An eclectic mix of colors, fabrics, textures, and scents greet shoppers when they enter the Lucky Monkey Trading Co., located at 412 E. Sherman in downtown Coeur d'Alene's quaint shopping district.

The shop is owned by Derek and Christina Lucky, and the couple describe it as specializing in Bohemian-chic fashion and jewelry—most of which are fair-trade wares imported from Indonesia, Thailand, India, and Mexico. The store opened in June of 2006 and since has experienced significant growth in its inventory as well as interest from shoppers. As a result, last October the couple expanded their business into an adjacent store space, doubling its size to about 1,700 square feet, Derek Lucky says.

The couple have future plans to continue expanding their business by opening other stores in the region, and to effectively make that move, Derek Lucky currently is taking classes toward earning his Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) degree through a program at the University of Idaho's Coeur d'Alene campus.

"My focus in that program is effectively building the single store into a multi-store operation," he says. "I would like to have a second shop in the next couple years and want to grow regionally."

Until then, the couple say they are focusing on managing the store's inventory and accounts—and continuing to search for new and unusual items to sell.

Along with clothing and jewelry, Lucky Monkey Trading Co. features a mix of bags, purses, and home decor and gift items.

Some of the store's most popular items are its silk sari skirts from India, which are long-length wraparound skirts made of pieces of hand-woven and -dyed silk, and its sterling silver jewelry that's handcrafted by a group in Thailand called the Hill Tribe, Derek Lucky says.

He says the skirts are all priced under $20 and most of the silver jewelry ranges between $10 and $30, but he adds that those prices can vary based on the market price of silver.

The store's collection of jewelry items includes a wide variety of other styles and materials, from earrings made of colorful bird feathers to larger costume-style jewelry pieces that currently are popular.

One of the store's jewelry cases also features pieces that are made by local artists, he says.

Another trendy item the store carries is over-the-shoulder tote-style bags that are made in Nepal from recycled fabrics.

While Derek Lucky is focusing on school and managing the business's operations, Christina Lucky says she does most of the merchandise buying for the store, attending trade shows and also seeking out unusual pieces she sees on customers who come into the shop.

"We source from a lot of things," she says. "We do direct importing ourselves, attend markets for clothing, and I do research on my own when I'm looking for fair-trade vendors for jewelry, clothing, and accessories."

Fair trade is an organized social movement and market-based buying approach that aims to help ensure goods exported from developing countries are produced under socially acceptable conditions and that the workers who produce them are paid a fair wage. One of the Luckys' main criteria for the items they sell is that they're fair-trade products.

"Most of our goods are made in homes or small manufacturing facilities," he says.

Besides sticking to those criteria, the Luckys also make sure everything they seek to sell also fits into the store's brand image.

"That (brand) would be Bohemian chic, which can be described as a concern for a unique form of self-expression," Derek Lucky says. "We also look for products that we can retail for a reasonable price."

Christina Lucky adds, "We work really hard to find unique items and things that are different and that reflect our style in the shop as well."

She says one of her main goals in selecting products to sell at the store is to always have something new so that when customers come back again, they have a new experience there.

"I think we try really hard to have fun and affordable items to make it an interesting visit every time you come in," she says.

The couple say they spend time throughout the year traveling to some of the various countries from which they import their wares, such as making trips to Mexico to buy silver products. Derek Lucky says he's planning this year to travel to Bali to buy jewelry and clothing items for the shop, and Christina Lucky returned last month from an international clothing trade show in Las Vegas.

Lucky Monkey employs one full- and four part-time employees, besides the couple, Derek Lucky says.

Christina Lucky came up with the business's name by incorporating the family's surname with the fact that the couple's oldest of two children, Isabella, was born in what the Chinese zodiac refers to as the Year of the Monkey.

Derek Lucky says they enjoy their store's location in downtown Coeur d'Alene, and that most of the business's traffic occurs between late spring and early fall when the city experiences a big influx of out-of-town visitors. The store also sees traffic pick up around the holiday season, he says.

"We are in a cooperative place," he says of the downtown area. "It's been a comfortable place to have a shop, and we don't have another Bohemian-chic retailer here."

Derek Lucky says that when he and his wife first opened the store in 2006, they primarily sold furniture pieces from Bali, and carvings, masks, and other various items from Africa. Because those products didn't initially sell well, he says, they expanded the store's inventory to add clothing and jewelry. Since the second half of 2008, they've continually increased sales.

"In particular, since we expanded our space, that has been helpful in expanding our revenues," he says. "We've brought in a lot more inventory—a lot more clothing and accessories."

Lucky Monkey Trading Co. also sells some of its more popular merchandise on its website, www.luckymonkeytrading.com, including some jewelry, handbags, and scarves.

Derek Lucky says the site is still a work in progress, and that the most sales take place in the brick-and-mortar shop. He adds that instead of expanding the website to feature all of the products sold in the store, his goal for the site is to concentrate on more hard-to-find products that aren't typically sold elsewhere in the online shopping market.

Meanwhile, he says, he's continuing to focus on obtaining his EMBA and takes classes for three consecutive days once a month. He says his class schedule is flexible enough that it allows him also to manage the business's accounts and to negotiate with vendors, while his wife oversees the shipments that come into the store and other aspects of the business.

Before moving to Coeur d'Alene and opening their business, the Luckys lived in Tucson, Ariz., where Derek Lucky says he owned a behavioral consulting practice for about five years. He says his formal academic background is in psychology, and that Christina has a master's degree in fine arts.

Of his goal to expand Lucky Monkey into a regionwide retailer, Derek Lucky says he hopes his EMBA degree will help him and his wife effectively make that transition.

"You don't need one to run a successful small business, but we thought it would be helpful to that goal of managing a remote location," he says.

Derek Lucky says he's on track to obtain his degree in May of 2012.