History and charm define many of the stops along the thoroughfare to downtown Fayetteville. Churches with unique architecture and ornate details. A theater whose old-school marquee calls out to passersby looking for entertainment. Restaurants with ties to the past and those that beckon visitors in search of updated dining experiences.
In the last few months, another storefront has joined its ranks.
Through the vision and work of Jen Britt, a local entrepreneur, the former foster agency on Morganton Road has transformed from thoroughly ordinary into a hard-to-miss destination. The bright awning is just a taste of what patrons can find inside the business, the place that aims to be a one-stop shop for visitors in pursuit of gifts, decor, and more — The Pink Petunia.
Six years into her venture as an entrepreneur, Jen has moved her once small, home-based business into the new space at 1325 Morganton Road, a few paces away from Haymount Truck Stop, rounding out a “full-circle” journey marked by nerves, hard work, and anticipation.
“This has not been an overnight process,” Jen said of the newest iteration of The Pink Petunia, which opened to the public April 24. “I’ve spent months now on this. So I am excited to finally see the fruits of my labor.”
Now, between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, young, old, and everyone in between can stop in to peruse the home decor; jewelry and accessories; home entertaining items; local, gourmet food items; or The Pink Petunia’s newest line — children’s clothing (for preemies to 4-year-olds) and accessories under the name “Little Petunias.”
The shop also now serves as Jen’s home base for the other aspects of her business — interior design and holiday home decorating services (including wreath and silk floral creations), monogramming, and custom art.
Each facet has its own space within the new storefront — Jen’s “dream come true” and the culmination of a quest marked by “a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get here.”
How The Pink Petunia bloomed
It was 2018 when Jen and her husband, Gary, decided they’d map out a different path, despite the straight, successful trek Jen had traveled to that point.
Once a communications major with the dream of being a news broadcaster, the Fayetteville native saw new doors open when a woman she’d nannied for in college suggested she pursue a job as a sales representative for a gift company. Within six months, she’d risen to the rank of national sales manager. Jen worked at four other companies after that, putting to use her ability to connect with customers and her creativity in developing products and stores across the country.
Jen, now 46, loved those jobs, she said. But personally, something was missing.
Gary and Jen wanted a child, but struggled with infertility. So in 2018, she explained, they began in vitro fertilization.
The process itself, including administering medications and undergoing procedures and attending appointments, forced a change in lifestyle for Jen. She could no longer travel as was required in her previous job, so she and her husband sought out another income option for Jen.
The couple invested in an industrial monogramming machine and embarked on opening their business, the original Pink Petunia.
Monogramming, along with the decorating and custom artwork services, started drawing customers.
“It was a big transition. It was a lot of unknown, of, ‘Is this gonna be successful?’ But I believe in hard work and I have a very serious work ethic,” Jen said. “And nothing is impossible to me.”
Creating other custom decor also became part of The Pink Petunia, which used the Britts’ living room as its showcase space.
Visitors filtered in and out of their home on weekdays for six years, and to open house events, which enticed shoppers from across the state three times a year throughout that span.
“It was really like entertaining friends as they came in to shop,” Jen said.
Jen and her mom, Rene Soffe King, visited customers’ homes to undertake interior design and decorating projects, as well, with Jen juggling the responsibilities of becoming a mom herself along the way.
“Now looking back, six years in,” said Jen, mom to now-4-year-old Walker, “it was the best decision I ever made.”
From dream to reality
“We walked in here that first day to look at the space and I knew she could see it and she had a vision for it,” Rene said. “And it has turned out [to be] everything we thought it would be.”
The space that once looked entirely uninspiring was anything but to Jen. That Morganton Road storefront, she believed, could be the perfect canvas.
The Pink Petunia “had overtaken my home,” Jen said. She had been told as much by close friends and family on several occasions, though she knew that well herself, too. But whether it was the right time to pursue opening a storefront remained a question for her last year.
That’s when she received unexpected news. Jen’s close friend and hairstylist at The Split End Salon and Boutique, Natalie Cain, told Jen about the vacancy next door to the storefront she owned. With a foster agency moving out, Natalie believed this could be the next home for the blossoming Pink Petunia.
Choosing to trust Natalie, Jen took a look.
“When I came in the space, I could close my eyes and visualize what I wanted to see,” Jen said.
Discussions and prayers with her family and supporters ensued. Then, alongside them, she took a leap of faith, believing “this was — from God above, this literally fell into my life — this was my time to do this.”
On Christmas Eve of last year, she signed a lease. Then she set about making her vision, her dream, reality.
Family in the store’s fabric
Jen doesn’t often slow down.
“It’s like a million things at once, and she just finds a way to make all of it happen,” said Kate Reames, a friend Jen has trusted both with aspects of her business and her life (as a babysitter for her daughter). “If she has to stay up until whatever hour to paint something, she’ll do it and then have it at your doorstep the next morning.”
Jen’s work ethic — perhaps learned from family, including her maternal grandfather, M.J. Soffe, who built the athletic apparel business originally named for him (now called Soffe) out of his basement and the trunk of his car, Jen said — is central to her success thus far.
The new Pink Petunia storefront has required similar commitment. Since signing the lease, Jen has worked methodically to check off items on her long to-do list.
“This has been a lot because I’ve been pulled a lot of different directions to get this set up,” Jen said. “... But I really think we have worked very hard in a very short period of time. … This has been a big, what I like to call, labor of love.”
An overhaul of the basics of the building, including electrical changes, some structural work (like opening doorways and walls), and installing flooring, took place first. Then Jen set about executing her vision for each area of the shop.
A decor showcase area is featured in the front window, while a room farther back features home decor, entertaining items, and a gourmet food selection. Another space focuses on the Little Petunias children’s items, and there also is a ribbon room, with bright green shelves on which hundreds of spools of ribbons live. There, customers can see the entire stock of ribbon options for custom centerpieces and bows created by Jen, who said when it comes to what a customer wants, “anything’s possible.”
The new store also includes meeting space for consultations about monogramming, customer artwork, and interior and holiday decorating. Up front in the general gift area, Jen’s abilities are on display on the decorated mantle, the pink armoire and even the walls — on which bright pink brushstrokes have been painted by Jen.
“I wanted it to be that someone could come in and it be a little bit of everything,” Jen said. “... It’s family and it’s fun and it’s lively. It makes you want to come back and hang out with us.”
And by “us,” Jen means those who’ve supported her along the way.
Those like Rene, who represents one of four generations showcased in the Morganton Road shop.
Rene plans to be in the store with her daughter, Jen, almost every day.
Walker, Jen’s daughter, will make appearances in the afternoons to reconnect with some of her favorite customers and make friends with new ones.
And Jen’s grandmother, Dorothy Soffe, is represented in one specific piece of furniture in the shop — a chair in the home area — and in the store’s name itself. Pink was Dorothy’s favorite color (and is Jen’s), and petunias were her favorite flower.
Dorothy probably would agree, then, with Jen’s philosophy — a philosophy that customers won’t be able to miss in The Pink Petunia’s new home.
“I’m ready for Fayetteville to really get to know The Pink Petunia,” Jen said, “and everyone needs a little pink in their life.”
