GRAY BARN BOUTIQUE

NEW IN THE WOO: GRAY BARN BOUTIQUE

IRENA KAÇI,

The Gray Barn Boutique just opened its brick and mortar doors at the end of summer. On August 27th, they had the soft opening of their Fitchburg store, and now business is booming. I caught up with Kateri Forte, one half of the dynamic duo (Ketari Forte and Alyssa Buono) behind Gray Barn, to chat a bit about the journey of a new parent turned business owner.

“I was actually a branch manager at a bank for many years before this. Then I got pregnant with my son,” Forte begins, “I’ve always been fairly petite, but pregnancy and postpartum changed my body in ways that altered my relationship to shopping for clothes.” Forte returned to work postpartum and worked for about a year and a half before deciding to scale back and explore some other options.

“I met Alyssa at a Lularoe group, and we really hit it off straight away. We are huge animal lovers and between us we have twelve pets, cats, dogs, and even a bird,” Forte smiles. Alyssa Buono had been a Head Start teacher for many years before leaving to focus on her family. “Alyssa and I had kids around the same time so it was easy to grow close.” The business has already survived numerous hurdles, including the Covid19 pandemic. “We were each other’s pod, Alyssa’s family and mine. Because we were doing Facebook live drops of our products, it was the only way we could work together as closely as we needed to,” Forte recalls.

Initially, the two bonded over many of the parenting milestones, as well as the aftermath of pregnancy. “We talked to so many women who hated shopping, and had started to hate shopping even more after childbirth,” Forte explains. It didn’t take long for the idea to take hold; the need for an alternative shopping experience came through loud and clear.

It was this shared experience that fueled the two entrepreneurs to part ways with Lularoe and develop their own business concept. “We just started talking about doing our own thing; we wanted to branch out and take the lead on something that had started to feel very personal for us both.”

“I have a gray barn behind my house and initially the idea was to turn the barn into a ‘by appointment only’ space for people to come shop. We actually launched our virtual boutique online right at the start of the pandemic, sometime in April 2020,” Fortes says, adding, “We launched our Facebook and Instagram platforms for sales.” Covid19 turned out to be a fortuitous disaster for the small business owners. The overwhelming success of their online store made the prospect of using Forte’s barn less manageable. “The space was simply too small. We looked into what was available to see if there was a space that we could afford, and that would feel good to us. And we were so lucky to find a great spot at the Airport Road Plaza in Fitchburg.”

When asked if she always knew she would be a business owner one day, Forte admits that it’s very tied to becoming a parent. “Flexibility is so important as a parent, and really it’s so difficult to find that without just creating it for yourself. ”

When reflecting on what they look for when they select items for their boutique, Forte emphasizes fit and texture. “We hear it (and love hearing it) so many times that our clothes are ‘super soft.’ That is absolutely intentional, and one of our most important categories when we select merchandise. We initially hoped to shop online, but quickly realized that we needed to feel the material in order to decide whether something was right for us. So we have done a lot of traveling; we have regularly gone to vendor expos in Atlanta, Texas, and Las Vegas. At this point we’ve developed some strong relationships with vendors and designers that we know we can trust. That’s been a huge help.”

Wanting to honor the original concept, Forte and Buono decided to keep the ‘Gray Barn’ moniker, and also –undoubtedly –its rustic and cozy spirit.

GRAY BARN BOUTIQUE 68 Airport Rd Unit 2, Fitchburg, MA 01420 thegraybarnboutique.com (978) 719-1296