Shop and Serve: Scout & Molly’s Boutique owner Sonya Martin shares how she combines her love for community service and fashion

by Ashley Daniels

Community involvement and her love for people have always been at the core of Sonya Martin’s personal and professional life.

The Myrtle Beach native worked in the human services and criminal justice fields for more than 18 years as a state parole agent and as an offender-based interventionist with the state commission on alcohol and drug abuse.

“Then I stayed home for a good number of years to raise my children,” says Martin, “And after they were older, I went back to work and worked with the federal system as a program director for people sentenced to court on federal parole. After I did that, I was burnt out. I was just done.”

So, she shifted her love for serving people into another gear: into her love of retail fashion as co-owner of Monkees of Myrtle Beach, a trendy fashion boutique, with her niece. But four or five years ago, she had to sell her half of the business to her niece, step back, and give some love to herself because of some health complications.

“Both of my parents were ill, and they passed away 12 months apart, so I needed to step back and take care of myself and my family,” says Martin. “My husband decided he was not ready to retire, and I decided I wasn’t ready to quit working either.”

Instead, she opened her own boutique franchise, Scout & Molly’s, a year ago in Myrtle Beach.

“A woman from Raleigh, North Carolina, started it and named it after her two black labs, and that’s one thing that really attracted me to the franchise, that Scout & Molly’s was very dog friendly, and I have two black labs,” says Martin. “My husband and I are dog lovers. He trains dogs as a side hobby as bird hunters.”

Martin explains that she was also impressed by the franchise’s business blueprint, which allows each store owner to curate their own retail inventory, so that no two Scout & Molly’s (out of the 30-plus locations in the country) are the same. Martin’s Myrtle Beach location is the second one in South Carolina.

“It was kind of like serendipity,” she says. “They called me out of a list of potential franchisees about a year after we had moved and my parents had passed, and I settled their estate, so it all just fell into place.”

Martin describes her curated inventory as one that caters to mothers, daughters, grandmothers, and granddaughters in their twenties to their sixties, with the sweet spot falling between ages 35 and 55. Women’s apparel ranges from casual selections to statement pieces. You will also find gift items, jewelry lines based in Charlotte, North Carolina, cosmetic bags, candles made in Charleston, and more, as well as some of the best brands – from Another Love to Wooden Ships.

When Martin isn’t at her boutique most weekdays (her off days are Wednesdays to pick up her grandkids from school and take them to their ball practices and Sundays for church), she loves to travel. The next trip she was planning at the time of our interview was a trip to Florida with the entire family to fish and go Jet Skiing.

“We’re trying to do some more family trips together because my daughter works full-time and she has three kids,” she says. “My son and daughter both practice law with my husband, so they’re busy. Everybody’s busy. And so, we try to carve out the time to all go away together and just leave work behind.”

Martin also likes to give back to the community in her free time and uses Scout & Molly’s Boutique as a way to do so each month. For instance, the dog lover plans to support the Grand Strand Humane Society by posting a list of donations the animal shelter needs, and for those clients who bring in a donation, they will receive 10 percent off their entire purchase. She also has served on the board of a boys’ homeless shelter in Conway for the last 15 years.

“I’ve always taught my children to be involved in the community – that it’s so important to give back,” she says. “And I try to do little things in my store, and give a certain amount of proceeds to that cause.”

For more special events and seasonal sales, visit Scoutandmollys.com/myrtle-beach.