A word with Cara Vierstra, owner of Remi Bleu stores

There are a number of adjectives one could use to describe Cara Vierstra: rodeo champion, twenty-something, farm girl, native Idahoan, young entrepreneur. No single one of them does her justice. The Idaho Business Review sought Vierstra out after the staff of the Woodbury Corporation, her lessor who owns the Magic Valley Mall, enthused about this “young entrepreneur” of trendy handmade goods.

Vierstra dreamed of her own retail venture and even came up with a store name, Remi Bleu, while she was a sophomore in college. While on a marketing tour in Europe selling someone else’s products, Vierstra observed the prevalence of boutiques selling unique wares and local handcrafts. Therein she found not only her product, but also her presentation. Relying on money she saved and her own vision for what she wanted, she has opened three successful stores in since 2018.

The interview transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Cara, where did you grow up?

I’m an Idaho native. I grew up in Twin Falls, on a dairy farm south of Twin. I lived there until I went to college in 2014. That’s when I moved down to Texas and lived there until March of this year.

Where’d you go to school?

South Plains College in Levelland, Texas, and Eastern New Mexico University. I got my bachelor’s in science. I was going to be a nurse then I decided I didn’t want to go there. So I just got the fastest degree that I could to finish. It was free because I was on rodeo scholarship.

So you were a rodeo rider? Do you still ride?

I do. I rope and I tied goats, but I don’t tie goats anymore. That’s what I did in college.

Then I lived in Stephenville, Texas when I graduated.

The folks at Woodbury Corporation said that you started your first store down in Texas.

Yes. In 2018, I went to Europe for four months after I graduated. I traveled and I also worked for a hair care company, helping them launch their products all over in Europe. After doing that for four months, I decided I wanted to start a shop of my own, because I saw all these cute little shops all over Europe selling unique goods and I wanted to bring that to people

I determined that I’d go ahead and do the boutique thing. I’ve wanted to do that since I was a sophomore in college. That’s when I came up with the name for my store, Remi Bleu. I opened my store in October, 2018.

Where did you set up your first store?

Hico, Texas. And I still have that one.

Is it in the Hill Country? (The Texas Hill Country is a scenic area of limestone hills in central Texas.)

It’s north of the Hill country between Austin and Dallas.

How did you end up in Hico? 

Stephenville is the Cowboy Capital of the world and it’s 20 minutes from Hico. It’s where I lived when I was going to school at Eastern New Mexico. I lived there for three years and during my third year there is when I started my first store.

Were you attracted to Hico because of its cowboy and rodeo connections?

Yes. I don’t know if you’re familiar with like Fredericksburg, but Hico feels like Fredericksburg.

I’m familiar with Fredericksburg.  (Fredericksburg, Texas, is a tourist destination for Austin and San Antonio much the same way that McCall is for Boise.)

So Hico is very similar, but it’s a lot smaller. It’s older. For example, the building where my store is located is called the Hico Mercantile. It’s what used to be called a Ford House, where early Ford cars would be assembled upstairs and then they would put them downstairs to sell in the showroom. It was also an opera house where they used to stage shows. It’s a really old building. Very historic.

You still have your store in Hico. So what made you decide to move out of the cowboy capital of the universe and back to Twin Falls?

Mostly COVID, but also my family. I really missed my family. 

The store in Hico must have been going well enough for you to keep it and decide to open up two more stores in Twin Falls.

The store in Hico is doing very well.

Where did you find the capital to start up the first store?

To be honest, I didn’t have a lot of capital when I started at the first store … I just started really small and built up from there. I had $2,000 I had saved and I spent it all on clothes and inventory and started selling there and then.

My parents were the same way. Well, my whole family, actually. We learned how to go without a lot growing up, through all the highs and lows of the dairy industry. That’s where I got it from. You make do with what you’ve got on hand, and do the best you can with what you’ve got at the time. That’s what my mom always says.

With the successful store going in Hico, how did you decide that you would open more stores in Twin Falls?

To be honest, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do when I moved back home. I had my store in Hico going; but it was as if the whole world was crashing down because of COVID.

But I was still dreaming. I started driving around town one day, looking at properties for rent. I inquired on one property that the mall owned. I didn’t actually want to go in the mall because it really didn’t fit in what I had in mind for a boutique. Then I went and it looked a lot better than I expected. So I bit the bullet and went for it. June 6th was when we opened the first store and then October 10th was the day we opened the second store.

Tell me about your merchandise and what makes you different.

I love to sell handmade things, especially those that are local, but just handmade in general, whether it’s crafted overseas or not. Mostly, I really love things made in America. The biggest thing that I want to do as I’m growing my business is to find more local and more made-in-America items. 

Right now, I have like a lot of items made by smaller companies, though not necessarily all in America. But most are smaller American companies. Remi Bleu is a small business supporting other small businesses. Most of my baby clothes are out of Utah. I have a friend of mine that makes all my soaps for my store.I have a lot of handmade, local pottery, crafted by a girl that makes it here locally (in Twin Falls).  She has it in the store.  

I really like selling women’s clothing. I have men’s clothing and baby and children’s clothing. I also have a lot of gifty types of goods.

I like to carry brands that have like a cause behind them. I have a lot of cutting boards and pepper mills or pepper grinders and salt shaker thingies that are all handmade and handcarved  in New York. I have a books for sale that are all by local authors. I even carry stickers that are drawn and designed by local artists. 

Where does the name Remi Bleu come from?

Remi was the first horse that I ever bought. I’m the baby of six kids so we all shared everything for most of our lives and passed the horses back and forth. Remi was the first one that I ever got just for myself. She passed away the year I came up with the name, and Bleu is my niece’s middle name. She was born that same year. I don’t know how I came up with it. It was just kind of random, but I love the name.

It’s also catchy and memorable. 

People come to the mall and think we’re part of a chain. We have since put up signs to tell people we’re not really a chain, that we’re a local business.

Are you running any advertising campaigns?

I prefer word of mouth because the best advertisement is people telling other people.I haven’t really advertised much at all … I post a lot on social media.

It must be a scary thing to open up a store in the middle of a pandemic.

Opening up one store is scary enough, but to actually add to it is scary too But sales have been good and since we opened, it’s gotten better. Thankfully Twin Falls didn’t shut down for very long …. And I think people are really want to support small businesses to shop local.