A soon-to-be open store offers everything for the Greek enthusiast, minus the baklava, thanks to efforts made by Forever Greek owner Alison Moxley and her partner Jonathan Payne.

The store is set to carry Greek paraphernalia for all members and alumni of the "Divine Nine," a fraternity and sorority organization. Moxley's goal is to provide a wide variety of fraternity and sorority-oriented items.

"Our business caters to the members of what is referred to as the 'Divine Nine' sororities and fraternities," said Moxley. "These fraternities include Alpha Phi Alpha, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi, Delta Sigma Theta, Phi Beta Sigma, Zeta Phi Beta, Sigma Gamma Rho and Iota Phi Theta. These nine organizations are the historically African American sororities and fraternities that have been in existence since 1906."

Moxley is a former Delta Sigma Theta Inc. member at the University of Cincinnati.

"Our focus is mainly on custom and hard-to-find items," said Moxley. "We also sell the must-have Greek items like T-shirts, hats, keychains, license plates, etc."

By selling merchandise such as this, Moxley and Payne are making their first foray into the world of business. Moxley and Payne go a bit further than this, though. Their Web site's home page boasts, 'We welcome your feedback and suggestions! If there is any item you are interested in, feel free to let us know.'

"We started out as booth vendors, traveling to local homecoming events, step shows and football games and setting up our booths there," said Moxley. "We saw that there was an outpouring of support from all of our customers at the shows, so it gave us confidence to open an actual storefront."

Luckily, because of this break, Moxley and Payne's products will be available for special order.

If everything goes as planned, Moxley anticipates the store to be opened by Nov. 1.

"Forever Greek is an extension of a store that I have been running from home since July 2006," said Moxley. "So far, we have been working to get the store open for about six months. We actually caught a break on getting a store lease since we decided to open the store in the Art District of downtown. Our store is actually a converted artist's studio."

Forever Greek is located downtown in Cincinnati's Art District, at 1344 Main St.To view their selections before the store opens, visit http://www.forevergreekonline.com. At this Web site, one can enter in their information and receive updates from the store that will keep them updated with what's happening around the store.

This article was provided by: The News Record
Written by: Chris Campbell