March 28, 2024
Local News

Lemont boutique getting creative with business ideas

LEMONT – Kim and Amber Peters moved their business, Aurora Rose, A Unique Boutique, to downtown Lemont in November 2012 and say they have no plans of leaving.

The mother-daughter team have come up with some new ideas for their business, starting with a trunk show to be held every fourth Saturday.

“It was kind of something new that we were just trying to think of ways to get people down here to check us out,” Kim said.

Unlike some of the trunk shows at other businesses they saw, Aurora Rose will feature vendors that they already work with, she said.

“It’s a really nice opportunity for the neighborhood and for our customers to do a meet-and-greet with some of the people who make the amazing products that we sell,” she said.

The vendors will introduce some of their new products and close out some of their older ones, she said.

The first trunk show will feature MoJo ReCreations from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday. The first 10 people will receive swag bags.

Kim mentioned Butter Duck Farms and Burpalicous as some of the future vendors.

Amber said the store has already booked trunk show vendors through September.

“Once we started marketing the first one, we had other vendors stopping in the store, and they said, ‘How does this trunk show work? Can I get on that list?’” she said.

Kim said another planned activity is craft classes for children and adults.

She said the store had a lot of interest when it held craft classes with Mrs. Claus during Lemont’s holiday festival.

Children were still signing up the day of the event and continue to ask about Mrs. Claus when they visit the store.

Kim and Amber have tried to be active in the business community since they opened their store. For instance, Kim was responsible for inviting the hearse car show held last summer.

Kim wants these activities to inspire other downtown businesses.

“What we’re hoping is that by doing something that other businesses are seeing that may be interesting, maybe they’ll go, ‘Hmmm, I want a little bit of that,’” she said.

Kim said she likes having her store in Lemont but wants to see more businesses in the downtown.

“There’s lots of ideas that we have, but we have to have enough business to make it worthwhile,” she said.