Trendy Excursions Evolves with the Trends

By Matt Weafer
Owensboro 2009

The fashion trend rises and falls as frequently as the ocean tide, bringing in new styles and recycling old.

Staying ahead of that trend and catering to customer’s needs and desires requires a constant state of awareness, fashion sense, business savvy and compassion for customers.

At Excursions in Wesleyan Park Plaza, owner Jaye Moseley-Evans balances these traits in an effort to excel at customer service.

Offering more styles and options than most ladies’ department stores, Excursions has defined itself as a unique clothing boutique over the past 25 years.

Moseley-Evans has owned the store for 20 years and expects to be doing the same thing 25 years from now.

Her attraction to the retail industry began when she was a senior in high school working at Sublett’s which also used to be in Wesleyan Park Plaza.

“Bobbie Sublett took me under her wing,” Moseley-Evans said, “and I wanted to grow up and be as successful as her and I’m still working at it. She was a fine lady a legend in her time.”

With Sublett as her role model, Moseley-Evans worked hard, to establish a regular customer base that depends on Excursions for every event.

“Customer service is our main mission,” Moseley-Evans said. “I do think we excel in that.”

While researching, shopping and maintaining an inimitable inventory, Moseley-Evans also commits herself to “spoiling” her customers. “I can almost call every customer that walks in the door by their first name,” she said. “They can run in here and in 15 minutes be out with what they need.”

Excursions’ employees create relationships with their customers so that they know what customers like in clothing.

“After being here for so long, we’re friends with all our customers,” Moseley-Evans said.
Creating an enjoyable shopping experience for her clients was a primary goal.

Angie Woodward, an Excursions customer for the past 20 years said, “It’s always a fun place they’ve become friends of mine over the years.”

The first time Woodward shopped at Excursions she was finishing high school.

“I like funky but classy pieces and they helped me find my style,” she said. “They have something for everybody to express their style.”

“We wanted to set ourselves apart from department stores and big women’s stores and try to give our customers what they need,” she said. “We dress our customers for weddings, parties and all aspects of life.”

“I wore a jacket yesterday that I bought at Excursions 12 years ago and it’s still gorgeous,” Woodward said.

Despite turbulent economic times across the globe, she said, Excursions will remain strong.

Moseley-Evans said she had to learn to “roll with the punches” over the years. “You try to put yourself in a position where you can adapt to whatever is going on with the economy.”

Though things seem rough, she said, “We’ve seen this before. I know we’ll come out of it and be stronger because of the things we learned.”

By learning to adapt to the constantly changing fashion retail industry, she created a mix of merchandise with consistently new items. “I had to be able to change and be open to new things every three months,” she said.

Moseley-Evans said she learned her shopping sense from her mother and her business sense from her father, who own Holiday Drive-In in Rockport, Ind. She said, “You just have to keep an eye on overhead in general, small things such as the wattage of light bulbs and every day expenses.”

As a business woman, she said she has not encountered any obstacles because she never approached anything as an obstacle.

“I’ve always attacked things,” she said. “I wouldn’t let things be an obstacle. I elbowed my way through. I’m not one to take ‘No’ or objections.”

These days her main competition is the Internet, but she’s not concerned. “We are a home town store that cares about their customers,” she said. “Our customers would rather come in, touch things and get our opinion.”

Though Excursions does have a Web site at www.shopexcursions.com, Moseley-Evans currently has no intention of selling clothes on the Web.

Five years ago Excursions expanded by opening a store in Evansville, Ind.

By adapting and tackling all challenges and focusing on customer service, Moseley-Evans has helped Excursions evolve with the times and create a unique boutique prepared to run another 25 years and more.

See the article in its published form.