By Ashley Daniels<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The cute little corner gift shop that could, LaFaye\u2019s at 79th<\/sup>, continues to be a Myrtle Beach mainstay after 42 years in business, with locations and ownership changing over that time span.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Originally owned by its namesake, LaFaye Clarkson, who passed away years ago, LaFaye\u2019s opened in 1982 and was situated in downtown Myrtle Beach. The ownership torch was passed to Angela Clarkson, LaFaye\u2019s daughter and the lifelong best friend of Marce Singleton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAngela and her husband really like to travel, so she was ready to give it up, and I wasn’t quite ready to stop working as manager here,\u201d says Singleton, \u201cso she handed it off to me in 2017 when we closed the store downtown, and I moved and reopened LaFaye\u2019s in 2018 here at the corner of 79th<\/sup> Avenue North and Ocean Boulevard.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Renowned for its inventory of lamps and shades, as well as repair services for those items, LaFaye\u2019s also offers gifts and accessories, home d\u00e9cor, candles, jewelry, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLamps and shades are our main business, which was the focus of the store when it first opened and really still is,\u201d says Singleton. \u201cBut you realize in a small store like this that people are not going to be coming in here to buy a lamp or a shade every day. You buy those things, and they\u2019re an investment, and you keep them, so I\u2019ve added little home d\u00e9cor pickup things for customers to notice when they are here with their lamp needs so that they come back and shop when they need gifts. And that has been a good thing for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for lamp repairs, Singleton says she has a \u201clamp doctor\u201d on staff, a retired master electrician to help with repair needs, and two employees who have learned the basics of the trade from the experienced repairmen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMany of the lamps that we repair are really almost heirlooms,\u201d says Singleton. \u201cPeople have had them for a long time, and they bring them in to have them updated, which may mean that we take off the old wooden base and put on an acrylic base, an acrylic cap, and a new shade for a vintage lamp with an updated look. People want to preserve lamps that their families have left them, or some of my older customers have had their lamps for 50 years, and they need a new cord or a new socket or something like that. A lot of those vintage lamps have had soak shades, which probably was all there used to be, but with the old incandescent bulbs and the heat in there, would cause the shade to rot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n LaFaye\u2019s also recommends that customers, for safety\u2019s sake, switch bulbs to LED so they don\u2019t get too hot. They just need to educate those who are leery of the stigma surrounding LED lighting\u2019s blue\/bright white, operating room-like aesthetic. Singleton assures that there are warmer LED lighting options available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides focusing on lamps and lighting, LaFaye\u2019s also supports local artists and jewelers and offers distinct gifts and home d\u00e9cor elements, such as fun cocktail napkins, mirrors, florals and planters, the French line of Trapp candles and fragrances, clocks, picture frames, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Singleton has always been involved in retail in some way, shape, or form. At as young as ten years old, she was working in the family business in Myrtle Beach, Northside Pharmacy, owned by her father, John B. Singleton. Now that she has employees she can trust to cover the store, she says she wants to travel more often than she has for the last 15 years\u2014from Blowing Rock and Asheville, North Carolina, to see the Dale Chihuly exhibit, to the south of France and Greece.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCome in and see us at LaFaye\u2019s,\u201d says Singleton. \u201cIt is a great gift when people come in and come back over and over!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n LaFaye\u2019s is located at 7901 North Ocean Blvd. For more information or, if you are a local artist wishing to sell your wares here, visit Lafayesat79th.com or call 843-626-9952.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Ashley Daniels The cute little corner gift shop that could, LaFaye\u2019s at 79th, continues to be a Myrtle Beach mainstay after 42 years in business, with locations and ownership […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":22145,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_tec_requires_first_save":true,"_gspb_post_css":"","rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":""},"essay_type":[76],"essay-category":[],"class_list":["post-22144","essay","type-essay","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","essay_type-sasee-gets-personal"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay\/22144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/essay"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay\/22144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"essay_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay_type?post=22144"},{"taxonomy":"essay-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sasee.com\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/essay-category?post=22144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}