Kara Waugh sells Fairfield shop, Adela’s, to new owners

FAIRFIELD — Adela’s in Fairfield owner Kara Waugh has announced that she has found a buyer for her business, who will take the reins from her in about a month.

Waugh has owned Adela’s for almost five years, having purchased the business from its founder, Dorian Atwood, in April 2018. Atwood started the business in 2006, and named it after her mother.

Waugh said that Mandy Hunter has agreed to purchase the business, and will take ownership sometime between late January and late February. Waugh and her family have already moved to Des Moines, though Waugh returns to Fairfield weekly to keep an eye on the store.

She has mixed feelings about giving up the shop. On one hand, she won’t have to work weekends, worry about the business’s finances, or be attached to her social media “24 hours a day.” On the other hand, Adela’s has become part of her identity, and she’s met a lot of great people through the shop.

“She likes a lot of the same things I do, but she has a different style, so I’m excited to see what she’s going to bring into the store,” Waugh said about Hunter. “It will be fun to see what direction she’s going to take it. I’m glad the business will continue, because I had opportunities to sell the building and walk away, but I really didn’t want to do that. I wanted the store to continue, because 17 years in a small town is pretty amazing.”

Hunter has told Waugh that she plans to keep the name of the store the same.

Early life

Waugh grew up in Fairfield and graduated from Fairfield High School in 1992. She attended Iowa State University, where she studied political science. After college, she got a job clerking for a State Senator in Des Moines, then worked for U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin.

Waugh got a graduate degree in public administration from Drake, then switched career tracks from politics to finance when she went to work for Principal Financial in Des Moines. She worked in event planning and fundraising for a while, until her husband Barry was offered a job in Fairfield. Barry also went to FHS, having grown up in Libertyville, and the couple liked the idea of raising their family in a smaller town, and one they knew well.

Upon their return to Fairfield, Waugh worked for Cambridge Investment Research for six years. She did a lot of traveling, and eventually decided that she needed a change from the corporate world. In 2018, she heard that Dorian Atwood was planning to retire and close her store, Adela’s.

New adventure

“As a joke, my husband told me, ‘Maybe you should buy Adela’s,’” Waugh said. “I worked retail in high school, and I was looking for something different to do. After talking to Dorian, I thought I could do it. I liked the marketing side of it, and the store gave me an outlet to exercise my creativity.”

Waugh adjusting to retail was a big learning curve, but she had fun getting immersed in the world of commerce and tourism. She said she never realized how many people from outside Fairfield visit the town every day until she bought the shop.

Adela’s is known for its high-end jewelry line Pandora, home décor (which changes seasonally), kitchenware and many gifts for moms and dads, and for every holiday throughout the year. Waugh said she’s proud of developing a line of Fairfield gift items, after local businesses kept asking her for gifts they could buy for visitors that would remind them of Fairfield. She worked with an artist from Georgia who created a collage of Fairfield landmarks, and that collage has been reprinted on many items for sale in the shop.

During the COVID pandemic, Waugh rolled out new services such as curbside pickup and delivery. She said people rallied around local businesses.

“One customer called me every week to ask, ‘What can I buy this week?’” Waugh said. “She would buy something, and I would deliver it to her front step.”

The pandemic also brought product delays and higher prices because of problems at the ports. Waugh said that prices jumped 10-25 percent “overnight” it seemed like.

Time to sell

Kara and Barry had been thinking about moving back to Des Moines, and Barry recently had a job opportunity come available there. After Barry landed the job, the couple decided it was time to leave their hometown behind. Waugh informed her staff of five that she intended to sell Adela’s, and shortly thereafter posted the news on social media.

Waugh spoke with a couple of potential buyers, and then met with Mandy Hunter and her fiancé Shawn McCarty. After conversing with them, she knew the store would be in good hands.

“They really wanted to keep the store going for the community,” Waugh said. “They saw the history, and it fills this great need in our community. It’s a unique store, and it brings people in from out of town. They wanted a business opportunity they could add to, much like I found almost five years ago.”

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com