Evoke.ie excellence award for Sarah’s little bit of Parisienne chic in Drogheda
TUCKED away in a little lane off West Street, is a little piece of Parisienne fashion, which has just received a top award from a national website!
SJ’s Paris Boutique, which opened in Stockwell Lane in late 2015, is the brainchild of Drogheda woman Sarah Quinn and last week, she welcomed Sybil Mulcahy from Evoke.ie to her shop to receive an excellence award.
“I was absolutely delighted to get the award, the only shop in Drogheda to get one, and I have to thank my loyal clients in Drogheda, Newry, Navan and Cavan for voting for me,” says Sarah, who hails from Sunnyside, but travels every day from her Cavan home to work in her shop.
“It was so unexpected, and it was lovely of Sybil to come to the shop herself last week to present me with the award.”
Sarah obviously likes a challenge, as she had her first baby Denis jnr (10 months) shortly after opening the shop and is now expecting her second in four months’ time!
“Yes, I don’t do things by halves,” she says with a laugh.
“it is so hard to make it in retail, and I am really lucky to have found a lovely small shop, with low overheads in the town.
“I put blood, sweat and tears into the business, and it’s exhausting, but so worth it when you get recognised like this.”
Sarah’s love of fashion started when she was working for Woolworth’s in London. She had travelled extensively after leaving Drogheda when she was 17 or 18, including living in Australia and Paris, and decided that rather than be a buyer for someone else, she would do it for herself.
“The plan has always been to come back to Ireland and do a Business Degree, as I wanted to eventually teach it,’ explains Sarah.
“But then I thought, you can’t teach it, until you have hands-on experience, so I decided to jump right in and open the shop too.”
So now Sarah has the shop and the degree from DkIT, and isn’t looking back.
“Even though I live in Cavan now with my husband Denis and son, I really wanted to give something back to Drogheda and open the shop here,’ she explains.
“My mum Marie and dad Pat both worked for the Mooreland and McCloskey’s bakery, and I was a Redcoat in Mosney, so I really respected the McCloskey family as employers.”
She does admit that, even though she has some amazing customers in the town, she does find it hard to get people to shop locally.
“Drogheda women love their trips to Dublin, which is great of course, but they sometimes forget how important it is to support local businesses and the people who own them,” explains Sarah.
“But then again, people come from all over the north east to come to me, so I suppose everyone loves to think they are getting something no one else they know will be wearing!”
She is right in the middle of communion, confirmation and wedding season, but she also has stock for nights out too.
“We stock all sorts of dresses,tops and jeans for all shapes and sizes,’ she explains, ‘and I really love helping customers out in choosing their outfit.“If you don’t see the size you wantin the shop or online, I can order it for you.”
Sarah still gets to travel to buy the stock for SJ’s Paris Boutique, but lots of her time is taken up with managing social media!
“We have the online shop now, but thousands of followers of Facebook too, so I have to take time to update that. With this award from Evoke, I get €2,000 worth of free advertising too, so hopefully more people will discover my little shop!”