Family joins together for unique shopping experience

Opening The Avenue in June 2024 at its current location at 142 S. Main St. in Shawano, four sisters and their mother have joined ranks and together provide a unique shopping experience.

With fashions geared toward simplistic styles — along with splashes of color — Stephanie Delorme, Elizabeth Bastar, Emilee Bastar and Amanda Bastar, along with mom Amy Bastar, have made The Avenue fashionably distinctive.

Continuing in the family vein, cousin Pauline Parrott helps out whenever needed.

“She’s awesome and is always willing to make it work,” said Delorme.

Offering a variety of women’s clothing, their style is more clean, more aesthetic and modern along with a touch of eccentric pieces. Also for sale are a variety of small gifts and novelty items.

“We offer muted tones, neutrals, stuff we love to wear. We sisters are all putting pieces in the cart that we would feel comfortable wearing. We each add our own flair,” said Elizabeth Bastar.

The family originally started in Bonduel in 2019 as a consignment store. Moving to Shawano, they wanted to name their store something catchy and unique and came up with The Avenue.

Located at the back of the store are various vendors including thrifted clothing from Classic Revival and Kathy’s Closet. Other vendors offer items such as retail clothing, books, home décor and jewelry.

“All of us have full-time jobs outside of the store,” said Bastar. “We all work different shifts. Everybody has their set days during the week, and we switch out the weekends so not one person has to work every single Saturday.”

“It’s a fun thing to do together,” added Delorme. “We never intended to quit our day jobs — we just put this together as a heart venture. Before we opened the business, we were already close in heart anyway, and that didn’t change. It’s just fun to do this together.”

The family has moved three times, and every time they move they learn by experience.

“We just keep getting stronger and better at doing the things that we’re trying to do,” said Bastar. “We’re learning and expanding, and each time it’s been a step up. We had no idea what we were doing when we opened. None of us have business degrees. There were no preconceived notions. We all said, ‘Let’s just do it.’ Spend time together. We like where we’re at.”

Watching for different styles that customers are comfortable with and are interested in, the women stock their store likewise and also purpose to add more color. As well, The Avenue plans on being involved with events around Shawano in the near future.

Business Improvement District coordinator Lindsay Johnson organizes and plans Shawano-based occasions where many events have Main Street blocked to traffic. The Avenue will have its doors open for all future special events planned for the year.

“Vendor events bring clients in that normally may not have stopped by the store,” said Delorme.

Coming up is the shopping event named Derby Day to be held May 2, which encourages ladies to dress in their derby best with big hats.

“Our store is rooted around family, faith and community,” said Delorme. “We get to spend time together all while creating a comfortable shopping atmosphere for Shawano. We are Christian-based, which is really important to our family. Our faith plays a strong part in all of this. If I’d have to do this solely by myself, it wouldn’t nearly be as enjoyable. There’s a certain satisfaction to do this with family — we share ideas and bounce off each other.”

“Being with family has always just been my most favorite thing. We’re so blessed to do this together,” added Bastar. “Stephanie and I have different vibes but share the same brain, I feel. We bring two different things to the table and combine them into one.”

“We absolutely adore being on Main Street and continue to strive to make the store better. We’ve actually been working on some changes that we cannot wait to share with everyone,” said Delorme.