Polly Zobel, owner of KALY gives us her insight, in honor of their 30th anniversary this weekend. 

Kaly, a unique women’s clothing store opened in 1988 by Polly’s mother, Holly Brown. “When I was in college, she wanted to open an accessories store in WC because downtown really needed retail stores,” Polly said. The name of the boutique is the combination of Holly’s daughters, Katie and Polly. “We were the first two grandchildren so my grandparents created the name for a boat and then subsequently named a dog after us,” Polly said.

Polly started out Kaly with her mom, while attending West Chester University. She moved into working as a manager for nine years, before leaving to use her degree in Biology. “Exactly five years ago while my mom was thinking of retiring, I decided to buy the business and run the store full time,” Polly said.

When Polly took over, she renovated the entire store and installed a new POS (point of sale) system adding all inventory into it. Everything was paper based before then. Just last year, she created a new online store. “It was a lot of work over the first couple years, but ultimately totally worth it. I learned a lot,” Polly said.

The boutique is always staying up to date with fashion. “I’ve always been into fashion, so it’s not really a chore,” she said. When Polly and employees shop for the store, they think that style, comfort and quality comes first. “Trends come and go, but style is timeless” Polly said.

Kaly will be participating in upcoming local events. “Small Business Saturday and Black Friday are really big for us downtown. A lot of loyal small business shoppers come out for us then,” Polly said. She also mentioned how they are spearheading a “Given Tuesday” event with 12 other local boutiques. They will be donating 10% of their profits to Unite For Her, a local women’s cancer charity.

Be sure to come out to Kaly this weekend to celebrate their 30th anniversary. They will be having a 30% off sale on any one piece of regular priced clothing. This will start this Friday, November 9th through Sunday, November 11th.