Successful retailer Jennings Brody had no plans to open another store. Her Peabody Place mainstay Parker & Otis is a bustling hub for both food and retail seven days a week, and as mom to daughter Miller, 4, she’s always busy. But then she stepped into an empty storefront on Parrish Street with hardwood floors and pressed ceilings–a vintage paradise.
“I stood in the front window and said, ‘This is the greatest retail space; we have to do something here,’” Jennings says.
That storefront is now Chet Miller, an eclectic retail store packed with home decor and much more. The new shop has given Jennings freedom to experiment. “At Chet Miller, I can have fragile things,” she says, away from the bustle and risk of food spills at Parker & Otis. “I think Chet Miller is more about helping with the space you live in,” she adds.
From first idea to grand opening, Jennings worked on the new shop for 14 months. It wasn’t an easy process. “There were so many tears,” she says six weeks after opening. “I think for the last three weeks before we opened, I put obstacles in my own way because I was so afraid.”
Then one of her friends gave her a pep talk. “She told me, ‘People want to be part of the process; they want to watch you grow,’” Jennings recalls.
At 16, Jennings started working as a gift wrapper at Williams-Sonoma. She adored it and worked her way up to interim store manager. She later spent years as a sales representative for another gourmet foods company before she hatched her first plan as an entrepreneur.
At the time, she had zero experience as a shop owner. Even with a loan from Self-Help, she had to max out five credit cards for capital. Most of the marketing was word-of-mouth started at The Federal down the street, when she and her husband, Jonathan Kea, would collapse into a booth for dinner when they were too tired to cook themselves. Back then, Parker & Otis only needed five workers on busy Sundays; now, the long lines call for at least a dozen.
As anyone who’s visited her stores may have speculated, her Morehead Hill home shares a similarly eclectic aesthetic. “I like to surround myself with things I’ve collected that make me happy,” Jennings says. For example: Her living room is adorned by two large concrete deer. They’re technically yard art, Jennings admits, but she loves them so much she doesn’t want them worn away by weather. And that’s the key, she says: love.
Well, that’s one of the keys. “You need a lot of love. You have to believe in what you’re doing,” Jennings says. “You also need a sense of humor. And you need patience.”
Photo by Briana Brough
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CHET WHO?
Both shops are named after members of Jennings’ family. Parker & Otis combines a family name (Parker was her grandmother’s maiden name, and the middle name of both Jennings and her daughter) with the name of a fondly remembered family pet. The new store is named after Jennings’ grandfather, who – family lore says – was the No. 1 Brach candy salesman in the state of Indiana.
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