Odds and Ends

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Lives Up to Its Name

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  • Odds and Ends
    Odds and Ends
  • Odds and Ends
    Odds and Ends
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Walking into Odds and Ends, you’re immediately greeted with myriad smells and a “home-style and family look” as owner Jenny Jameson likes to put it.

Jameson has been in business for six years now, selling goat-milk-related products such as soaps and lotions. She first began working out of her kitchen before expanding into an office her husband owned in Geary.

“When you retire, you’ve got to find some kind of hobby. My goal was always to have a craft store where you put your crafts and stuff in. Then for some reason, I got to thinking, why not make soap? So we started making soap out of our kitchen.” Jameson said. “[My husband] had this empty building and I was running out of space in my kitchen. He said, ‘Go to town. That way we can have our house back.’”

Jameson makes all of her skincare products with the help of her family. Jameson puts hours of research into her products to make sure they’re ready to be used by her customers.

“I thought I was wearing out the internet because I was constantly looking at what a specific essential oil does. What are the benefits of goat's milk? What's the benefit of doing it this way? It took a lot of research,” Jameson said. “Luckily, I've been pretty fortunate that I have grandkids, nieces, and nephews to try on. Then I have other family members I can experiment with and say, ‘Hey, try this, see what you think.’”

Jameson’s shop offers more than just hand lotions and soaps. Chapsticks, facemasks, and sugar scrubs are some of the products she offers with things like body washes also in the works.

While skincare products are some of her most popular items, Jameson also sells blankets, T-shirts, jewelry, flowers, produce, and even meat.

Over the past six years, Jameson said she has amassed quite the loyal clientele as she has had people from all around the state and even the nation come and buy her products.

“One guy from Watonga who works in the oilfield, but he works in their offices, said, ‘I’m gonna try that,’ and now he’s my best customer. He comes in once a month for soap and lotion and says he hasn’t had to go back to his dermatologist,” Jameson said. “I've even had a child, I think he's four or five now, that's been coming to me since she was 2.”

Jameson couldn’t do this alone though. From having her daughter help run the shop, her husband providing meat and produce to sell, her brother-in-law supplying jewelry for the shop, a sister who works on embroidering clothing and blankets, a sister-in-law making jams and jellies, and another brother-in-law who makes furniture, family is an important factor for Jameson not only in her business but in life as well.

“We're kind of spread out with everything because it's family operated only, and we carry a little bit of everything in our shop,” Jameson said. “If you don't find something you like I would be surprised, because everybody that goes in usually comes out with something.”

Jameson has had her grandkids collecting produce from the garden in the spring. She has also spent time teaching them to make soaps and lotions.

“They're our future. My two older grandkids know how to make soap. They know how to make lotion, and one of them actually knows how to heat press t-shirts,” Jameson said.

Even with the amount of success she has had, Jameson doesn’t dwell much on the idea of getting her products in other stores or opening up other store locations for fear of having her business become too commercialized.

“I've had people talk about putting it in other stores, but to me when you do that, sure it's good to expand but then you lose that personal touch. You want to still have that home feeling right there and like I said, we do everything ourselves,” Jameson said. “This way it’s not just another product on a shelf. It brings them into our town.”

In speaking on Geary, Jameson said the small-town atmosphere is what has helped her keep business as usual during a time when many businesses across the nation have struggled because of the pandemic.

“That's what’s so good about a small town versus Oklahoma City or Yukon. We communicate with each other. If there's an outbreak, all we have to tell people is, if you're sick, we'll deliver to your porch,” Jameson said. “If you're sick, you're coughing, and you're running a fever, stand at our door with a mask, let us know what you want, and we'll come bring it out for you. But the majority of people, if they've got it, they're going to stay home.”

After moving to Geary in 1978, Jameson loves to call this town her home.

“[Geary’s] family, you know? The town becomes a family and that's why, if I can keep [Odds and Ends] in Geary, that's where I'll keep it.”