ABILENE, Texas — Abilene has a few beauty supply stores open for men and women to shop. But three Abilene natives felt the shopping experience could use a bit more comfortability.
Cardelia Walters, Jetquetta Glacken and Ayanna Williams recently opened the Beauty Plug in Abilene and so far, the community has been grateful for it.
While the World Population Review reports there is only 10.60% of Black people in Abilene, that didn’t stop these Black women from wanting to help get more products on the shelves and make customers’ shopping experience more enjoyable.
“A lot of people have been coming in here and telling us that they have to go all the way to the city to get their beauty supply products. So we were like no. We need to have somewhere here,” Glacken said.
They came up with the idea of opening up a beauty supply store in the Big Country to accommodate those in the community and give men and women the products they want.
“The fact that it's a store for a target audience, but whenever you would go inside, you weren't very welcome. We always thought that was a big issue. Then just the quality and then, of course, the items that are in other stores, sometimes they're outdated. They're sometimes expired products or that kind of thing. So we felt the need to bring a fresh new approach,” Williams explained.
Black hair care is a billion dollar industry and beauty supplies have been a staple in the Black community for centuries.
To share their success, they have a box in their store dedicated to supporting other businesses in the area. Other local entrepreneurs have the opportunity to put their own products in a box in the Beauty Plug store for a month. If the shop can sell at least six of them in a month, the product can stay in the store.
This store is only to start for what's to come for the Beauty Plug brand. For any local entrepreneurs looking for advice, these business owners say their doors are always open to give anyone advice.
“Come in here and talk to us! Just get started. If they need help, they can come here and talk to us. We can help them with maybe looking for vendors or anything else. We're here to help and we're here for the community,” Glacken shared.
To learn more about Beauty Plug, check the store out on social media.