Business Q&A: The Pretty Suite

A dream has finally been realized for Anne Bailey and Melanie Eggers.

After years of discussion, the two women opened on North Village Avenue last July. The gift shop, open six days a week, sells everything from jewelry to stationary. Instead of buying from one or two large suppliers, Bailey and Eggers like to buy from a large array of smaller vendors, improving the variety of the products they sell. Here, Bailey explains what it's been like to operate the store during its first year.  

How has the reception been from the community since you opened?

It’s been excellent. We have a lot of repeat customers and a lot of very loyal customers that have been coming in. Word of mouth has been traveling very fast and we’ve been very pleased with the results. 

What do you like about operating in Rockville Centre?

There’s so much to like here! The people have been fabulous. Everyone who comes into the store has been cheerful. It’s just been a wonderful place to have a business. It’s clean, neat, and (our) landlord has been great. We have no complaints. We've been very happy here. 

What are some of your most popular items?

We sell a lot of costume jewelry. That’s probably our number one item. (We also) sell a lot of scarves and pocketbooks. We sell a lot of cheese boards and platters. We have a large baby section in the back and, depending on the time of year, that can be a very popular section for us as well.     

What kind of stationary do you sell?

We have a full selection of cards. We also sell boxes of homemade gift cards.   

What makes The Pretty Suite unique?

We try very hard to be unique. Melanie and I go to all the gift shows. We try to use a large selection of vendors. We are very careful about what we buy and try and buy things that we haven’t seen anywhere else. That’s the one thing that people keep saying to us. They find the store very unique and different. We take that as a big compliment because we work very hard to keep it that way.