Downtown dear to businesswoman's heart

MOSES LAKE — Sue Torrence really loves her store.

“I just signed a three-year lease,” the owner of Sue’s Gift Boutique said. “I have good help, I can get away occasionally, and so I’m okay with that.”

But she also took a deep breath.

“But if someone comes along with a big check ... I’m okay with that too,” she added.

The 63-year-old Torrence has been a small-businesswoman in Moses Lake for 25 years — 18 of those at her current location on Third Avenue just across from Sinkiuse Square.

Sue’s Gift Boutique sells a little bit of everything, from greeting cards to candles to clothes to exotic French and American made soaps. Torrence also sells an extensive collection of Vera Bradley handbags and accoutrements, and she has a tanning bed in back next to the candles.

“I went to market one day with a friend and I realized, ‘oh my gosh, I can do this,’” she said. “And now I have a place to put all my things!”

Torrence said she loves helping people find things, and has worked hard to make sure Sue’s Gift Boutique is a “feel-good store” that people can enter and browse for any reason whatsoever.

“If you’re looking for a gift, or you need to tan because you’re going on a trip, this is a happy place,” she said. “Everybody is welcome, and everything sells!”

Torrence is a big supporter of small business and of downtown, and especially of Small Business Saturday. Downtown is an important gathering place, Torrence said, and central to the identity of a place like Moses Lake.

“If we don’t have a downtown, we don’t have a town,” she added.

Torrence’s husband Les, who has been cutting hair in Moses Lake for 38 years at the Broadway Barber shop, stood over a customer on a busy Friday afternoon with his electric clippers in hand and praised his wife’s business acumen.

“She’s a go-getter, a lot like her dad, not afraid to go to work,” he said. “She’s one of the few people who can make this [kind of shop] work.”