As you may have heard, after five years, Mary Jane will close for good after the summer season. The reason for this decision is a complicated mess of personal and business issues, but here’s the short version:

It’s not working.

Despite a lot of hard work from many dedicated people, it just seems impossible to make the business successful given the rising rents, increased competition, and decreased sales of the past couple of years. The current rents in Newburyport are simply out of line with the foot traffic in the city. In addition, the arrival of another store in town that carries every single one of our top selling footwear brands has led to decreased sales. The economy hasn’t helped either!

We have reinvented Mary Jane a couple of times already but there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do what would need to be done to make it worth all the work. (It would require moving to a new, less expensive location for sure, plus finding all new footwear brands, for starters.) To do all this and still have a decent family life - or decent credit, for that matter – is beyond my reach!

I still believe that what Newburyport needs is a hotel and a parking garage. If we could get more people here to fill our shops and restaurants, we could all afford the rent. As it is now, the cart is pulling the horse; the rents are already set for a bustling destination but that is not yet the reality.

We cannot thank our loyal customers enough – you know who you are! It has been a real pleasure. For the people who have heard the news and expressed sadness, thanks. We’ll take it as a compliment. Who knows, maybe we’ll try it again someday!

xo-Lise

PS Please come in and use those store credits and gift certificates asap!

Sorry for the late notice, but we’ll be having some fun tomorrow and Monday in Newburyport at the Spring Fest! I must confess to being particularly excited about the Teddy Bear Parade, which is tomorrow at noon. We’re lining up at Tracy Place (right across from Mary Jane!) at 11:45am and then we’ll parade around town with guitarist Brian Doser leading the charge. He’ll do a free performance afterwards, too!

Oh, and one lucky kid will go home with the giant teddy bear pictured above. 

We’ll get back to the clothing and accessories discussions very soon, I promise. Happy Memorial Day weekend!

This Friday, May 2nd, and next are both Invitation Nights in Newburyport. You may be familiar with the winter Invitation Nights in town; we get good crowds and lots of stores stay open late and offer drinks and food…it’s a good time.  Well, now we’re trying the same model for spring and I hope some of you will join us. We’re going to offer some treats and some good deals so come on down!  

Now I remember the upside to enduring five months of winter: Everyone is so darn happy when it finally gets nice out! The past two days have been sunny and in the 60s (although low 60s for sure) and the store has been filled with happy people. We have had so many unsolicited comments about the current line-up of merchandise and how many great items there are. Allow me to highlight a few of my faves:

On the top left is a great update from Dick and Jayne of the classic shirtdress, a summer staple. It’s 100% cotton and has a sort of June Cleaver vibe, but the funky print makes it 100% modern. On the top right is a denim jacket from Fillmore. It fits so great and can spice up any outfit. And on the bottom is a totally FUN retro print of trees and birds on a Lulu Via smock. I will be calling on Monday morning to see if we can get more of this one - it’s going fast!

We have some good deals as part of the city-wide Earth Day activities so we hope you’ll come visit soon! 

Origins jewelry has been a Mary Jane staple since we first stumbled upon the line years ago. The pieces are simple but oh-so-versatile, making them perfect with jeans and a tee or with a formal dress. Each piece is made from resin (recycled stuff) and shell and the colors for summer are bee-ootiful. Come check ‘em out - and you can see the pansies in our window boxes, too! Even better, it was still light out when I left the store tonight, at 6:30. Woo-hoo!

I returned from my much-needed vacation to find that a) it had snowed, again, which is not okay; and b) we received some great new stuff while I was gone, including a lovely group of skirts, tops, and jackets from Neesh by DAR. This plaid jacket was so cute that I had to drag it outside for a proper photo:

I was just yesterday looking at these sad dead greens in our window boxes and thinking that I need to throw them away. Then, I came back today and they were gone! That means soon the window boxes around town will be filled with cute little pansies which, in turn, means absolutely, 100%, for certain that spring is around the corner. 

By the way, isn’t this a cute dress?

There is so much new stuff at Mary Jane right now! It’s my favorite time of the year, when all the new spring merchandise starts rolling in. (Actually, my favorite time of the year is when it stops drizzling and gets over 40 degrees, grumble grumble.) In the world of apparel, you place your orders so far in advance that sometimes you don’t even remember things when they arrive at the store, so it was fun to have a totally different experience: a nice woman popped in to show me the tees and onesies that she and her husband design and manufacture. Their company is called Meme and you can read more about them on their web site. www.memebaby.com. And the best part is that they are local - so local that everything was hand-delivered. They also make women’s tees and hoodies - we sold several on the first day. If you need a baby gift or a little treat for yourself come on down. Meme is going to go fast!

We are so excited to have Camper shoes back in the store. After taking a break for a few seasons we decided that they are a great fit (har har) for Mary Jane: they’re total funky but also completely wearable. Who could resist these two styles, above? I never thought I’d find an orange shoe to be so…sexy! We also got some great wedge heels in from Indigo, so hope to see you soon!

We’ve had so many customers ask about the spring line from See Kai Run so I wanted to let everyone know that the first delivery is here. It includes the above styles, Lola and Boden, as well as several others for girls and for boys. The sandal styles will come later. They are all so cute, and several have sold already, so call if you know exactly what you want and we’ll hold it for you. Your toddler will have the most fashionable footwear around!