New McHenry boutique owner has long family history in retail – but her day job is school principal

Women in Laura Taubery’s family have a long history in retail.

On Saturday, the family’s latest foray into the retail world comes with the opening of Taubery’s Wild Hunny Boutique in downtown McHenry.

“My mom, Sandy, is a former Marshall Field’s employee. My mom’s mom ... she owned a dry goods store in Evanston and Chicago. My great-grandmother would buy end-of-season things at Marshall Field’s and sell it,” Taubery said. “It is like the women in the family are known for this kind of thing.”

Taubery is an artist and an art educator: Her day job is being principal at Richmond Grade School.

Her experience in retail started as a teenager in the 1990s in Arlington Heights. The owner of the boutique she worked at let her and other young employees “go to the Merchandise Mart and do the shopping, make the orders. We did all sorts of stuff, including making the displays and [going] to the chamber [of commerce] events,” Taubery said.

“It is fashion that is affordable.”

—  Laura Taubery, Wild Hunny Boutique owner

She and a friend had talked about creating a small boutique in Ringwood at the salon where they both were clients. As COVID-19 restrictions began easing, they opened the first iteration of Wild Hunny there. But after three years – and the friend’s move out of state – it was time to find a location less off the beaten path, Taubery said.

“It made sense to move into McHenry,” she said.

Between the increased foot traffic due to the McHenry Riverwalk Shoppes and help from the city, “there is a sense of community and collaboration that I am all about,” Taubery said.

She reached out to Doug Martin at the city’s economic development department, and he and his staff helped her connect to property owners and real estate agents.

“The people I talked to were very supportive and more than happy to give me information and additional numbers to call [if they couldn’t help me],” Taubery said.

McHenry Area Chamber of Commerce President Molly Ostap said the city’s economic development team “has done a great job of making McHenry a good place to do business and is very supportive of small business.”

Taubery is a member of both the McHenry and the Chain O’ Lakes area chambers because she said she can learn from other members, share ideas and be willing to take risks for others who are members too.

“There are some great ideas out there, seeing what other communities and other chambers do,” she said. “That synergy brings a very positive vibe.”

Taubery is working to create a vibe with the store, too. Her focus is finding vendors who are local, women-owned or both.

“Our focus is local and small,” she said, adding that affordable also is at the top of the list.

“We have boutique-quality clothes that are all $33 and less. It is fashion that is affordable,” Taubery said.

Ostap said McHenry could continue to see a renaissance of retail, in part from the traffic brought by the Riverwalk Shoppes, but not only from them.

“I think it is a mixture of the Riverwalk Shoppes and the excitement about that,” Ostap said. “But there are a lot of things that go hand in hand with that, like the dining and entertaining district. It all works together really, really well.”