The Perky Lady, a lingerie shop that spent nearly a decade on Salem Street in downtown Apex, was scheduled to close its physical doors on Wednesday. Owner April Buchanan says the shutdown marks a personal and professional transition rather than a business failure, as she shifts her focus toward a new career in counseling.
Buchanan told the News & Observer that the shop was profitable right up until it closed, and that she and her husband had even considered selling it before deciding to close instead. Downtown construction that began in January made things harder in the meantime — Buchanan said the shop saw a noticeable drop in casual walk-in traffic while the work dragged on. According to the same report, Apex originally expected the construction to wrap up by October, but the town now says Salem Street will not fully reopen until mid-December, with cleanup work continuing into mid-January.
From Storefront to Supervised Counseling Sessions
The closure comes as Buchanan works toward a master's degree in clinical mental health counseling at Liberty University, which she began in 2024. As of August, she has been seeing clients as a supervised intern at Coffee Talk Therapy in Cary, where Jacklyn Michele Blake — the practice's clinical director — supervises her work. Blake is listed as a licensed professional counselor and licensed clinical mental health counselor affiliated with Coffee Talk Therapy Health and Wellness Group PLLC, according to her Psychology Today profile, which lists her North Carolina license number as 15965 and notes the practice offers both in-person and online sessions.
North Carolina's licensing board lays out a defined path for counselors in Buchanan's position. Per the North Carolina Board of Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselors, an LCMHCA license allows someone to practice counseling under supervision in the state, and applicants must complete internships in a clinical mental health setting if they apply on or after July 1, 2025. The board also requires at least 60 semester hours of graduate training — including a qualifying master's degree — along with passing an approved exam, and says application processing typically takes four to six weeks when there are no legal or special complications.
Why She Says She Closed the Shop She Built
Buchanan explained that The Perky Lady's model simply didn't leave room for her to split focus between two demanding, relationship-heavy pursuits. The shop's approach always leaned on close, personal attention — something she says doesn't mix well with giving counseling clients the time they need. Buchanan has described The Perky Lady not as a simple retail operation but as something closer to a service built around trust, telling Shoutout North Carolina, “We aren’t a store. That’s just the vehicle.”
That philosophy shaped how she built her team, too. Buchanan has said every single employee at the shop started out as a client, and that the business leaned into community work beyond selling lingerie — supporting local charities and volunteering, and using its platform to talk about women's health, body positivity, and self-confidence. The brand's online presence reflects that same mission framing: its website says it aims to “serve our communities both in our retail store and around the world.”
Shop Goes Fully Online With International Reach
While the Salem Street storefront is closed, The Perky Lady isn't disappearing. The company's website now states plainly that “our physical location is now closed,” while noting the brand was started in downtown Apex and currently counts customers in 18 different countries. That international footprint suggests the business built a following well beyond the foot traffic that construction disrupted.
Buchanan and her husband also launched a risk-management company this year, adding another layer to the couple's shifting professional lives alongside her counseling studies. Between the new venture, her graduate coursework, and her supervised work at Coffee Talk Therapy, Buchanan's transition away from retail appears to be part of a broader reinvention rather than a single pivot point.
For now, downtown Apex loses one of its longtime independent retailers just as the construction that squeezed its business finally nears an end. Buchanan's next chapter, by her own account, is less about storefronts and more about the kind of one-on-one connection she says drew her to counseling in the first place.
