Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Cooke.
Hi Jessica, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
We’re heading into what will be our 10th year in business in 2026, hard to believe! We started out with a direct selling boutique brand for 4 years before opening our own boutique. We’ve done it all; worked out of our house selling online only, had a camper turned mobile boutique for events, then a converted city transit bus! We moved and converted our garage into a full warehouse when we went back to online only selling. That led us to a 400 sq ft downtown storefront and now 2,500 sq ft boutique plus we opened a General Store just down the block in September! We were in the group that pioneered online selling when Facebook Live first launched into a major selling platform. Our boys, age 10 and 13 have never known a life where mom wasn’t slinging clothing 24/7! My husband came on full time with me in 2020 so it’s truly a family affair! We have an incredible team of 12 between our two storefronts and we couldn’t do it without them!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I don’t think a smooth road in entrepreneurship exists, it sure hasn’t for us. We’ve tried it all and never given up, pivot after pivot we’ve pushed through. Live selling used to be our bread and butter but it was exhausting in every sense. In those days. It was nothing to have hundreds of viewers on a Facebook Live sale and it was a lot to keep up with, especially with a baby and toddler at home. We were searching for a way to pivot, so events seemed like the way to go. We decided the best way to do it and stand out was to build our first mobile boutique from an old camper. It was great and caught a lot of attention, but it had it’s own set of challenges and exhaustion every single weekend with long hours traveling and dragging our kids through it all. That’s when we decided to open our own boutique to take things into our own hands. That was early 2020 and we had no clue Covid was just around the corner. Thankfully for us, quarantine helped online sales to boom and got us off to a strong start. In 2022 a small store front in downtown York came available. At that time, a store front really wasn’t on our radar but about 20 customers sent us screenshots of the post about the building being available within an hour and we figured, what the heck, lets take a look! As soon as we walked in that sweet little 400 sq ft space, we knew we had to give it a try! Within 6 months we were desperately searching for a bigger space and by month 10, we moved into 2500 sq ft! It has been a whirlwind 3 years downtown and we are so thankful for every bit of it.
As you know, we’re big fans of The Blush Blossom Boutique. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We are a women’s boutique in Historic Downtown York. We carry women’s clothing size S-3XL and Judy Blue jeans in size 0-24W. Plus size clothing is not the norm for the boutique industry and we’ve always been committed to having something for every woman. We are dedicated to serving over selling. Our mission is to help every woman who walks in our door to leave feeling better in her own skin than when she walked in. We aim to give every woman top notch service and make her experience memorable like the days of old. Customer service is a lost art that we are determined to bring back. I am so proud of our team and the community we’ve built within our doors. The empowerment within our walls is truly something to behold. Our new general store, Olde Town Mercantile fits right into our mission of bringing back the old small town feeling by offering yesterdays favorites with a new twist. Our hope is that between our two stores and our neighboring businesses in downtown, we can serve the needs of our community without folks having to leave our small town to get what they need.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
Walking thru downtown York is like stepping back in time. The historic buildings are preserved and beautiful on our tree lined street. It’s the perfect place to slow down for an afternoon while the world around us races by. The revitalization of our downtown is in full swing and we can’t wait to see where it takes our businesses!
The road construction of Liberty St and the upcoming construction of Congress St are big challenges. Though the water main repairs are necessary, it causes a lot of disruption to our normal traffic.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.shopblushblossom.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shopblushblossom
