Here's Looking at You - Chambersburg, PA

123 S. Main Street, Chambersburg, PA 17201

https://chambersburgboutique.com/ 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hlay123

Penny Shaul outside her store’s entrance
in September 2014.

Penny Shaul started working in retail when she was 18-years-old. Growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, she worked at local chain stores and then in a small boutique. She says she learned a lot from that owner, especially as business grew and a second shop was opened.

Shaul was also a league volleyball player in Omaha when another player told her about job opportunities in Johnston Atoll, an unincorporated territory of the United States near Hawaii. It was winter in Nebraska and the offer to work in the tropics tempted her away. She spent 10 years working as a certified volleyball official on the remote island, but had the intention to save money, return to Nebraska and buy one of the boutiques from the owner she had worked for. Life took a turn in Johnston Atoll when she met the man who would become her husband. He was from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania and it was there that the couple moved when they returned stateside.

Shaul still had her heart in the boutique business and, after doing some research, “took the plunge” in August 2004 and opened Here’s Looking at You.  Reflecting back 11 years, Shaul isn’t sure how she came upon that name; she wasn’t a Humphrey Bogart fan. However, she knew she couldn’t use “Penny’s” without a lawsuit due to the famous J.C. Penney’s.

Settling on Main Street between two jewelry stores and, now, with a bridal shop across the street and a cosmetics store nearby, her clothing boutique specializes in styles for women who are 30 and over. Here’s Looking at You continuously updates inventory and features Tribal, Nomadic Traders, Nic & Zoe, FDJ French Dressing, Renuar, Iguana, Tianello, Nally & Millie, Christine Alexander and Neon Buddha in petite and women’s sizes. The shop also carries Thymes Lotions, Patience Brewster ornaments, greeting cards and a wide selection of accessories.

Shaul says there is some competition in the area. “There was another boutique in town when I started,” Shaul notes, “but for more mature fashions.”  There’s also a shopping center with chain stores like Kohl’s about two miles away. “It’s like the usual strip malls plunked down everywhere in America,” she says. However, Shaul's business continues to do well by making her customers a priority. She’s happy to make special orders and, as the only full-time employee, she says she knows her inventory backwards and forwards. The personalized service helps keep her true to the vision she had when she began: “to provide a fun place to shop where women want to bring their family and friends when they are in town.”