Blooming Boutique closing Rehoboth location

After more than a decade in Rehoboth Beach, Blooming Boutique is closing.

“It bums me out,” said owner Micha Seto, who operates Blooming Boutique in Lewes, Milford and Long Neck. She also owns and operates a number of other retail stores including Treasures, Just Lewes, Lewes Gifts and Bayside Gifts. “All my other locations are thriving right now. I’m going to where we can be busy all year and rent is better.”

Seto said Rehoboth has changed over the years. People aren’t shopping and eating anymore, she said. Customers will search for parking spots for a good restaurant, of which there are plenty in Rehoboth, but not for shopping, she said.

Seto said she has an internal database with 28,000 people on it, and the customers don’t want to deal with the hassle of coming into town when there are other options on Route 1 or Route 24.

“It’s where the people live,” she said.

Seto said there was also little night business this past summer. So little, she said, that during the week, shop hours didn’t extend much past 5 p.m.

Blooming Boutique isn’t the first Rehoboth Avenue business owner to shutter its doors recently. Seto was surprised it was worth noting that her business was closing, because she estimated her business makes more than two dozen Avenue businesses that have closed their doors in past couple of years. Her long-time immediate neighbor to the west, The Bake Shoppe, closed earlier this year.

Seto said the final day for the Blooming Boutique in Rehoboth isn’t set yet, but it will be soon. She said she expects to be open past Sea Witch Festival, which begins Friday, Oct. 26, and maybe until the end of the year.

Until then, Seto said, the store has basically been turned into an outlet. Everything is 50 percent to 60 percent off, she said.

For more information on Blooming Boutique, go to bloomingboutique.com or call the Rehoboth location at 302-226-3300.