Drive-up service makes for unique boutique

Divine Treasures sets up shop in Brandon

 

A new retail and online business in Brandon offers a unique feature that most boutiques don’t have: drive-up service.

Rather than boarding up the former coffee shop’s window, the patriarch of Divine Treasures Boutique, Jeff Hamer, said they’re viewing the window as another avenue to providing good customer service. 

“With our website, ladies can shop online, purchase stuff, and if they would like, especially in the wintertime if it’s cold and they have the kids with them, they can let us know they want to pick it up,” Hamer said. “We’ll have it packaged up and will hand it to them through the window.”

The family-owned and operated boutique recently opened at 204 W. Holly Blvd., which has also served as a yoga studio.

Hamer and his wife, Darla, run Divine Treasures with their daughter and son-in-law, Hope and Dusty Stultz, son, Alex Hamer, and daughter, Ashley Hamer. Rylie Nettestad is a part-time employee.

“It’s been steady, lots of new people walking in, people we know,” said Hope Stultz, a special education assistant with the Brandon Valley School District.

While the boutique is new to Brandon, Divine Treasures was established in Florida as a secondhand store. The Hamers, who moved to Brandon last year, purchased the business and transitioned into boutique clothing. 

“We actually started getting in boutique clothes in Florida, and that kind of picked up, and we were sending stuff back to South Dakota and other states, so we just decided to stay with that,” Darla Hamer added.

The boutique business intrigued Stultz for personal reasons.

“I needed to find affordable clothes for myself and things that fit me how I like them to fit,” she said. “Things that weren’t tight-fitting, things that moms on the go can just throw on and be out the door.”

Finding a location was an easy decision for the family, who moved to Brandon in the early 1990s. 

“It stuck like glue on us when we walked through the door. It was set up right for this,” Hamer said, noting the wall of mirrors, a souvenir from the shop’s yoga days.

“It’s rustic, antiquey, cozy,” he said – just the feel they wanted. 

Divine Treasures even provides coffee and cookies for guests.

“We will be adding a pub table and chairs. We’ve had a couple of ladies asking for that,” Hamer added. “We want you to come and spend some time, have a cup of coffee or just to chit chat.”

He constructed the checkout counter and clothing display racks, which his wife describes as having “a beachy feel.”

In addition to women’s clothing, Divine Treasures has a limited section of Simple Man items for guys, jewelry, accessories, along with products from two new vendors: Wildflower Décor, which makes hand-crafted home décor, and Simply Pure Scrubs and Soaps, made from homegrown herbs and flowers.

Opening just in time for the holidays, Stultz said, will give shoppers another local source for gifts. 

The boutique will also participate in Brandon’s Shop Small Saturday on Nov. 25. 

“We just want to have a variety,” Darla Hamer said. “I think the more variety that shoppers have and the more business we can draw to Brandon helps everybody, not just us.”

A grand opening will be held Saturday.