Se Vende owner Olive Jones (left) and her mother, Sage Eskesen, stand in front of a wall of earings for sale in their Damariscotta store on Monday, Sept. 2. Jones said she decided to close the store next month because she wants to focus on spending more time raising her 3-year-old son Max and fixing up her travel trailer, “Madeline.” (Nolan Wilkinson photo)
After 16 years of business, jewelry and gift shop Se Vende Imports is hosting a going-out-of-business sale to clear out its Damariscotta and Portland locations.
Se Vende’s local storefront at 153 Main St. will close no later than Monday, Oct. 14. The Portland store at 6 Exchange St. will close Wednesday, Dec. 25.
“I cried when I wrote my ad for (the newspaper),” said business owner Olive Jones. “I cried when I wrote my Facebook post about it.”
Jones said she’s closing the store to focus on other aspects of life, citing her 3-year-old son Max and fixing up a recently acquired Airstream travel trailer she dubbed “Madeline.”
Jones said the Damariscotta store will remain open with a 35% clearance sale until the closing date or until she runs out of stock.
Se Vende, meaning “for sale” in Spanish, found its origins in 2004 when Jones’s mother, Sage Eskesen, visited the Mexican town of Taxco.
According to Eskesen, the town had plenty of relatively inexpensive silver jewelry, so she bought as much as she could and shipped it back to Jones. Jones, who was living in Florida at the time, sold it to fellow waitresses.
Eskesen said she found the venture profitable enough to make more buying trips to Mexico. She started selling at fairs and festivals, and later she packed a backpack full of jewelry and travelled across Europe selling it.
By 2006, Eskesen had set up a shop in the downstairs portion of Jones’ newly built home on Biscay Road.
In 2008, Jones became a partial owner after she took out a $52,000 loan to help open a storefront in Portland.
The pair started going on buying trips all over the world soon after. They visited outdoor-market jewelry vendors in Mexico, Turkey, Chile, Vietnam, Morocco, and more. The store’s selection of jewelry still includes products obtained from artisans the pair met in travels across the globe.
“There weren’t cell phones, really, and so a lot of it was just, you get what you buy at the moment,” Jones said. “So we’d just buy them out.”
After Narragansett Leathers moved out of Main Street in Damariscotta in 2012, Eskesen and Jones started renting that location at 49 Main St., now home to Riverside Butcher Co.
They moved to their current Damariscotta location less than a year later, at the invitation of then building owners Rick Hirsch and Jean Kerrigan.
Eskesen said they had an apartment in Portland where they would go to help manage their Portland business. Jones and Eskesen would switch after three-to-four-day shifts in Portland.
“She and I worked seven days a week between the two stores,” Eskesen said.
In 2017, Eskesen decided to retire and Jones bought her mother out of the business. Jones brought Eskesen back as a part-time employee, however, and affectionately named her the “worst employee ever.”
Jones said she would not considering selling the business.
“It’s hard to imagine the store being owned by anyone other than this quirky duo,” Jones said.
When Se Vende finally closes, Eskesen said she plans to put more time into her art and gardening. Jones said her full-time employee at the Damariscotta location is ready to move on from the store as well.
Se Vende’s Damariscotta location is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday and Monday as well as 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday until Oct. 14.
For more information, call 761-1808 or go to sevendeimports.com.
Jewelry and gift shop Se Vende Imports hosts a 35% off clearance sale on Monday, Sept. 2 at its Damariscotta location at 153 Main St. in anticipation of its permanent closure Monday, Oct. 14. The business’s Portland location will remain open until Wednesday, Dec. 25. (Nolan Wilkinson photo)
