WATCH: Grand Lagniappe celebrates 30 years

Grand Lagniappe Shoppe is celebrating its 30th anniversary today with friends, family and former employees of store owner Marcia Dobbs-Smith, with a party and fashion show.

"We've asked our customers to wear their oldest Lagniappe outfit ... and tell us a little bit about why they saved them," Dobbs-Smith said. "One of them, I think it's certifiably the oldest outfit, because I remember that company when I first went to market, and the gal saved it because it was her wedding dress. She got married in the Arlington."

The party will also entail trivia, food, remembrance and fun, Dobbs-Smith said.

The store, located at 811 W. Grand Ave., was founded in 1990 at the former Majestic Hotel under the name Lagniappe Shoppe.

"That year when we opened we also had the economic downturn, the recession of 1990. We had the Gulf War of 1990, and we had the great flood of 1990, which washed away half of downtown; fortunately not us," Dobbs-Smith said.

The Majestic Hotel closed in 2006, but Dobbs-Smith said she and her husband, Steve Smith, were proactive in finding the store's current location.

The key to Grand Lagniappe's success, she said, is being involved in the community, staying relevant, adding an "entertainment aspect" to the shopping experience and knowing, as well as appreciating, their customers.

"Involvement in the community has been very, very important," Dobbs-Smith said. "For one thing, if you don't have a thriving community then you won't have a thriving business. My husband and I have been involved in the community for many years, and that also gets you out there, you hear what the community wants, you feel what the community needs."

She said her involvement in the community has also kept her "relevant," which is equally important.

"The year we opened was the year the internet really got started," Dobbs-Smith said. "There was no internet, there was no POS, we had a hundred-year-old cash register, that I still have, and we had a calculator. So keeping relevant is very important."

She said with the numerous other shopping options customers have, adding the entertainment option of her tea shop, which is located next door to her shop, has played a vital role in Grand Lagniappe's success.

"I would think, in this location especially, entertainment is really big," she said. "We want to keep our customers not only dressed well, but entertained."

Dobbs-Smith said she realizes her shop cannot please everyone.

"We know we're not a department store, we can't please everyone; we don't do men's, we don't do children's," Dobbs-Smith said. "We do women, we do a certain kind of woman and we know who our customer is, and we appreciate them."

When Dobbs-Smith moved from Louisiana to Arkansas, not yet at retirement age, she said there were not a lot of job options for women in Hot Springs, but she had experience in buying for department and chain stores.

"When I moved here I had a friend who borrowed my clothes, often, because I had cute clothes," she said, laughing. "She said 'I'm embarrassed to tell people these are your clothes, that I borrowed them from you, you're going to have to open a store,' and I said, 'Just tell them it's Marcia's closet,' and she said 'They want to know where Marcia's Closet is, you're going to have to open a store.'"

Prepared to open a store called "Marcia's Closet," Dobbs-Smith said she didn't want her name attached to it in the case that one day she might sell it, so she landed on the name "Lagniappe," which is an Inca word meaning "a little something extra."

"That was my initial thought, I want to be a little extra, I don't want to be the ordinary," she said. "I mean, do we have basics? Some, but not so much. ... We're more colorful, artsy, the woman who wants to turn heads, the woman who wants to stand out in a crowd, the woman who is confident in her own skin."

As for Grand Lagniappe Shoppe's next 30 years? Dobbs-Smith said she simply plans to enjoy life and increase the activities in her newly purple-painted tea room.

Local on 01/18/2020

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