Shop Talk

Jige (pronounced Gigi) Jenkins says. “I have people come in all the time and say, ‘I have to go to a wedding and don’t know what to wear. Just dress me.’ Or they have senior pictures, or they’re going on a date or job interview.”

Often, Jenkins urges customers to venture beyond their comfort zones. “I say, ‘Just try this on. I promise you it doesn’t look like much on the hanger, but I think it’ll look really cute on you.’” And she loves vicariously experiencing the joy and self-confidence of her customers when they see themselves in a new and flattering light.

Although Jenkins never worked in retail before opening Two J’s in November

2019, she had plenty of first-hand experience as a shopper. “I have always been a huge shopper! I was always looking online at social media, following boutiques like the one I have now, always buying things from them.”

Jenkins shares the shopping bug with one of her three step-daughters, Jaycee. One day, they were browsing online, pointing out cute outfits, while having lunch with Jige’s husband and Jaycee’s dad, Trym.

Jaycee, then 18, looked at Jige and said, “I think you should do this!” Jige Jenkins recalls. “I said, ‘I would love to.’

“My husband said, ‘Are you serious? Then what are you waiting on?’ And I

PHOTOS BY DON JAMES/ATM

said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ And he said, ‘Sure, why not if this is what you want to do?’”

Jenkins had worked with her husband at his used-car business since they married about 14 years earlier. She had never been self-employed.

“If we had not had that conversation at lunch, if my step-daughter had not said, ‘Ji, I think you should do this,’ I wouldn’t have even thought of it,” Jenkins says. But one week later, she had obtained a small loan and a business license, rented a building and started applying to attend markets. And fewer than 90 days later, she opened the shop.

“I didn’t give myself much time to think about it. If I had, I might’ve realized how much work it was going to be!” Jenkins says. “But I jumped in with both feet. I was like, 'I’m going to do this!'”

A few months after opening, Jenkins would need all that enthusiasm and gumption to keep the business going through the pandemic.

“I was still at my store regular hours every day. We did post (on social media) all day long. We showed outfits. We tried on clothes for people. People would message us on social media and we literally would deliver it outside. Then we did appointment-only shopping so you’d have to make an appointment so you were the only person in the store,” Jenkins says. “We survived. It was crazy, but we survived.”

Social media has been key for Two J’s marketing since the beginning. Jenkins was a social media novice and relied on her children for help. “But, honestly, word of mouth has probably been better than anything,” she says. “I have people come in all the time and say, ‘A friend told me about this shop.’”

Jenkins says she wasn’t profit-driven when she opened the store. “I was really doing it for fun. I really thought it would be fun to dress other people.” So, when the store did start to make money, Jenkins reinvested in inventory and larger locations, moving from the first 600-square-foot shop into 1,200 square feet and, in January 2022, into the current location of 2,250 square feet. She also hired employees, including step-daughter Brynlee who works there full-time. Her husband and the other kids continue to pitch in, too, including step-daughter Kylee, who was helping on a recent Saturday.

“Never in a million years did I think it would be like this,” Jenkins says. “I am truly blessed.”

—LISA OCKER