Jan Breakfield owned and operated Jan Marie’s Upscale Flea Market for three years in front of Barrett’s Garden Center but recently made the decision to move her business to 615 Main St., opening Jan. 4.
Breakfield needed more space than her previous 3,000-square-foot building and decided on the 8,200-square-foot facility in downtown Columbia. Within a week, she was able to add enough new vendors to fill almost triple the space and has more waiting on space to open up.
“There really isn’t a name for this type of market. A flea market doesn’t really assess the type of merchandise we have, but it’s not a vendor market because I kept a third of the store for myself,” she said. “All the merchandise here is upscale — nothing is torn up or has holes in it — everything is ready to move straight into your house. What we try to offer our customers is if we wouldn’t put it into our own homes, we wouldn’t expect our customers to put it in theirs. We offer them quality merchandise at an affordable rate.”
Jan Marie’s is home to a wide variety of items, ranging from concrete-top tables decorated with acid stains and swirl paints to canvas paintings, household items, hand-made outdoor furniture and candles. Jan Marie’s is also home to clothing boutique options for men and women and will soon offer children’s.
“The inventory is so vast. If you come in here for a suit of clothes from one of the boutiques, you can also buy the jewelry, sunglasses, hats, gloves and all of the accessories to go with it,” Breakfield said. “It’s like a one-stop shop. A problem a lot of people have is their houses are already packed, and they just need one piece. Everything here is sold separately, so you don’t have to buy an entire set. I think that benefits people.”
Breakfield’s family has a rich history with the building she now operates her business in. When she was a child, she would purchase school clothes and shoes from Rankin Company. When her dad was a child, he would go to the building to pick up seed and fertilizer. She knew from the moment she walked in the doors that the Main Street location felt like home.
“I want to see downtown come back to life. I have worked with Mayor Justin McKenzie, who visited me out at our old location and encouraged me to come downtown,” she said. “I had people telling me it wasn’t going to do well downtown, but I’m happy to say we have done better than ever since we moved here. We’ve had more traffic and we’ve had people really appreciate being able to come in this old building. It’s felt like it’s breathed a breath of life back into downtown.”
Breakfield is joined in operating Jan Marie’s by Ginger Rogers.
“She is like my right hand. She knows pretty much what I’m thinking before I do,” Breakfield said. “We get along like peas and carrots, so that makes it wonderful to be able to work with somebody like that.”
Breakfield said she accepts people for who they are and getting to meet and know people in the community is one of the things she enjoys most about owning Jan Marie’s.
“How I look at the town is these (people) are my friends; they are my family. I couldn’t picture being anywhere else now,” she said.
Going forward, Breakfield wants her business to continue to grow and improve while offering Columbia an affordable alternative to traveling out of town to shop.
“I want to be able to offer people a place to go without having to drive all the way to Hattiesburg to be able to get things they need for everyday life. If I can accomplish that, I’ll be extremely happy,” she said.
Jan Marie’s participates in the Cruise-In car show downtown every month and brings an element to it that makes it enjoyable for the entire family.
“When people come down for the car shows and the guys are all out looking at the cars, the women shop,” she said. “It gives them something else to do in the meantime while the guys are doing their thing. We have a lady that comes and cooks for the car show on our front sidewalk.”
Breakfield said she is proud of the women who own their own businesses in downtown Columbia and are having success.
“The majority of Main Street businesses are owned by women. I think it’s a wonderful thing for women in general to have come in and made a life for themselves and their families,” she said. “One-hundred years ago, we would have never seen this in downtown. I’m proud to be one of them.”
Breakfield wanted to offer a special thank you to Mayor McKenzie for helping her decide to move her business downtown, to Mickey Webb, the owner of the building, whom she said has been wonderful to work with, to her husband, Jamie, for helping with the store and to Mark Rogers for being a good friend who continually stopped by to check how she was doing and if she needed anything.
Jan Marie’s is open from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and can be reached by phone at (601) 674-6995. It will host its Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting Feb. 16 at 10 a.m.
Pictured Above: Owner Jan Breakfield, left, and Ginger Rogers are ready to assist customers at Jan Marie’s new Main Street location in downtown Columbia. | Photo by Joshua Campbell
