SAINT JOHN – If you’re having a rough day, go into Heartbreak Boutique.

You will feel anything but heartbroken.

The quirky, edgy boutique is located in uptown Saint John. The moment you walk in, you’re bombarded by colourful dresses, clothes, accessories, local art and rockabilly music. In the back, you’ll find roller skates, helmets, kneepads, wheels, everything you need to be transformed into a derby girl (or boy).

You will also be greeted by Pamela Wheaton, who opened the shop back in 2012.

“For years I wanted to own my own business and it’s morphed over the last decade. But it really came from the inability to get the things I wanted. All the clothes I wanted to buy, I couldn’t buy in my own city,” Wheaton says.

“As much fun as online shopping can be, it’s also frustrating because it arrives and you’re like ‘awww it doesn’t fit’ or it doesn’t look like it did online.”

Yeah. That’s pretty much the worst.

Wheaton is also in love with derby. For years there was nowhere locally for someone to buy skates and gear.

“So I said ‘well, shit. Those are two things I love. Let’s just put them together and make a little store.'”

It’s clear Heartbreak Boutique is for a niche market. You might not find your mom or your Abercrombie and Fitch-wearing sister in there. It might be the coolest looking boutique in town, but offering clothing for a specific crowd has brought its challenges.

“Still to this day on a nearly daily basis I have people coming in here going ‘Oh! How long have you been open? You must be new,'” Wheaton says.

“It’s good in the sense that I don’t have any direct competition because there is no other store like me. But it’s also challenging because the market is a little bit narrow, but I do think there’s stuff here for everybody anyways. I don’t really think it’s that ‘out there’ necessarily.”

It’s kind of hard to describe the ‘typical’ heartbreak boutique customer.

“I would describe them as people who wouldn’t shop at the mall, people who are a little more fashion adventurous,” Wheaton says. “People who also care about quality too and people who make it a priority to shop local, which is amazing.”

Wheaton brings in a wide variety of alternative brands such a Sourpuss, Lucky 13, Bettie Paige and even local designers. When it comes to deciding what items to bring in, it’s a pretty difficult process.

“Honestly, it’s usually like a gut reaction to it. I try to think about my customers . . . Basically I’m just looking for things that are fun and interesting and I think people will like,” she says. “But I also try to get stuff that’s on every end of the spectrum, something a little but more classic and then something that’s really out there.”

Heartbreak Boutique also makes itself known in the region’s derby community. Even though Wheaton is now retired from the sport after playing for with Saint John’s Fog City Rollers for six years, she the says the shop will continue to be involved.

“We always go to any bigger events like the tournaments or training weekends or anything like that. We’ve always been a sponsor of all of the Maritime teams as well,” she says.

“Derby was my entire world for the last six years. Now I have just retired unfortunately, but it’s still going to be participating in different ways, just not as a player anymore.”

There are not many stores in the region like Heartbreak (though Monctonians should check out Vixens as well). Wheaton says a lot of similar shops, even in bigger cities like Halifax, haven’t lasted too long (odd, right?). Though it’s hard to say why, there’s some clear reasons why Heartbreak is still going strong. Heartbreak has a strong social media presence and they have also hosted some special events.

“The biggest thing for me has always been customers and customer experience. I really want people for when they come in to feel good when they leave and I think word of mouth has been huge, which I so appreciate,” Wheaton says.

Opening a small business is no small endeavour, but Wheaton’s advice for aspiring business owners is always the same.

“Don’t do everything yourself, because I tried it for a long time and you’re really doing yourself a disservice. You don’t have to be good at everything,”she says.

“It’s ok to hand off the marketing or the bookkeeping, whatever it is that isn’t your strong suit so you can focus on the things you want to focus on.”

She also recommends reaching out to other entrepreneurs in your area. They won’t bite.

“The entrepreneurial community in this area incredibly generous in sharing their stories. Any information that they have they will gladly give it to you, which is one of the coolest things I think for me when starting out,” Wheaton said. “They didn’t have to tell me those things. They had to work to find stuff themselves, that’s one of the things that stuck with me the most.”