Burkett’s survives in downtown thanks to regular customers

EVERETT — Burkett’s has been a constant fixture on the Everett business scene for 47 years through downtown’s highs and lows.

Holly Burkett-Pohland, the owner of the upscale, downtown clothing boutique and gift shop said a steady stream of regulars know where her store is.

“People aren’t wandering the streets of downtown and finding us, ” Burkett-Pohland said.

Burkett’s continues to attract customers from throughout the Puget Sound and beyond, the owner said.

Burkett-Pohland, who was born in Everett, went to Everett High School, continues to revamp and expand the store started by her mother in 1978.

The gift portion of the shop at 2617 Colby Ave. is only three years old.

Burkett-Pohland quickly jumped at the chance to add gifts when the storied J. Matheson gift shop, which was next door to her clothing store, closed in early 2022 following the owner’s retirement after more than 50 years in business.

Burkett-Pohland took over the gift shop, with her contractor husband Todd Pohland reaking down a wall to connect the two stores.

Convincing the landlord to rent to her wasn’t hard, since it was she and her brother and sister, who owned the building housing the gift store.

The shop now has something for everyone, containing books, greeting cards, jewelry and cookware in addition to clothing.

Expanding to giftware also gave the store room to add men’s clothing, Burkett-Pohland said. Often husbands were already accompanying their wives in the store, so she thought, “Why not appeal to them too?”

Her latest project, finished in February, was reorganizing the shop.

Burkett-Pohland said women’s clothing made up 65% of the sales of the nearly 5,000-square-foot shop, but was crammed into a 1,200-square-foot portion of the store.

She said that didn’t make sense.

“We weren’t giving the women’s clothing the space it deserved,” Burkett-Pohland said.

The reorganization gave women’s clothing the largest portion of the selling space while reorganizing giftware into a smaller section.

Burkett-Pohland was 10 when her mom opened the store.

Her mom’s fashion influence did rub off, though. After college, she moved to Minneapolis to open a department at the new Nordstrom store at the Mall of America outside of Minneapolis. She was promoted to a clothing buyer after seven months.

She and her husband moved back to Everett when her mom decided to retire, taking over the store in 1996.

The store specializes in higher-end clothes, but Burkett-Pohland said there is something for everyone.

“We have a brand called Z Supply, the T-shirts are $19, and it caters to a stay-at-home mom who has some fashion sense but can’t afford to spend more than $20 on a T-shirt right now in her life,” she said.

There are plenty of more expensive pieces too, but Burkett-Pohland said the price cap, except in rare cases, is usually around $500 on an individual piece.

That’s a far cry from stores like Nordstrom, where some items can be double that or more.

“We offer affordable, high-quality clothing and gifts,” she said.

A core of her clothing business is personal styling sessions to help customers choose their outfits.

Burkett-Pohland said she sees many repeat customers who meet with her or one of the store’s stylists for their clothing picks.

“Some clients trust me so much that I can pull their clothing ahead of time,” she said. “They just come in and grab it, they don’t ever try it on, and bring it home. They trust us that much. And 90% of the time, it’s pretty successful.”

The store has a liberal return policy for those who aren’t satisfied.

But she said the store also handles customers without appointments.

“If someone randomly walks through the door and says I am heading for Hawaii in two months, and I need help putting together a wardrobe, we can do that,” she said.

Burkett-Pohland said she makes four trips a year, usually to New York, Dallas, Las Vegas and Los Angeles, to showrooms to keep up on fashion trends and to order the latest clothing for the store.

She said she keeps her customers in mind back in Everett as she makes selections.

She said her offerings are rotated six times a year.

Carol Klein of Everett has been shopping at the store for more than 30 years. The retired school administrator said she first started buying clothes from Holly’s mom.

“Holly knows her people. She sends me pictures of clothes I would like,” Klein said.

She said it always works out, and now that the store has added men’s clothing, her husband can shop there, too.

Being in the Pacific Northwest, Burkett-Pohland said clothing choices by customers tend to be less flashy than other parts of the U.S., with an emphasis on a casual look.

She said denim is also popular and that “I can’t keep enough denim in the store.”

She said the age of shoppers can vary from college students to their grandmas.

“So many times, we’ll have the grandma, the mother and the granddaughter shopping together, and we can actually meet all their needs,” she said.

Burkett-Pohland said that she’s been able to develop such a solid following that regular customers drive from as far away as Bellingham.

She said she’s been asked to open a store in Tacoma, Totem Lake off of 405, and in Edmonds.

Maybe one day, she said, there will be a second store, but Burkett-Pohland remains devoted to the Everett store.

“I really feel like I have grown so rapidly in this one space that I want to keep the momentum going,” she said.

Burkett-Pohland employs 16 workers in the store, many of which are long-time employees. She said she believes in mentoring workers to help them do their best.

Nola McElroy has only worked for Burkett’s for two and a half years, but the store sales manager said she learned from Burkett-Pohland how to deal honestly with customers.

She said Burkett-Pohland was brutally honest with her as she considered buying an outfit at the store.

“Holly said, ‘Absolutely not. It does not look good on you,’” McElroy said.

She uses that same honesty when working with customers.

“It’s getting to know the customer and not having sales as the core,” she said.

Randy Diamond: 425-339-3097; randy.diamond@heraldnet.com.