Sanford native Neil Bullard living his dream as an entrepreneur in downtown Sanford

The calming music is straight out of a classic holiday film. The smell? A hint of pine and cranberries, with perhaps a hint of cinnamon. Tall nutcracker soldiers stand guard at the entrance. A plate of red and white treats are free by the register.

It feels like Christmas inside of Neil’s Apparel and Accents, downtown Sanford’s newest clothing and home goods store. 

And everything from the decor to the color scheme, logo font and even the paint on the ceiling are all carefully intentional efforts by owner Neil Bullard to make his store look and feel like a welcoming — almost vintage — department store experience. 

At only 25, Bullard — a Sanford native and recent graduate of East Carolina University, where he studied entrepreneurship and merchandising and earned his MBA — is running his own business, launched on June 7 of this year. Twenty-five might be considered young to start such a venture, but Bullard says this is something he’s wanted to do since high school. 

“Sanford is growing, and I knew that there was room for another store in the market, especially one that offers both home goods and apparel,” he says. “Since right now I think a lot of our stores here are separated [men’s and women’s], I thought it would be fun to bring something that was kind of a combination of everything.”

The Rant sat down with Bullard in his store as he was preparing for what will be his first ever-important holiday shopping season as a business owner. 

Question: From the fonts to your color schemes and your displays, it feels like design is really important to you. Let’s start there. Talk about what kind of look and feel you’re going for with Neil’s.

Neil Bullard: The building here is about 125 years old, so obviously that’s a really huge piece of history. So I wanted to pick colors that still felt familiar, but also kind of in a new take. So actually the colors of the wall are categorized as historic appropriate colors.

That kind of keeps that familiar feeling. But also, my favorite color is navy. I’ve always been drawn to it. And then I think just bringing in the gold is just a nice kind of accented touch to it.

I did a heavy study in college on sensory marketing and kind of the importance of our senses in retail and how a lot of people don’t understand how you need to encompass all of your senses into retail. And so that kind of led me to all of these decisions, too.

Question: The music and feel in here all seem very intentional. What from your experience and studying marketing did you learn that led you to want to present everything in this way, and what frame of mind do you feel like this puts a shopper in?

Bullard: So I know, especially as a consumer, we have every form of retail at our fingertips. And so in captivating all five of your senses, I think that’s where the misconnection from shopping online, that’s what it lacks. Obviously, there’s convenience. You can shop online at home, but you don’t have a peaceful environment where there’s relaxing music, and it takes you kind of out of the world you currently live in. 

I know a lot of people come in because they just like to hang out and relax and listen to the music. But also … the smells we choose, it’s all part of the experience. It’s all very comforting.

Question: So you cut your teeth in Greenville and worked in retail there. What made you want to come home, and why was it important for you to do this in your hometown?

Bullard: Well, all my family’s here, so that was really important to me. My brother just got married, so I knew that I would be soon adding on the title of uncle, and that was something I really wanted to look forward to and just kind of be closer to them. But I also was really drawn to doing this is a downtown area, because I wanted the historic building. I always said, even whenever I was in high school, I wanted an old building with squeaky floors and a great ceiling.

When we toured the building, as soon as I walked in, the floor squeaked and I knew this was the one for me.

I grew up performing in Temple Theatre, and my experience creating displays comes from my theater background. It’s technically set design. It’s props. All of that happened here, and I wanted to come back here. 

Question: Twenty-five might be considered young to open your own clothing store. Why do you feel like you were ready now? 

Bullard: Yeah, 25 is on the younger side. But I think entrepreneurship really happens at any age. I started when I was a freshman in college selling T-shirts [his own line of shirts called Top Dog Outfitters]. So I’ve always just kind of had that drive. I think no matter what you want to do, I think you can just go for it. And I’ve just always wanted to do this. There are certainly rules you have to follow in business, but in corporate retail, there’s not really any rules that say you have to set up your display just like this. I like being able to say, well, let’s do whatever we want. And let’s kind of flip the script.

Question: You’ve been open since June, and you’re about to enter the holiday shopping season. How has business been for you so far?

Bullard: It’s been great. The summer is traditionally a slower time for retail. Just with everyone out on vacation, but I have not let up since June. So it’s just been nonstop fun. Social media has been a lot of fun.

But there are a lot of nerves heading into the holiday season. I worked in retail for seven years, and I knew the Greenville market and I knew everyone. And coming back here, I have a general gist, but it’s all new to me. You don’t know what people are going to like or what they’re drawn to. And I have no kind of point of reference, whereas the other people who have stores downtown, they’ve been doing this for a couple years. They know, OK, this isn’t going to go so well. They can be more prepared for this.

And those other businesses have been really great, too. We have a big group chat, all of us together, and they’ll kind of guide me a little bit and say, you need to have this and don’t do this. They’ve been a huge help.

Question: What advice has those established businesses given you?

Bullard: A lot of it was about catering to your customer. Obviously, that’s what we’re here for. We’re here to keep that experience, and so get to know your customers, get to know what they like, and then the rest will follow.

And actually, a lot of my reps that I worked with previously, they say your customers will lead you to what they want. You’ll slowly learn that, and I think I’ve learned that through working with all the other merchants. 

— by Billy Liggett