R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press Local business owner James Ayotte and rescued “Birdie” look at some products for sale at Jens Gems by Peach on Ludington Street in Escanaba.

EDITOR NOTE: The Daily Press will be featuring a series of articles on local businesses, highlighting their history and what makes them unique. The series will run on a regular basis in the Daily Press.

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ESCANABA — 1628 Ludington Street in Escanaba, formerly the home of Kobasic Creations, now houses a two-part business conducted by entrepreneurial Rapid River native James Ayotte. Jens Gems by Peach is an online shopping show and also a gift shop.

Ayotte — whose nickname became “Peach” following the popularity of the release of the movie “James and the Giant Peach” — said that he participated in programs in his youth that bolstered a desire to run his own business.

“I’ve always had a passion for entrepreneurship, and I was in 4-H all my life, and that’s what really taught me about business,” Ayotte said. “I used to do entrepreneurship classes with Dave Radloff in town — writing a business plan, how to start your business.”

He said that while he was in school, he competed against about 700 other kids from around the country for Business Professionals of America and came home with two awards.

In 2019, Jens Gems by Peach was founded as a shopping show to sell clearance purses from Kohl’s. “Jen” is Ayotte’s mother, who he says has been his “biggest supporter since day one.”

“Gems” refers not to literal precious stones — though the gift shop does sell rocks, too. in the case of Ayotte’s business, the “gems” are the treasures found within.

The shopping show began in a bedroom in Ayotte’s apartment in Rapid River. He said it moved from there to his mother’s house; when the business outgrew that space, it moved to a space in downtown Escanaba; from there, a warehouse followed. Finally, the building Jens Gems by Peach currently occupies became available, and the final move happened in July of this year.

The main portion of the business, the shopping show, happens live on Facebook weekly, beginning Saturdays at 2 p.m.

“We get in pallets and we resell liquidated merchandise and we ship it all over the U.S.,” Ayotte explained. “It’s always been a passion of mine to have a gift shop. And when this location came available, I said, ‘perfect.'”

The items sold on the show are almost always a surprise. “It’s completely random. It just depends on what we get,” Ayotte said.

Like on other home shopping shows, Ayotte appears on screen to present the merchandise for sale. He looks at the items, feels them, describes them, tries them on and answers questions. He states how many of each product are available and names a claim code. Shoppers who submit the claim code in the comments are sent an invoice.

“Then, if you’re local, you can obviously pick up, or we can ship to you,” said Ayotte.

On the shopping show side — the west half of the building — dozens of large plastic containers Ayotte calls “bins” are lined up and numbered. Shoppers are assigned bin numbers, and when the see items they like on the show, they issue claims using their bin number. Ayotte said that people who fail to pay their invoices get banned, and their claimed items get repossessed and go back on the market.

“Sometimes we put up pictures of new stuff that came in, you can claim it now,” said Ayotte. “We like to keep it entertaining, exciting, you know, ‘what does he have this week? what does he got next week?’ Very enticing. The customers love it. We have a great time.”

He said that about 300 viewers watch at a given time. “It’s just been growing like crazy. We love it. …We have people in all 50 states. We’ve got Hawaii, Guam, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, all over the U.S.”

A single show can last for eight hours.

Different products are sold in the store, which underwent renovations in July before Jens Gems by Peach moved in. New lighting went in; walls went up. The sign for the business that formerly occupied the space is still outside the building for the time being — Ayotte said the price of removal was too high to tackle just yet.

Sold in the east half, the storefront, are an assorted miscellany of goods. “Souvenirs, gemstones, your stickers, little tchotchkes — just different unique things that you can’t buy at Walmart or, you know, Meijer. Things like that,” said Ayotte.

People peering through the windows with signage for Jens Gems by Peach — done by local business SignUP Graphics — may see several cages with colorful birds in and around them. The birds have been rescued and reside in the store but are not for sale; Ayotte referred to them as mascots.

The store is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.