March 21, 2024
Business Reporting
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - Construction is underway for Franklin Street retail store Shrunken Head Boutique’s second shop that will specialize in UNC-Chapel Hill licensed products just a few doors down from the original location.
Shrunken Head Boutique’s additional store, Tailgate by Shrunken Head, will be located at 161 E. Franklin St. The new store will primarily focus on UNC-CH gear while Shrunken Head will continue to sell Chapel Hill products. It is double the size of the original store.
Alana Loken, brand manager of Shrunken Head, said the idea to open a new store was conceived when the store flooded in December 2021 due to a sprinkler system malfunction. She said the owners and employees considered moving to a different location or renovating the current space before deciding to open a second store.
Loken said the new store has been in the works for over a year and is still in its beginning stages.
“Right now, they’re doing demolition to the space that was there before,” Loken said. “And they’re in the process of getting permits for approval to do construction to put in floors and walls.”
JBK Construction, LLC is working with Shrunken Head to design the new space. Loken said there is no projected opening date.
Loken said the new store will enable Shrunken Head to split its customer base between Chapel Hill and UNC-CH products.
“The new store is going be like our officially licensed college gear,” Loken said. “And then this old store is going to stay like a Chapel Hill gift shop, kind of more local for people not affiliated with the university.”
Asheton Medlin, employee at Shrunken Head, said Shrunken Head is more unique than other UNC-CH retail stores on Franklin because they sell Chapel Hill items alongside UNC-CH gear. She is a junior at UNC-CH and has been working at Shrunken Head for over a year and a half.
Melissa Pate, part owner of Shrunken Head, said Shrunken Head outgrew the original store after COVID-19 and the flood. She has been running the online business in a warehouse and in her personal home in Cary.
“It's a lot of driving from Cary to Chapel Hill just to replenish a busy weekend,” Pate said. “So, it just came to the point that it was not sustainable. We couldn't do it any longer. We also can't leave 155 East Franklin because it's been there for 55 years.”
Piper Holroyd, sophomore at UNC-CH and customer at Shrunken Head, said she shops at Shrunken Head multiple times a year. She is from Chapel Hill and said the business has always seemed to be successful.
She said she goes there instead of other retail stores on Franklin because it feels like home.
“I like the vibe of it and it’s homey and I know people that have worked there and they loved it,” Holroyd said. “A lot of the retail stores have the same stuff but I feel like the people [at Shrunken Head] and the store is more ‘Chapel Hill.’”
Holroyd said she thinks the new store will be as successful as Shrunken Head as long as they keep the Shrunken Head name attached to it because of its glowing reputation in Chapel Hill.
Medlin said people come back to the store because they treat their customers like family.
“We’re a family-owned and operated store and I think that plays a huge part into how we do our sales because we don’t think of our customers as customers but more as like part of our family,” Medlin said. “It’s why people keep coming back here because they know us and we know them and it’s just that kind of atmosphere.”
Shrunken Head Boutique is located at 155 E. Franklin St. The business is the oldest standing UNC-CH shop in Chapel Hill, according to Shrunkenhead.com, the official Shrunken Head website.
Pate owns the store alongside her husband and her aunt. Her grandparents, Mary Edna and Shelton Henderson, opened the store in 1969.