As posted in The Lynden Tribune
Tim NewcombTribune assistant editor
LYNDEN — Wilma Parriera wanted to be where the action was. So she moved her 25-year-old Dresser Drawer from the Historic Downtown Business District to Guide Meridian in the Safeway complex.
Parriera also took on a new name, look and style with the change. Gone is the expansive space of Dresser Drawer and here is a “boutique” feel in Willemina’s. Dresser Drawer closed on Sept. 30 and opened as Willemina’s on Oct. 3, a “big jump.” The business spent its first 14 years next to a grocery store in the Fairway Center before moving downtown. Parriera said that her new spot between Safeway and The Woods Coffee is the place where the traffic is. “There is a lot of life,” she said. “It is a busy place.” The new space, just 1,400 square feet instead of the more than 4,000 square feet she had at 406 Front St., allowed her to downsize and start with a clean slate.
Parriera said that dealing with the fallout of the fire Delft Square (insurance issues were difficult) and the need to woo a new demographic of her business encouraged her to start fresh and get younger, all without losing her core base. She had been eyeing the old sandwich shop next to Safeway, but the rent was paid up even though the space sat vacant for months.
Willemina’s, with the hours of 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, tries to capture a younger generation that needs flexible hours in the morning or in the evening after a day of working in Bellingham. Wilma is actually the fifth Willemina in her family. And since she only had sons, she always called the store her girl baby (one that was more difficult to raise than her boys). In honor of the family tradition and her mother with the same name who passed away in January, she decided the boutique-like name was the “thing to do.”
E-mail Tim Newcomb at tim@lyndentribune.com.
