Katherine’s Gift Shop, Kent
Longtime Kent resident Kathy Doherty is enjoying retirement by doing something she’s wanted to pursue since she was a teenager: own a retail shop.
When Doherty was just 18-years-old, she worked for a retail store, Rudolph’s, and loved every minute of it. She did the displays and would go into New York City to buy items, eventually becoming floor manager. But as her career was on an upward trajectory, she began having children and wanted to stay home to take care of them.
Now, many years later, she’s back in retail as the owner of Katherine’s Gift Shop right off Route 52 in the Town of Kent, where she an was elected leader for a dozen years. She’s been open for a little more than year.
The shop has a lot to offer with prices that range and gifts and items for both men and women. Boutique clothing and accessories, handmade gifts, oil and vinegars, soaps, lotions, greeting cards, maple syrup, jellies and jams, and jewelry are all offered.
“All ages,” Doherty said her customers. “Everybody stops in here.”
She stressed she wants customers to feel like they’re getting “small town customer service.”
The shop has many local artists that are able to sell their products through the boutique.
Doherty said she’s happy to be part of the effort to bring more commercial base to the town, which she said she fought very hard for when she was town supervisor. She loves helping customers and learning what they like so she can accommodate them.
“At this point in my life it’s nice that it’s me, myself and I,” Doherty said. “I don’t have to answer to anyone and I don’t have anyone’s problems so it’s nice to do this.”
While Doherty knows many people in Kent, she said she’s meeting even more people regionally, from Somers in Westchester County to Fishkill in Dutchess County. New customers have heard about her store through word of mouth and social media, she said.
If someone told Doherty when she was 18 she’d one day have her own retail shop, Doherty said that younger version of herself wouldn’t think it were possible.
“It’s something you always dream of,” Doherty said. “I think being supervisor of a town that then it was like I knew I can. If I can do that, then I can run my own business.”
Katherine’s Gift Shop is located at 38 Chauncey Road in the Town of Kent (Carmel postal address). Its phone number is 845-797-0372.
