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By DONALD MOTTERN | Staff Writer

COLUMBIANA – Residents of Columbiana and visitors to its Main Street will soon welcome a new store to the growing list of businesses with open doors and available merchandise in the coming week.

The Pink Sheep Boutique, a children’s clothing and gift store that has operated a successful online store for more than five years, is preparing to open for business at its new physical brick-and-mortar location following a remodel of the building’s interior.

For the boutique’s owner and operator, Holli Pierce, the opening of the business’s physical location is a major milestone and a harbinger of future success.

“This upcoming summer will be seven years that I have been (running the business),” Pierce said. “A lot of people think that I’m a completely new business—that I’m a new store just coming to Main Street, but I actually already have a well-established online business. I’m finally at the point where the online business can float my new venture in a storefront.”

Pierce lives just outside of Columbiana in Shelby, and grew up in the Shelby-Columbiana area—graduating from Shelby County High School.

“I had our first baby in 2015 and when she was getting close to turning two years old I just felt like I couldn’t find anything for her,” Pierce said. “I felt like there was nowhere to really shop that had everything that tickled my fancy. I couldn’t really find what I was looking for around here (in our area). So, I just started a store on a whim one night that was mainly (tailored for) my child—and to dress her.”

From there, Pierce’s small operation grew and became larger before having another child the next year after starting her business. She now has three children and has fully transformed her passion in dressing her own children into a marketable service she can roll out to others in the community.

“I love helping people dress their own kids,” Pierce said. “I love when people ask me for help in picking out an item—picking items out for pictures or a birthday or a gift. I just think it is fun.”

Going for a timeless style of children’s clothing that invokes traditional southern charms, she sources her inventory through Atlanta Market and AmericasMart, a wholesaler that proclaims itself as the world’s largest collection of wholesale gift, décor and apparel showrooms.

Pink Sheep Boutique’s new brick-and-mortar location stands at 103 South Main Street, the store between Sweet Tweets Bird Supply and the Farm Company.

“I leased the building at the end of last year—this past December,” Pierce said. “It has taken us a while to get it ready and to get it up to my standards and to fit my vibe.”

Pierce described how she has worked to incorporate bright whites and a pastel color scheme as they prepare to open for business in the coming weeks.

“We are at the very end of that process and what we are doing to get it ready,” Pierce said. “I think—if all continues to go as planned—we will be ready to open by the beginning of April. (The store) has new floors, new paint and cosmetics upgrades. I’ve made it match my aesthetic with the white and the light pink and pale blues and all of that.”

Pierce is also excited about incorporating her tastes and inputs toward the exterior of the storefront such as planting new flowers and maintaining planters outside the front door.

“I’m very excited and just chomping at the bit to get in there. I know so many people already and one of the things that I’m most excited about is getting to be a member of the Main Street Board and just doing things to better Main Street.”

Pierce voiced that once she gets the brick-and-mortar location up and running that it will serve as the ultimate success for her business, with no other intentions to grow or leave the community she has called home. While she has no intentions of opening secondary locations, she hopes to see her store inspire others and causes them to join her on Main Street.

“I really hope that other stores are soon to follow and come to the vacant buildings that are there—such as where the florist was and, on the corner, where the other boutique moved out of. I just really hope that once people see another new store come that others will follow.”

Once open, Pierce believes that she will be more than happy to stand and enjoy her business’s presence in Columbiana for as long as she can. At this time, she has no intentions to grow past her small-town.

“I like the small-town vibe and I think I am going to continue to be happy right where I am at,” Pierce said. “I don’t have any plans to go anywhere. I will stay here as long as Columbiana will have me.”