Mar 8, 2010

Profile 2010: Suzanne YoungBy Ben FlanaganDemopolisTimes.com

Suzanne Young dreamed many years ago of owning her own shop. Last September, it came true when she purchased the Mustard Seed gift shop from Joy Collins.

A Selma native and 27-year-old business owner, Young relishes the support Demopolis has given her ever since she opened her store doors. She simply can’t get over how proud residents are of their own town, and she appreciates their patronage every single day.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said. “I’ve never heard of any town being so supportive of their hometown business owners. It’s awesome how people take pride in being from here.”

Young graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in fashion retail in 2006 and finished a public relations internship at famed fashion company Neiman Marcus in Atlanta shortly after. Planning to make way for Chicago, she met her future husband, Patrick Young, and moved to Montgomery to work at her sister’s store. Patrick works in the logging industry.

As a representative for a showroom in Atlanta, Young came to Demopolis where she visited the Mustard Seed. Smitten with it, she approached then-owner Joy Collins and told her to keep her in mind if she ever decided to sell it. Soon enough, Young got that call and opened shop in Demopolis.

Carrying the same name and location, the store has seen some changes under Young’s ownership, but she maintains the personality of the store remains the same.

“We’ve got new luggage lines, as well as a children’s section, which I’d really like to focus on and make a big part of the Mustard Seed,” she said. “We made some changes in the jewelry lines and just broadened the selections a bit more. We offer men’s gifts, including the Colonel Littleton line.”

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