Never mind ‘Where have I seen this?’ The question Kim Sandbach hopes will soon be on everyone’s mind is, ‘What’s That Smell?’
Believe it or not, What’s That Smell is the name of Sandbach’s new business, a fragrance, cosmetics and skin-care products shop she’s opening at 80 Broad Street.
The unfinished storefront for What’s That Smell was featured in last week’s ‘Where,’ which attracted an unusually high number of correct responses. Once again, though, the winner was Jenn Woods of Red Bank, who seems to be establishing herself as the game’s most dominant player.
Congratulations to Jenn.
Now, what about that smell?
Sandbach says the store will sell high-end productsno knockoffsat a discount to what you’d pay elsewhere. With any luck, she says, she’ll open for business on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving, that is), but there are no guarantees of that. She’s at the mercy of a contractor or two and the borough.
OK. But the name. Doesn’t ‘What’s That Smell,’ um, sort of cut both ways? Don’t retailers usually avoid names that lend themselves to derision, especially when they’re selling products usually associated with beauty and glamour?
Sandbach laughs it off, as though tweaking people’s perceptions was the point. And she seems a somewhat free-spirited, headlong type, one who flaunts convention. She told redbankgreen that, when she turned her attention to coming up with a name for her store, there was no making long lists of names, no trying to pressure-cook the perfect diamond of a dignified moniker. ‘What’s That Smell’ popped almost immediately to mind, and she told her husband, Jack, what she’d come up with.
“He said, ‘I like it,'” says Kim. So that was it; it was done. And the name seems to tickle most people when they hear it. Says Kim, “I’ve gotten a laugh from pretty much everybody.”
Everybody, that is, except her sister, Nicole Foglia, who will manage the store.
“She hates it,” says Kim. “She loathes it. She said, ‘You’re not the one who’s going to be here all day answering the phone, ‘What’s That SMELL!'”
This causes Kim to bust up laughing. Sisters!
OK, now to this week’s contest. Recognize this turquoise-trimmed structure? If so, please let us know via email where you think it is.
Remember, there are no prizes other than the pleasure of coming in first, and this week, of knocking repeat winner Jenn Woods off the podium.
Does Jenn have a sister out there, perhaps?