Mac couple Quyen Tran '95 and Jon Witthuhn '95 have found success in kiddie retail.

BY |LYNETTE LAMB PHOTOGRAPH BY | ROBIN LIETZ

Searching for baby gifts in the Twin Cities, Quyen Tran ’95 was getting discouraged. Nothing was fun or interesting enough to catch her attention. “After my fourth trip to Baby Gap, I thought, there’s an opportunity here,” says Tran.

That opportunity nicely dovetailed with the entrepreneurial desires of Tran and her husband, Jon Witthuhn ’95, leading the duo to found the northeast Minneapolis baby boutique Pacifier in 2004.

Their timing was perfect, coinciding
as it did with a weird cultural fascination with celebrity babies and their stylish clothing and gear. “It’s kind of like baby is the latest accessory,” says Tran. “Strollers costing
$600 to $900 would never have flown in the Twin Cities 10 years ago, but now they sell very well.”

Pacifier doesn’t limit itself to the still semi-stodgy Twin Cities market, however. Its online presence, which accounts for 35 percent
of sales, draws lots of buyers from the coasts. “Expensive baby furniture and edgy stuff like skull T-shirts still sell better on the East and
West Coasts,” says Witthuhn.

Both Tran and Witthuhn buy for the store but otherwise divide the workload, with Tran handling back-of-the-house tasks such as bookkeeping and marketing and Witthuhn more public matters such as employee training and customer service.

It’s a long way from their Macalester degrees in anthropology and religious studies—as well as from Tran’s previous career in international nonprofits—but they are still guided by their Mac values,
they say. Pacifier’s only full-time employee has paid health insurance, and its owners buy as many organic cotton and fair trade products as possible, donating a percentage of profits to the Global Fund for Children.

After four years of long hours, the couple just recently began taking two-day weekends, trying to stave off the burnout that comes so easily when, as Witthuhn puts it, “you do everything yourself and everything depends on you.”

As for where the childless couple spends those precious free weekends? Says Tran, “Preferably in restaurants and vacation spots without kids.”