WKU grad opens dream clothing store

On Friday afternoon Frosty Dillman visited Kash Collection’s owner, Karrie Cash. After graduating from WKU with a marketing and sales degree in December 2010, Cash opened her boutique in Bowling Green. “Karrie had been an adult since the day she was born,” said Dillman, Cash’s cousin. “So I’m not surprised at all that at the age of 23 she could be in business for herself.”

Lindsay Kriz

The cacophony of clothes hangers clacking and girls talking excitedly as they hold up potential purchases fill the space of Kash Collection.

The shop’s owner, Karrie Cash, a WKU graduate, watches from behind the register.

“Oh, that would definitely look good,” Cash says to the client as she moves from behind the desk to help the customer accessorize.

The customer, Lexington sophomore Lindsey Browne, stood next to her mother, holding clothes hangers as she waited for a dressing room.

Browne, who came to Kash Collection, 2317 Russellville Road, to look for tops and maybe a dress for homecoming, said she found out about the store from a friend in her sorority.

“We liked it because it had good prices, but the same cute clothes you see at, like, expensive boutiques,” Browne said.

Her friend, Owensboro sophomore Katie Ryan, said that this was her first visit to Kash Collection and that she already loved the store.

“I was going for a fall party dress, but then I came in and found the colorful dresses and tops,” she said.

After graduating from WKU last December, Cash planned to work in marketing then open up a store when she was in her ’40s.

But after entering the real world, she redrew her future.

“I did interviews in different places,” Cash said. “And I just really couldn’t find anything I wanted to do, to be quite honest. I just wasn’t happy with what I was getting.”

So instead, Cash decided that now was the perfect time to fulfill her dream, with the help from family.

“I talked to my father about doing this,” she said. “And he suggested that if I was interested in it, because he’s always been supportive of me doing what I want to do, that instead of getting a loan from the bank, that he would lend me the money.”

With the money from her father in hand, Cash began the process of putting together her store, including fixing up the store, getting the proper licensing and materials such as mannequins, clothes hangers and the clothes themselves.

“I’m not in debt yet, fingers crossed, thank goodness,” she said. “That’s going great, that’s always nice.”

Cash said that her unofficial grand opening on April 15 was definitely a success.

“The fact that I knew so many people… actually my grand opening couldn’t have been any better because I had so many people that were so supportive and helped get people here,” she said.

But Cash eventually learned that not every business day would be like opening day.

“You know I think with everything, there’s always that time period where you get discouraged,” she said. “There were days where I didn’t have customers for three or four days.”

But Cash said the store has finally reached a point that she is happy with.

“Now, I can honestly say at this point, I feel like one of the reasons I’ve been more prosperous is because I’m positive about everything,” she said. “I feel like I finally have the place set up. I feel like it makes me more proud.”