Kate Simpson has relocated her coastal shop from Rhode Island to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Simpson started Cerulean as a coastal shop about six years ago in Warren, Rhode Island, as a way to support local artisans. The retailer sells a variety of nautical-themed products, including jewelry, glassware, stationery, cards, soaps and more.
“I currently carry over 70 artists in the shop as well as curated vintage finds,” Simpson says. “I want to support as many artists as I can.”
Although Cerulean started in Warren, Simpson grew up about an hour away in Sandwich, Massachusetts. When her mom contacted her about a storefront available in Cape Cod earlier this year, she quickly hopped on it.
“I’d always wanted to come back to the Cape where I grew up,” she says. “This was the perfect way to do that.”
As a one-person business, Simpson says she realized it might be too difficult for her to manage two storefronts, especially during the busy holiday season. She says she decided to close her Warren storefront in early November as she moved to Sandwich.
“As soon as I decided I was moving, I had a moving sale to thank my former location customers for the support (and to make it a lighter move)!” says Simpson. “I ended up closing for about 10 days in total for the move and to get all set up in the new space.”
Cerulean’s new location opened at 157 Main Street in Sandwich on Nov. 10. Simpson says the new storefront is smaller, only half the size of what she had before, but she knows the new community well and loves being able to start fresh with a new storefront. She adds that the store will feature many of the same products and vendors as before, just in a new space.
She says, “It was nice to refresh. I could decide on the layout and how to better benefit the size of the space and the shape of the space. It was more planned out and thought out to have good flow to showcase products and have people easily walk around.”
