A selection of fashionable clothing in bright summer colors is available downtown in a new women’s clothing shop.
Blaire Cooke, 28, opened the Turquoise Boutique on May 4 at 408 N. Herritage St. in The Total Experience Salon & Spa building.
Cooke started the business by posting casual wear and prices on Facebook, then shipping orders to customers. Her customer base grew from a network of friends by word of mouth. Today, her Facebook site gets about 1,000 hits a day.
The Kinston native now shares a space next to the salon where her stepmother Alison Merritt works, and formerly owned with Cooke’s father, Bobby Merritt.
Cooke, the daughter of Susan Colomaio, who owns Olivia’s at Frenchman’s Creek, followed in her parent’s footsteps with the desire to own a business.
“This is just something I’ve always wanted to do,” she said about owning a women’s clothing store.
Cooke said she has four closets full of clothes because when she buys a dress, “I’m only going to wear it a couple of times.”
She said she wanted to offer trendy clothing at affordable prices so customers could get more items for their money.
“Everything is under $100,” Cooke said, adding there is a seven-day exchange policy, as well a dressing room to try before buying.
The store offers dresses, blouses and pants in trendy bright solids, including turquoise — Cooke’s favorite color — and chevron patterns. There is something for all ages.
She also carries Brushfire Designs T-shirts, which feature a colorful cross and bible verse. Sizes are available from extra small to 3X. Accessories include bold jewelry, all under $25, and handbags.
“We get new arrivals each week,” Cooke said. In the fall, she plans to add designer jeans at a reasonable price.
Cooke, a licensed cosmetologist, graduated from Bethel Christian Academy in 2003 and Cape Fear Cosmetology School in 2005.
Turquoise Boutique is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. For information, call 919-750-1405.
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At 83 years old, Burnie Braxton has been in the wheel aligning business for 58 years and is still going strong.
Before being drafted into the U.S. Army, Bob Poovey, now deceased, told Braxton to come see him for a job when he got out of the military. And that’s just what Braxton did.
On June 15, 1955, he began changing tires and working on brakes at Kinston Wheel Aligning on U.S. 70.
“I learned how to align a car,” he said, “and anything that came up, I did.”
When Poovey passed away in 1961, Braxton and Floyd Casey took over the business. In 1967, Braxton bought the business out.
The spring before Hurricane Floyd hit, he moved the shop, now called Kinston Wheel Aligning Service, to its present location at 1427 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., across from Mallard Oil Company. That turned out to be a good decision.
“Had my dad been in the old location,” wrote his daughter, Sharon Stanley, in an email, “he would have lost everything, as that area was deeply damaged by flooding.”
Stanley has been keeping the books for the business for about 35 years, Braxton said.
Today, the business has five employees. Services include front-end work, brakes, CV axils and wheel aligning. The work has become more technical over the years, Braxton said. But the customers keep increasing.
“We’re honest,” he said is the reason, “and we do good work.” The work is guaranteed.
Braxton can’t do the muscle work anymore, but he runs for parts, provides customer service and oversees the business aspects. He said he has no intentions of retiring.
“I always enjoy working,” he said. “That’s my favorite — just working.”
Kinston Wheel Aligning Service is open from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. For information, call 252-523-5987.
Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.
Got a suggestion?
Do you have a new retail business or one that’s undergone a significant change? The Free Press would like to hear about it. Contact Margaret Fisher at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com.