PEABODY — The City Council approved a petition for Laura Johnson of Lynn to open a resale store at 99 Lynn St. on Thursday.
At the store, Johnson wants to sell her things — some new with tags still on them, some old from her own items she has collected over the years and some vintage books, toys and tools from a house she inherited.
“I’m hoping to open a nice store in the neighborhood that people could come in and purchase some things from us and enjoy,” Johnson said.
Councilor Craig Welton spoke with Johnson to learn more about her desire to open the shop, which will be where the former Ginger’s Closet was.
“We were here last spring and there was an interest at that time for Bombshell Boutique to expand into this space. That request has since been rescinded so she will not be taking the space and it is vacant, so Laura was able to identify that there’s an opportunity for her to open up her store there,” Welton said.
Similar to the previous Ginger’s Closet, Johnson will be selling clothing, vintage and antique items.
“Johnson was a former customer of Ginger’s Closet and saw the space available and thought she had the opportunity to run a similar store there,” Welton said.
In regards to the area and its limited parking, Johnson already spoke with commercial and residential neighbors to get acquainted with them and said there was no negative feedback about her opening a store there.
With the request for the petition, the City Council approved the transfer request of a special permit from Ginger’s Closet, as well as the restrictions for a junk-dealers permit, which states Johnson must develop procedures to make sure no items are dropped off outside of business hours; ensure that items for resale are clean; no resale of mattresses is allowed; must have a contract with licensed pest control on a monthly basis; discarded materials must be collected so they are not piling up outside, and items must be inside the store and not on the sidewalk.
“I fully intend to support this,” Welton said.
Johnson is planning to keep the same hours of operation that were allowed for Ginger’s Closet, being opened Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.
