A new boutique has arrived in town. Traveling Chic Boutique has joined the gallery of small boutiques, art studios and specialty restaurants that line Main Street. Advertising affordable brand names and promoting support of local charities, the budding franchise is hoping to make its mark on downtown Greenville and the greater Greenville community.
Emily Price is the manager of the Greenville Traveling Chic Boutique store, a mouthful Price often shortens to TCB in advertisements and social media. Price also teaches the Digital Communications course in Furman University’s Communication Studies department on Tuesdays and Thursdays. When she’s not at Furman, Price is in the store reminding new customers that Traveling Chic Boutique never carries the same item twice.
“New items arrive almost every week, so our inventory is constantly changing,” Price said. A few weeks ago, Price traveled to New York City to peruse fashion markets for the latest designer items to add to the TCB windows.
Traveling Chic Boutique boasts a store full of designer clothes, jewelry and vintage boots with individual items costing less than $100 each. Price said the main draw of the boutique is its ability to offer customers access to stylish designer clothing and accessories at affordable prices.
Price explained the extensive effort that went into creating the TCB space.
“We came into this space, and it looked totally different,” she said. “We built the dressing rooms ourselves.”
The Greenville location is the second brick and mortar store of the TCB franchise. Price’s best friend and former college roommate, Anna Grace, began the business with a gutted 1964 Airstream. Price said Grace was able to create a small boutique atmosphere inside the trailer by building a dressing room inside, giving the franchise its name. Once Grace had earned enough by hosting traveling trunk shows with the Airstream, she opened a shop in downtown Southern Pines, N.C.
Grace selected Greenville for the location of the second store due to Price’s willingness to join the franchise but also because of the lure of the downtown area. The revitalization effort that has taken place over the past decades has earned national recognition for downtown Greenville and made it into the ideal area in the Upstate for small businesses.
“I’ve grown up in Greenville, and I’ve seen how downtown has changed,” Price said. “It’s become what it is today because the mayor has done so much to foster small businesses.”
The franchise seeks to support the Greenville and Southern Pines communities by supporting local nonprofits with a monthly outreach event. When a customer hosts a
trunk show event through Traveling Chic Boutique, 15 percent of the proceeds go to a charity of the hostess’ choice.
To create a long-lasting relationship with the Greenville community, efforts by Traveling Chic Boutique to support local charities are displayed inside the store.
The business is paperless; an iPhone is used to process purchases and transactions and reusable tote bags are provided rather than plastic bags. When customers purchase one of these tote bags, the money goes into a jar to be donated to its designated organization. Among these are Safe Harbor, the Ronald McDonald House, and the Greenville Humane Society.
Traveling Chic Boutique takes pride in giving back to the community, using the tagline, “Who says you can’t be stylish and humanitarian at the same time?”