.

Speaker 2 33:31

Make it flow.

Speaker 3 33:32

So that was one example. I had another person reach out who had just been through a separation and she got the house but she wanted it to look different. And she's in the same house, same stuff. And so she decided she was gonna repaint the entire first floor, which was great, like you take that on, you put the colors. But then, before everything went back up on the walls, she called us in and said I just need help. So in that case there wasn't any purchasing necessarily, it was just a service. We went in there and just kind of rearranged things, kind of laid it all out to make sure it was good with where we wanted it, and she put it on the walls, went to the hardware store, brought a few new plants to kind of spruce up the place. And then it just looked different, so same house same stuff just in a different new perspective. So a style service can be anything. I'm even thinking about another customer who brought a table to us and, as you mentioned, our store's very small. It's got four rooms in it but it's limited real estate. So while we have access to dining tables and bedroom sets and things of that nature, we don't have space in the store for it. So she came to us with a picture of a dining table and said from a large brand, I should say. And she said I want this table but I don't know where to get it. And so we were able to find it, we were able to source it, we were able to get it delivered to her, and everybody's happy right, so it never even comes to the store. And again, we can't always do that. It depends on what you find it with us. But that's why I said it's just easier to shoot us an email, let us know what you need. And sometimes we don't find it. I mean that's and that's okay. We're okay with you saying no, thank you, or we'll tell you we couldn't find it. So that's the beauty of it. It just allows us to collaborate with our customers and for us it's fun too, because we're shopping for you. It's like being your personal shopper. Did that just happen? Sort of organically, it did. Yeah, a customer walked in, the first one I remember I'll never forget it because I was like well, we've never done this before, but why? not Like, we'll give it a word If you could be patient with us, we can give this a whirl. And similar thing to the story I just told. She wanted an entire bedroom set and couldn't find it locally. So I said, well, send me all the pictures and let me see if I can source it through my vendors. And I found it, found it on the East Coast, was able to ship it to her and to me. That way I remember that one so fondly, because her mother fell in love with the bed and had to have one too. So we got to order one twice, which was nice. Yeah, it was fun.

Speaker 2 35:39

We all celebrated. That's a great service.

Speaker 3 35:41

I love that service, thank you. Okay, then I have to get you to come fix my living room.

Speaker 1 35:46

Do you have any future plans, whether it's personal or with the?

Future Plans

Speaker 3 35:49

coastal home store that you wanna share with us. You know I think I've shared with you a couple times. I'm a bit of a dreamer, so I would love to be able to expand. We're at year three. We've expanded our services through the style services that we just spoke about. We upgraded our point of sale system in year two to offer the online gift cards, because that wasn't something we had started with, and then, most recently, we've done the seasonal boxes. But we're very limited in our real estate in the store. So while I have access to the things, they're not in the store for you to touch and feel and see, which for me as a shopper is really important. So I'd say, if I had to, you know the dream board in my head for me and be about expanding, you know, but continuing to serve the people of hamsted, that's really important to me. It's really important to me there's, I mean, our community is growing leaps and bounds. We all know it, right, we all pay the taxes and we all see the traffic on the yeah, but there's not a lot of commercial offerings in hamsted, you know. So to move right now I don't feel like it's the right fit for me. It's important for the Community we serve and the customers that we serve that we kind of stay where we're at in this local in the heartbeat, if you will have hamsted. So I mean, had you considered like surf city or would you go down towards Wilmington?

Speaker 1 36:59

we have.

Speaker 3 36:59

Yeah, I mean, I'm always got something rolling around in my head but and so I've considered it, but it just for it. You know, hamsted where we started, hamsted is where we want to be, and so I'm just gonna wait for that moment where preparation meets opportunity and maybe no doubt it's gonna come to you maybe but that's the dream board, you know. I think if we could expand and we could continue to share with the community in that way, that's I really want to be in hamsted, wonderful. I love that, thank you. So at the end of each episode I like to do something just called final thoughts and I just want to ask if there's one thing, just one thing, that you want the listeners to know about you Jill or coastal home store. So this question is a great question and really make makes me think. I don't know if you've ever heard or read that book called the one thing by Gary Keller. Have you heard of it? No, so it's a New York Times bestseller. You'll see it at the airport next time you travel and you're the next she's talking about. It's an incredible book because it talks about achieving extraordinary results by, like, cutting out all the clutter in your life and getting rid of all the stress. If you do the one thing and now you're looking like what's the one thing?

Speaker 1 38:06

I am. What is it? What is that right to that?

Final Thoughts

Speaker 3 38:09

success. So that's like. That's the beauty of that book. It doesn't tell you the answer. You have to figure that out for yourself. That one thing and I don't have the key to success to share with you, but I do know the key to failure, and that's trying to please everybody. And so I would say to you, for me and for the store, the one thing is where we started our conversation, and it's the purpose, like for why we're here, so we can continue to focus, all with all the noise and all the stress, we can continue to focus on what pushed us to open, what has caused us to be here for three years, you know, bringing all those curated items, that home, those home goods, that home decor, the unique gifts, maintaining it in that coastal, all the textures and everything that makes our store unique. If we can continue to stay focused on that and stay true to ourselves, then I think tomorrow and next week, next year, I hope that we're still in business, maybe doing more to serve the community of hamsted, but for me that's that's the most important. That's my one thing. Thank you for that. Like I'm going to go get the book, but I feel like that's what I needed to hear today.

Speaker 2 39:10

Thank you. Let's talk about the contact and location information for our listeners, so they know where to find you and how to reach you.

Speaker 3 39:19

Do you want to do that? You want to take that away? Sure, so we are located in the heart of Hampstead, as I just mentioned, right off Highway 17, in the Cedar on the Green shopping center. So if you're familiar with the area and you do geography, like I do, we don't do street signs. That's right. You're going to see the loz foods and right across the street is Cedar on the Green.

Speaker 2 39:38

We are the Little Green.

Contact and Location Information

Speaker 3 39:39

College cottage in that little section. So, while I could tell you it's 1-7007, look for the Little Green Cottage in Cedar on the Green. And then we're also on Facebook and Instagram. We have a large social media presence and so we do post a lot about what's new in the store or events that are going on. We'd love for people to go out there and share their feedback with us as well. Okay, email is coastalhomesstore at gmailcom, so all questions can be sent there, or you can give us a call at 910-821-1390, or you can visit our website at coastalhomesstorecom. And, as you had mentioned, you can get gift cards online. You can source online. We even have purchase online, pick up and store options, so that makes it nice and convenient for busy people. I didn't know that. Yes, so you can purchase online, pick and store, and not only is that great and convenient if you work a full-time job, but it also allows you to snag your favorites so wonderful.

Speaker 2 40:34

That's nice, all right.

Speaker 1 40:36

Well, thank you, listeners, for joining us today. Find and follow Coastal Home Store and look for Jill's Sweet Little Cottage. It's right there on Highway 17 in Hampstead. And thank you again, jill, for sitting with me today and for sharing your joy in your business.

Speaker 3 40:48

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 40:51

Hey, thank you for joining me today on Topsoil Insider. If you liked today's episode, please hit the follow or subscribe button so that you can get the Topsoil Insider podcast delivered automatically to whichever podcast platform that you're listening on. And if you're a business owner and you wish to set up a pre-interview or you want to advertise, please email me at TopsoilInsider at gmailcom. Please also find and like the Topsoil Insider Facebook page. I provide links to the new podcast there each week, as well as providing photos of the businesses that I'm highlighting, along with any of their upcoming events. So, hey, let's do this again next week. I'll see you around Topsoil.