Village Squire, 1975-12, Page 37The Wedge
5 years of dreaming
becomes a reality
For Joy Lavis, running The Wedge has
been a little like being a kid in a candy
shop.
Joy readily acknowledges that opening a
business of her own has been a long-time
ambition. The vivacious young Clintonian
got her wish in September when she
opened her little women's clothing store in
a triangular-shaped building in Clinton.
"I'm a compulsive buyer" she says,
"and being able to go out and buy a lot of
nice things for the shop makes me feel
gam."
When' her first shipments arrived, she
said, she saw so much that she'd love to
have for her own wardrobe and more than
one item, she admits, she ended up buying
for herself. Now though, she says, like the
kid who ate too much candy, she's
tempered her enthusiasm toward clothes.
Still, she says, "there's a beautiful dress
over there that I'm just going to cry if
someone buys because I'd just love to have
it for Christmas."
Most of the time, however, she says, she
realizes if she really likes a dress its
probably just the one someone else will
want to buy.
Joy is the kind of person who is so
enthusiastic about what she is doing that
she can't help but make those around her
feel the same way. She started to long for
her own business about five years ago just
after she started teaching. She's the kind
of person who has to be her own boss, she
said, and so the idea of opening a store was
very appealing. At first she wanted to open
a book store, but she quickly realized that it
was a. particularly risky venture in a
smaller town. So she went to her next love,
clothes. At least people have to wear
clothes, she says, they don't have to read
hooks.
The Wedge is not the kind of store most
women in Clinton were used to, though.
loy says she has tried to get different
things in her shop than are available in the
other stores in the area. Hers is a shop that
has one -of -a -kind clothing she says, where
VILLAGE SQUIRE/DECEMBER 1975
a woman can know she's not going to run
into someone else on the street or at a party
who has the same outfit.
The most common complaint, she says is
from ustomers who say "everything is so
expensive' Her stock is more expensive
The Wedge is located in a small triangular shop in the heart of Clinton.