Donald Teuma-Castelletti
SHAWVILLE March 10, 2018
A shoe shop in Shawville has been all shined up, celebrating a grand opening on Saturday with a new name, logo and its new owner.
Jill McBane is the proud owner of Boutique Shawville Shooz, located at 387 Main St., where she hopes her change in careers will not only help spruce up the local shoe game with some new brands, but offer her an opportunity to succeed within her own community.
“I was working in the city and hated the commute and had to come up with something else,” said McBane.
Working for the Firefighters’ Credit Union, she never imagined, nor wanted to imagine, working in retail. Still, her friends persisted and she took careful consideration before deciding it was the right choice to make.

“Marjorie [Horner] was closing down and several of my friends talked me into doing it,” admitted McBane. “I said absolutely not, I hated retail, but here I am.”
For someone who wasn’t fond of working retail, she has fully embraced it. While she had plenty of friends helping with the opening on Saturday, she hopes to run the shop all by herself for the time being, as she continues to expand her customers and product base.
So far, she’s brought in new brands like Birkenstock and Blundstone, plus some new accessory brands to her store and she hopes to continue this trend of staying on top of what locals are looking for.
McBane celebrated her grand opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday, sharing the history of the store in her family and the community, showing photos of memories from the shop over the years, plus snacks and draws for her guests.
She said 175 people came to check out her store on Saturday, and that Kellie Keon, Anne Forbes and Dorothy Morrison were the lucky winners of the draws.
She plans to continue her clearance sales for the next bit and hopes to see more of the community in the near future.
“I’ve certainly had a lot of friends [help with this],” said McBane. “I can’t take all the credit myself.”