Pamela Wheaton and Mishelle Carson-Roy. Image: Cherise Letson/Huddle Today
A new shop opening in uptown Saint John this fall is conjuring up mystical and quirky gifts and housewares you won’t find anywhere else.
Pamela Wheaton, owner of Heartbreak Boutique and Mishelle Carson-Roy are opening Obscurity, a shop selling quirky giftware and housewares, on 88 Germain Street.
“It’s essentially Heartbreak Boutique’s sister store, so anyone’s who’s familiar with Heartbreak knows we have some giftware in there now, so it will just be a lot more of that,” says Wheaton. “So, strange, unusual, unexpected gifts you can’t find anywhere else.”
The idea to open a store stemmed from the huge popularity of the gifts and housewares currently carried at Heartbreak Boutique, which mostly sells clothing.
“Not everybody is looking for clothes. Also, if you’re buying something for somebody else, buying clothes is really tricky,” says Wheaton. “So when I started carrying that stuff, it really opened a whole new avenue of customers so we just want to build on that.”
But for her second store, Wheaton wanted a partner. So she approached her friend Carson-Roy, who currently manages the Saint John Freak Lunchbox.
“It had always been a long-time dream of mine to own my own gift shop, and Pam very much knew about this. She approached me with a big idea one day and it was just a gut feeling to get this ball rolling,” says Carson-Roy.
“I knew [88 Germain Street] was becoming available and I was just like ‘You know what? It’s worth a conversation.’ So I went to Mishelle and said ‘I don’t expect any answers right away, but this is the idea,’” adds Wheaton.
“It was like four minutes [later] and she was like, ‘I’m in!’”
Obscurity will carry everything from cards, enamel pins, stationery, kitchen accessories, home decor and even items for pets. If you’re looking for a unique gift for anyone in your life, they’ll have something.
“I’ve always been a fan of things that were just a little bit mystical and out there, and it was kind of the draw of all of this. It’s a mix of everything that you can’t find anywhere and it’s obscure,” says Carson-Roy.
“You’re going to walk in and it’s going to be an experience because of the products that we have, but also how we want to build the shop. So when you walk in, you feel like you’re in a different place.”
Renovations are starting on the space and the goal is for Obscurity to open early September. Wheaton and Carson-Roy hope the new shop will add something a little different to the uptown.
“Heartbreak Boutique’s tagline is “where classic meets quirky.’ Quirky is what we’re all about. So just adding something that’s accessible to everybody but also make them go ‘wow, I never seen anything like this before,’” says Wheaton.
“It’s been really interesting to watch uptown grow over the last decade and I think right now it’s all in a weird transition obviously because of Covid. But I think uptown is going to be just fine and I think we’ll help it a little bit maybe.”
This story was originally published in Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
