By PJ Barua

In 1990, Jeff Wolter, a JMU senior at the time, opened a store called Party Perfect at the Kroger Shopping Center. Today that party supply store has expanded its scope and is prominently located near JMU on Port Republic Road.

It’s now called University Outpost. 

Wolter’s sister Christine Johnson, had just just graduated from JMU that same year. The siblings became business partners of the store until Johnson decided to part ways in 2018. 

“You know that’s family dynamics and everything changes when that happens,” Wolter said. “We’re happier now than when we were together because things were changing.”

Wolter grew up in Northern Virginia before he became a JMU student. However, he has never looked back since he graduated in 1991 and is still settled in Harrisonburg with a family of his own. 

Wolter was a computer information system major in the College of Business when he opened Party Perfect. Wolter says aspirations of being an entrepreneur have always run in his family. 

“We are always looking for ways to perfect other people’s businesses because we don’t think they run them very well,” Wolter said. 

Party Perfect sold party supplies and products for Greek organizations. The store eventually moved to Warsaw Avenue into a building that no longer exists. After changing the location from the shopping center, the store was renamed to University Outpost, and the owners expanded to sell Greek and JMU-themed apparel and products. 

Upon the start of their business, Wolter knew the store would face financial challenges. He was in his last year of college when the store first opened. After graduation he went into the banking field full time while also working part time at the store. Now, after 34 years, Wolter says he did not anticipate it to be as successful as it has become. 

Around 1997, the Outpost moved to its current location on Port Republic Road. At that time Wolter added textbooks into the mix until 2019, a decision that kept the business afloat during financial challenges. 

“You had to take some pains and we took those pains for quite some time,” Wolter said. “Then finally we just ended up getting into the books, which helped bring us to where we are today.”

In 2008, Wolter parted ways with Greek organizations due to some differences over how to share profits with the organizations. 

According to Wolter, the demand for textbooks slowly started to disappear in 2011 . Therefore, he realized that the business was not going to make the money they used to through textbooks and it was not going to be enough to keep the business alive. 

“You have to stay dynamic in this world because if you don’t you will become dead,” Wolter said. 

Textbooks were a significant factor because many people did not care to purchase JMU merchandise until 2004 when the JMU football team won its first football national championship. That year, Outpost made a profit of  $30,000 to $40,000 just from the championship sales. In 2016, when the team won the national championship again, it only took the store an hour online to reach 2004’s profit in championship sales. 

During the time Outpost sold and rented textbooks to students, the campus bookstore was the business’s primary competition in terms of who bought the most books and who had the most used books available. However, with time it all kind of mended together and both businesses now operate separately without clashing with one another. 

Wolter says it is important for the Outpost to differentiate itself from others that sell JMU merchandise, like the JMU Bookstore and Walmart. Due to his knowledge of where those stores order from, Wolter is able to avoid ordering anything from the same place to make sure the designs he sells are unique. He says he also asks his employees, a group of mostly JMU students, their opinions to keep up with new or resurfacing trends. 

Isabella Antoon, a JMU senior, enjoys shopping at the Outpost because of the variety the store offers with a cheap and resealable price. She visits the store occasionally, but will always go before a football game for the free buttons the store provides. 

“They are always coming out with new stuff but also have the usual stuff, like alumni sweatshirts,” Antton said. “I will definitely go to the Outpost to get my JMU alumni sweatshirt because I know it is the cheapest option.”

Antoon adds that as a JMU tour guide, she typically recommends families pay a visit to the University Outpost.

During JMU events like tours, parents of incoming freshmen frequent the Outpost. Brande Heitz, mother of a JMU senior, said she first went into the store when she came for her daughter’s orientation. 

“The store was clean, organized and we could easily find what we were looking for,” Heitz said. 

Now Heitz visits the store during times like family weekend or when they have picked up her daughter at the end of the semester

The Outposts’s success continued as Wolter opened a second location in Harrisonburg Downtown around August of 2022. That decision came to be when the business went through a stagnant period. According to him, if you don’t keep your eyes open and keep moving along, your business will stay the same and falter. 

Although the Outpost started out as a family business, Wolter says he would only continue to keep it in the family if his kids choose to take over. However, both his daughters are currently involved with the Outpost located downtown. 

He adds how the business has relaxed over the years, yet they will still have days like College GameDay when the lines are long, getting in and out of the parking lot is hectic and just a workday more chaotic than usual. 

Nevertheless, days like that are not new to Wolter. 

“We’ve been doing it for years,” Wolter said. “We love the challenge and we want more challenges.”

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