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Date: 2/15/2021
EAST LONGMEADOW – Owner Justice Pellegrino of Bohdii Boutique at 34 Center Square, is opening a second location in south Boston at 398 West Broadway. She is slating for a mid-spring opening in April.
Pellegrino told Reminder Publishing she is excited about the Boston opening and believes it will do great. Most of the customers they ship to are from Boston, which was one of the factors for her to choose a location for a second place. In addition, she already has a steady following before the store officially opens.
“This is a perfect location. It’s next to three really big restaurants. It has a whole brick wall and huge window displays,” said Pellegrino. “I wasn’t pushing to open a second location, but I was just looking here and there whenever I had down time. One day I had some free time and looked at some spaces. I reached out to a realtor, went down to south Boston, looked at a few spots and I saw one that I fell in love with. As soon as I saw the space, I knew this was it and went for it.”
Bohdii Boutique sells clothing, shoes, jewelry and accessories. Pellegrino describes the store as “bohemian chic allure” and their average customer is a range of 20 to 50-year-old women.
“When I first opened the store, I really wanted the idea of a mother, daughter and grandmother to be able to come in and buy something, which happens every day,” she said. “We have something for everybody and I always tell people that whenever they come in. I wanted to make sure that everybody could find something because we’re catering to a wide range of people.”
Pellegrino said it was a dream of hers to own a small business – specifically a women’s clothing boutique. In college, she did an internship with FACES in Northampton where she learned how to work with different vendors. This experience, Pellegrino said, laid the foundation for what she’s doing now.
The Bohdii Boutique in East Longmeadow opened on Nov. 16, 2019. Pellegrino said it was a long process, but she learned a lot along the way.
“We renovated the space completely. When we came in, it was just a shell and was empty for two years,” Pellegrino replied. “I learned about design, business certificates and permitting. There’s definitely a lot more that goes into it than what meets the eye. I put everything that I have into this store. I like the idea of coming in and having to build it my way even though it may not be ideal with cost, but it’s exactly what I want.”
Pellegrino shared, “The store was running great before COVID.” She hosted a Galentine’s Day event last year in February with local businesses Frankie Bakes in Wilbraham and Oils with B, an East Longmeadow business. Pellegrino was also planning on being at college campuses as a vendor and at other places.
Then the shop was closed for three months.
During that time Pellegrino launched her website, bohdiiboutique.com which became wildly successful offering in-store pickup, shipping and curbside pickup on Saturdays. Though it wasn’t her ideal situation, Pellegrino said creating the website was mainly to stay afloat and pay the bills. Since the shop reopened in June, they’re now operating at a lower capacity of 25 percent.
“Though the website is doing well, it has slowed down since the store reopened,” Pellegrino said. “A lot of our customers are local and will just come in, but the website is still progressing so that’s great because I worked really hard on it.”
In the meantime, Pellegrino said she is focusing the first half of this year on getting the second store open. She shared that she feels Bohdii Boutique is “good quality” and “fun fashion.”
“One of my hopes after the Boston store opening is that I can go out and have a wider range of people to know about us,” Pellegrino stated. “My main priority right now is to grow my website, open the Boston store making it as best as possible and then go from there.”
The Bohdii Boutique in East Longmeadow is open Monday through Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. and on Sundays from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. For online shopping, go to bohdiiboutique.com and for any questions call at 224-1672.