Longtime friends carry a Jasper institution into its next chapter downtown.

Words by Jenny Lynn Davis | Images by Al Blanton

For nearly as long as The Very Idea has been part of Jasper, Amy Sanders and Ashley Laird have been part of each other’s lives.

They met in middle school, became best friends in high school, and stayed that way through college, moves, marriages, and children. Over the years, the two occasionally tossed around the idea of someday running a business together.

Someday arrived much faster than expected.

When Amy learned that The Very Idea was available for purchase, she called Ashley with a straightforward proposition.

“I work full time as a physical therapist, so I knew I couldn’t be at a store all the time,” Amy says. “So, I called Ashley and said, ‘Do you want to run a store if I buy one?”

Within days, the women were talking with longtime owners Joan Thornton and Carla Kimbrell about taking over the nearly four-decade-old Jasper institution. Within weeks, Amy had taken the leap. 

Former Owners Joan Thornton and Carla Kimbrell

“It wasn’t a difficult yes,” she says. “It was more a question of, ‘Can we get all the pieces to fall into place with my full-time job? Can we handle everything?’”

There was also a significant logistical question: where The Very Idea would go next.

The building that had housed the store was being sold, and the transition happened so quickly that the previous location closed before the purchase finalized. Rather than taking over a fully stocked shop, Amy and Ashley found themselves rebuilding inventory from scratch while also trying to preserve the identity of a business generations of Jasper shoppers already knew. 

The original “The Very Idea” location sign

In that sense, Amy says, buying The Very Idea was simultaneously inheriting an established business and creating a new one.

“We knew it had a following, and I think that gave us a little more confidence,” she says. “We knew there were some extra things we wanted to do. We have a lot more clothing than they had, for example. But we also wanted to carry on their legacy and continue what they had been doing.” 

Amy remembers The Very Idea from her elementary school years. If she needed a gift, she knew where to go. So did countless other customers.

“The Very Idea is a staple,” she says. “It’s always been the go-to place, and people didn’t want to see it close.”

Even seemingly small details carried meaning. The familiar scent of coffee still greets customers as they walk through the door, with the signature blend remaining part of The Very Idea’s offerings. Amy and Ashley also brought back another longtime favorite: the store’s namesake candle from locally owned Greenbriar Candle Co. They even brought its maker out of retirement specifically to produce that candle again.

And before Amy and Ashley began wrapping customers’ purchases, Joan returned to teach them how The Very Idea had always done it – right down to making the bows.

Those details reflect the larger balance Amy has tried to strike: make the store her own without losing what made people love it in the first place.

She and Ashley retained many of The Very Idea’s longtime gift, candle, and bath-and-body lines, working from a list Joan and Carla provided. When customers come in looking for something the store previously carried and don’t find it, Ashley says they make a note. In many cases, they bring it back.

At the same time, clothing has become a much larger component of the business.

Amy deliberately sought brands not already widely available in Jasper, both to give The Very Idea its own identity and to avoid duplicating what neighboring boutiques already offered. The expanded selection includes brands such as KUT from the Kloth, DAZE Denim, Z Supply, Sanctuary, Ivy Jane and Free People. Some required applications and approval before the store could carry them.

“We’ve put some sweat equity into getting some good brands,” Amy says. 

But she also says selling clothes is less about filling racks than what happens when the right customer finds the right thing.

“My favorite person to work with is somebody who hates shopping or feels uncomfortable shopping,” she says. “I love finding them something that makes them feel good in their clothes.”

She remembers one out-of-town customer who arrived with her husband and son over Mother’s Day weekend. The woman disliked shopping, but as Ashley and others helped her try pieces and put outfits together, Amy says the difference showed in the woman’s smile.

That personal attention, Amy believes, may be the most important piece of The Very Idea legacy.

She remembers how easily customers could call Joan and Carla with little more than an occasion and a price range — three teacher gifts, perhaps, or something for a friend grieving a parent — and trust they would take care of the rest.

“That’s great customer service,” Amy says. “That’s something we don’t take lightly. We want to continue that part of what they did and that level of service.”

Ashley sees it as something distinctly tied to life in a small community.

“You don’t get that in a big city,” she says. “Here, absolutely. You get that in a small town.” 

The move downtown seemed like a natural extension of that philosophy.

Amy grew up around downtown Jasper. Her parents, Tom and Carol Byars, own Byars Realty, and Encore Rehabilitation, where Amy works as the Director of Physical Therapy, is also downtown.

“To me, downtown is the heart of Jasper,” she says. “We really wanted to be where everything was happening. It’s growing and improving.”

The move has given The Very Idea greater visibility and foot traffic while connecting the shop more directly with downtown events and organizations. It has also placed the business among restaurants, retailers, and other entrepreneurs that Amy and Ashley increasingly see as collaborators rather than competitors. 

Before opening, the women even visited neighboring shops to see what they carried so The Very Idea could avoid unnecessary overlap. When customers ask for something another downtown retailer specializes in, they’re quick to send them there.

“I think your business only thrives more when you’re supportive of the other businesses around you,” Amy says.

She has experienced that support herself. Fellow business owners reached out when Amy’s purchase of the business was announced, offering advice about everything from retail operations to point-of-sale systems.

“I like that camaraderie and community,” she says. “People supporting each other is good for everyone.” 

Inside the store, Amy and Ashley have worked to create another kind of community.

Asked what she hopes customers feel when they walk through the door, Amy needed only one word.

“Home.”

Although the downtown storefront is different from The Very Idea’s former house setting, the women intentionally filled it with actual furniture rather than relying exclusively on conventional retail fixtures. Their goal was to retain some of that warmth.

“We want people to know we’re friendly,” Amy says. “We want them to feel welcome to come in even if they don’t want to buy anything. They can walk around and look. If they just want to come in and talk, that’s fine.”

“No pressure,” Ashley adds. “Just come hang out.” 

If that philosophy sounds familiar to longtime customers, Amy will consider that a success.

In fact, when asked what she hopes people will say about this era of The Very Idea several years from now, she laughs.

“I hope people call us Joan and Carla!” she says.

After more than 20 years working in physical therapy, she can imagine eventually cutting back. Perhaps, she said, The Very Idea becomes the place where she and Ashley spend that next season together — talking with customers, choosing clothes and gifts, and enjoying the business they once only casually imagined owning.

It would be a fitting next chapter for two women whose own story has unfolded alongside the store’s.

Running a business together has given Amy and Ashley more time together than they have had in years. Ashley had lived away from Jasper for two decades before moving home two years ago. Through those years, they remained best friends, their families becoming so intertwined that their sons grew up calling the women “Aunt Amy” and “Aunt Ashley.”

The Very Idea has brought them back into the rhythm of a friendship that began decades ago.

“This has reconnected us,” Amy says. “We were still best friends, but I feel like it’s connected us again to the way we were in high school and college.” 

Current Owners Amy Sanders and Ashley Laird

There is another parallel neither woman overlooks.

Joan and Carla built The Very Idea together. Now Amy and Ashley often hear that they resemble not only their predecessors’ partnership, but their dynamic.

On a recent trip to market, someone looked at the pair and told them, “Y’all look like Joan and Carla, but y’all act like Joan and Carla, too.”

Others have even asked whether they are Joan and Carla’s daughters. They aren’t. But in a business where continuity matters, being mistaken for the women who came before them may not be the worst thing.

The Very Idea has moved. It has new ownership, more clothing, and a different storefront. But Amy and Ashley are betting that the things customers valued most – familiarity, service, community, and the feeling of being known – can move with it.

And for the next generation of The Very Idea, that may be the whole idea. 78