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Two Chicks District Co., a home furnishings store founded by “Good Bones” star Mina Starsiak Hawk, is closing after seven months of business in downtown Noblesville.
Starsiak Hawk said the 1,700-square-feet location at 957 Logan St. hasn’t yielded a better financial situation than an original version of Two Chicks District Co. that served customers in the Bates-Hendricks neighborhood of Indianapolis.
The Bates-Hendricks store, 1531 S. East St., opened in June 2020 and closed in October 2023.
“We were really hoping that a change in location would make it financially more sustainable,” Starsiak Hawk told IBJ. “And while Noblesville has been amazing, the people who come in are amazing and we love being there, sales aren’t any better.”
A Wednesday post at the Two Chicks District Co. Facebook profile announced Sunday, Sept. 29, as the final day for the store’s brick-and-mortar operations.
“District Co. will continue to operate online and I’m super excited about the cute holiday collection I have coming soon,” Starsiak Hawk wrote. The business sells items such as pillows, candles and stoneware at shop.twochicksdistrictco.com.
Although the Facebook post refers to the Noblesville store as a “pop-up,” Starsiak Hawk said she envisioned a longer stay in Hamilton County.
“We signed a short-term lease,” she said of the store that opened in March. “For me, the assumption was that it would be better. Even though this was short-term, we were going to be able to figure out this space or another one in the new neighborhood.”
Noblesville Mayor Chris Jensen, credited by Starsiak Hawk as an active recruiter for the store as it exited Indianapolis, said he appreciates Two Chicks District Co.’s time in his community.
“Small businesses are the bread and butter of our downtown community,” Jensen said in an email sent on Thursday. “It’s seldom that a retail space opens up around the courthouse, but when one does we’re quick to draw a high-capacity business like Two Chicks District Co. to the square. I’ll continue to cheer Mina and her team of lion chasers on as they tell central Indiana’s story.”
When Two Chicks District Co. opened in Bates-Hendricks, Starsiak Hawk was in the midst of an eight-season run of “Good Bones” on HGTV. The home-renovation show ended in fall 2023. Three episodes of “Good Bones: The Next Chapter,” featuring Starsiak Hawk and her mother, Karen E. Laine, aired this summer on HGTV.
In August 2023, Starsiak Hawk told IBJ that the Bates-Hendricks store struggled to build a local customer base. Tourists made up 85% of the shop’s visitors, she said.
“It was a bit more of a destination,” Starsiak Hawk said Thursday. “People were coming to buy a hoodie or to buy an item.”
In contrast, she said, “Noblesville has this amazing culture and atmosphere. People are out and about all the time. … On a Saturday, we’d have 300 to 350 people come into the store, and only about 30 people would actually shop.”
Ultimately, she said, it’s difficult for an independent home furnishings store to succeed anywhere.
“It’s hard to compete with Amazon and Target,” Starsiak Hawk said. “People want unique items, but they want them at a Hobby Lobby price. When you’re not buying shipping-container quantities, it’s really hard to do.”
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That’s too bad, I wish her the best.
The tale of Big Box Stores beating local stores on prices is not new, so the “target” market of those kinds of boutiques needs to be something uniquely local that can’t be mass-produced, depending on the brand… but it sounds like gift-shop tourists is where her brand resonates, and you can’t really pack a reclaimed dresser in your checked luggage.
I stepped into their Bates Hendricks store a few years ago and the prices were absolutely insane. They were selling small candles for like 40 bucks. I get that their show was very popular, especially locally, but you can’t expect customers to buy vastly overpriced products like a $40 candle or a $300 blanket.
Agree. I was there on a Saturday in mid-August and really wanted to buy something, but I just didn’t see anything I hadn’t already seen or bought elsewhere. If they had any branded sweatshirts I missed them, but I think the more unique items are what people are looking for in a shop like this, especially in a town with so many cute shops. Kudos to them; nice they gave it a try.
It was in a horrible location. While Noblesville has a very nice downtown it’s very crowded with the court parking. Plus the coffee shop was next door. People aren’t used to walking from a garage to get to a store they drive past. I would imagine most kept driving to At Home or another store on the highway
If they were interested in more than just looking they would have purchased…Obviously.
Lmao