Gifting the Garden State

Believe it or not, Just Jersey is about more than a deep love of the Garden State. While that’s certainly a big part of the shop, it was born out of co-owner Tina Bologna’s desire for locally made, environmentally friendly, sustainable gifts. 

It all started when her children’s school needed a fundraiser, and Bologna wasn’t happy with the options. “I really didn’t want them to sell wrapping paper or any of those things that people just end up throwing away,” she says. “I had friends who were artists making beautiful, high-quality things, and I thought there must be a way to connect these artists with schools and the community.” 

She started a catalog-based fundraising business focused on artisan-made, locally produced goods, which she ran for a few years. Then she started brainstorming with Paul Miller, another parent at her kids’ school, and the two decided to test the concept in a brick-and-mortar retail location.

They opened in 2014 as a holiday pop-up shop and haven’t looked back. In the beginning, the store had about 30 vendors. Today, Just Jersey sells high-quality goods from around 300 makers, artists, and small businesses—and there’s not a tchotchke in sight.

While the original focus was on locally produced goods, pretty quickly customers began asking for items with a New Jersey theme. “It wasn’t really a pivot we expected,” Miller says. But they passed the requests onto their artists, who ran with the idea, providing the store with New Jersey-inspired chocolates, pasta, jewelry, cutting boards, and more. 

While some of the items make clear references to local culture—depicting Taylor Ham or alluding to Jersey Girl sass—many others are simply made locally. For instance, there are pens that look like they are made from turned wood, but are really resin, and jewelry made from slices of colored pencils. “Our makers are from New Jersey, but they don’t have to limit themselves to products related to New Jersey,” Miller says.

Connecting Artists and Buyers

A large part of the store’s mission is helping local artists find a marketplace for their work. “We are often the middle person between the artist and the client,” Miller says. “We are really happy to help local artists find a market for their goods.”

For example, the store has long sold New Jersey-shaped Christmas ornaments that are stamped with local town names. When the woman creating them wanted to move on to another venture, Miller and Bologna reached out to another ceramic artist to take over the business. “We order hundreds and hundreds at the holidays, and it was great that we could pass the business onto another artist,” Miller says. 

Custom orders, like wedding favors, coasters emblazoned with local town names, or art calling out a meaningful location, are also big sellers. “We also do a lot of business with local realtors, who comes to us for client gifts,” Bologna says. 

Quite a bit of their business is from repeat customers, which presents a fun challenge for Bologna, who does much of the merchandising and store design. “We’re always looking at ways to keep the store fresh,” she says. “We want to always have new options, so our customers aren’t just seeing the same things over and over.” 

Keeping It Fresh

To that end, Just Jersey is always testing new products. “It’s a win-win,” Bologna says. “We like to give new vendors an opportunity to sell their goods, and we like to give our customers new options.”

One big question, though: Do the owners of Just Jersey ever get tired of spending so much time focused on, well, just New Jersey? “Never,” Miller says, with a smile. “Not for a minute.”

Just Jersey is located at 163 South St. Visit justjerseygoods.com for more information or to shop online.