June 18, 2019

The Paisley Pod boutique will open the doors to its new storefront location June 29, as it expands from operating out of the truck where it started.

“I’ve always wanted to move to a storefront,” owner Chrystal Rothenberger said. “But the truck was awesome and helped me meet a ton of people and get our name out there.”

The Craigslist purchase didn’t even run when the Rothenberger sisters purchased it at the beginning of their endeavor — but with a little maintenance and a new, bright pink paint job, the truck carried the sisters through their first four years of business.

The boutique, however, isn’t parking its food-truck-style boutique, named Betty, for good. It’s merely settling its stock in Brandon and will still travel to big events like the etc. expo for her Oct. 18 and 19 at the Sioux Falls Convention Center.

“Betty’s going to keep going until Betty decides it’s her time to go,” said Rothenberger, who is now the sole owner of the boutique.

Until now, customers have been able to request that the truck come out to their home for what Rothenberger called personal pod shows, but the truck will no longer make its rounds to residences, and the shows will instead be held in the store.

The Paisley Pod’s mission is to help women feel confident and beautiful in what they wear, and Rothenberger said the storefront will give her customers a permanent location to come for styling sessions and a personalized shopping experience.

Members of the VIP Facebook group and anyone on the email list — loyal customers that the owner has dubbed the Pod Squad — will get a sneak preview of the new store in late June.

The move has been a family affair for Rothenberger. She hired her cousin to do the contracting work, and her father built the counter space, which will serve as the check-out area.

The space in the Holly Crossing retail center in Brandon, at Holly and Sioux boulevards, previously was a Marco’s Pizza. It needed major renovations before Rothenberger could achieve the feel for the space that she was looking for — something she describes as modern farmhouse, eclectic and bohemian.

“I remember we started this and I came in to do demo with my green hat on because it was St. Patrick’s Day,” she said. “I brought my kids and gave all of them a hammer, and they thought it was the most amazing thing.”

Rothenberger said her biggest challenge has been the self-doubt she has encountered while making the move.

“I feel in my heart that this is the right decision, but when you’re putting that much energy and funds out there to do that and your family really depends on you, then that’s really scary,” she said.

Rothenberger struggled deciding whether to keep the name The Paisley Pod since she would no longer be operating out of her truck, but she ultimately decided that the name can have a more universal meaning.

“I kind of flipped our thinking, so instead of the Paisley Pod being our mobile unit driving around, the pod part is all of our community, all of the women,” she said. “We’re all this one big giant pod of people that can come support and encourage each other.”

The Paisley Pod will play around with hours until it finds what works best, but for the first couple of months it will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.