Young entrepreneur opens Main Street Boutiques in Moroni

By Suzanne Dean

Publisher

MORONI—Aubri Tate is just 19, but she knows what she wants to do in life. More important, she’s doing it.

Her dream is to own her own boutique selling craft and vintage merchandise. She has worked for Neighbors Thrift and Happy Camper in Ephraim, stores that sell second-hand goods. And she has started her own online store.

Several weeks ago, an opportunity came up to take over a lease on the historic building at 22 W. Main St. in her hometown of Moroni. With support from her mother, Eva Compton, her Main Street Boutique was born.

Tate has accumulated clothes she and family members aren’t wearing anymore, plus bought some at the thrift stores where she’s worked.

Several of her family members are artisans, so she is selling their creations. She is selling her sister’s graphic-design prints, her sister-in-law’s jewelry, her cousin’s baby booties and her grandmother’s crocheted blankets.

Her mother makes divinity and fudge and has the goal of “bringing back the nostalgic candy counter.”

Built in the late 1800s as a ZCMI store, the building where the boutique is located has housed the Dalena’s Candy store, been the Moroni Post Office and been a meat locker.

In 2007, Diana Gibbons purchased it, lived on the upper level and operated the Next Chapter gift and antique store on the main level until 2012, when she got married and left the area.

In 2018, Gibbons signed a two-year lease with Lucy <?>, who opened a bakery in the store. But within about two months, <?> developed health problems and closed her bakery. Meanwhile, however, she rented out the living space in the upper story for enough to cover her payments to Gibbons.

Several weeks ago, Compton, conscious of her daughter’s dream, offered to take over <?>’s lease for the final six months.

The building is for sale, and Tate, looking around at her merchandise, says if the building is sold in the next six months, “I get to find places for everything.” If the building doesn’t sell, she plans to negotiate a new lease on it.

For now, she’s living her dream. The store is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m.-7 p.m. The phone number is (435) 262-1877.