Dawne and Stephen Byrd were already in the boutique business when they found a niche that worked all too well on its own.
The husband-and-wife entrepreneurial team opened N Bee Tween in Martinez July 23 to what they say has been a very good reception.
“People say there’s nothing like it,” said Dawne Byrd. “That it was something that was needed around here.”
As its name cheekily implies, the shop specializes in clothing and apparel for young girls in the “tween” ages, from about six to 14 years old. The goal, Byrd says, is to offer stylish but still modest and conservative clothes.
“The clothes are clothes that they like,” said Byrd. “You get them out of the younger looking clothes, but the clothes that your mom and grandma approve of.”
N Bee Tween is a sister store of the Peppy Poppy boutique, which the Byrds first opened in Evans in November 2017, and now has a second location in Grovetown.
Dawne Byrd notes that the demand for tween clothing increased with the closing of stores for girls like Justice. Once the Peppy Poppy store in Evans started carrying them, she says, they started selling quickly, and the idea of a tween-centered clothing boutique presented itself.
“We just didn’t have room to carry what we knew would sell,” she said. “We started talking about it, kicked it around, and we just finally decided to go ahead.”
While N Bee Tween offers gifts, such as headbands and costume jewelry, along with footwear and apparel, Byrd says denim items are the top sellers at the moment. As the shop aims to offer affordable items, Byrd says no particular brand names of jeans tend to sell out more than others.
“It just depends on who comes in,” she said. “You know, one mom is going to be looking for the $22 pair of jeans and the other mom’s not going to think twice about the $59 pair of jeans.”
Stephen Byrd points out that his wife has an eye for fashion, and Dawne Byrd herself notes that the young shoppers guide them with their preferences to keep up with what’s in style. They normally shop wholesale from AmericasMart in Atlanta a few times during the year and are able to keep a better pace with the trends while also keeping up with their rapid sales.
“That’s one of the things that makes us successful,” said Stephen Byrd. “We can reach our inventory quickly. We have new inventory weekly, whereas these big boxes have bought a year, year and half ahead.”
The Byrds hope to expand to offering swimwear when the spring and summer months return. In the meantime, they continue to apply their welcoming, hands-on approach to all of their local stores.
“We basically hope to get to the point that it’s just one of those places that if you have somebody in ages six to 14, if you need it, you can find it here,” said Dawne Byrd.
N Bee Tween is located at 403 Furys Ferry Road, Suite 114, in Martinez. For more information, visit its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/shopnbeetween or its website at https://www.nbeetween.net/.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering Columbia County with The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
