Serena Nigro Moyer has made monumental strides in bringing Nigro’s curated mix of fashionable western wear, exclusive boots, denim, and hundreds of unique accessories to an appreciative customer base across 49 states (more on that to come!), and throughout the world.
Serena Nigro Moyer, daughter of David Nigro Sr. and Anita Nigro, is the most recent family member to join the Nigro’s Western Store team, taking on a full-time role at the store at the beginning of 2021. Why the delay for this third-generation Nigro to join the family business? As it turns out Serena’s husband, Brandon, was on active duty in the United States military. So, for many years, Serena, her husband, and their two children were frequent movers – experiencing a fair amount of the country along their journey.
As a military wife living away from Kansas City, Serena pursued hobbies including her own home-based sewing and embroidery business and completing custom clothing orders. While she no longer runs her sewing business, she still enjoys taking on occasional sewing projects from time to time in her spare time. Today, Serena is a busy woman, working at Nigro’s, and raising her children, still making time for the hobbies she enjoys, including crafts and sewing.
If you’re in Kansas City and drop by Nigro’s, you may have noticed the “On Air” sign tucked behind L.D. Nigro’s hat-shaping station. Beyond the sign is a makeshift recording studio. Along with working at the store, she is also a co-host on a podcast produced by Skillmil, a talent solutions company that specializes in helping veterans find employment.
Back in 2020, during the mandatory COVID 19 shutdown, Serena’s brother, L.D. Nigro, spearheaded the creation of Nigro’s online store, using seven weeks at home while the store was shut down to build and launch an all new eCommerce site with hopes of keeping a running inventory of all current stock from retail also available online. Building the online store at home during the pandemic was one thing, but going back to retail and continuing to update inventory and add every new item of clothing, styles and sizes of available cowboy and work boots, cowboy hats, accessories, and more as new shipments began to arrive was a different animal altogether. Nigro’s retail store needed him back and there were just not enough hours in the day to get it all done.
The Nigro family also knew the online store was an important leap forward in allowing customers access to Nigro’s unique blend of western merchandise – no matter what state or country was called home. When L.D.’s sister Serena and her family returned to Kansas City after years away with the military, she too could see the online store was taking a great deal of time away from L.D.’s ability to lend his services on the retail floor – and they were two services that were in great demand: First, in assisting with the design and sale of Nigro’s Exclusive boot lines from Rios of Mercedes and Anderson Bean and, second, custom cowboy hat-shaping, a skillset that enabled cowboy hat customers to get just the right shape and fit for newly purchased hats.
With Serena’s previous online-sales experience – a skill she developed while operating her past home-based business – Serena was certain she could jump in and lend a hand with Nigro’s online store, thereby allowing L.D. to return to the retail floor by assuming many of his online store duties. Today, Serena handles dozens and dozens of online inventory changes and additions to the online store weekly. And L.D. still keeps his hand in that business as well – especially when it comes to maintaining, adding and photographing boot inventory for the online store. Inventory that is sold around the world, and in forty nine states (Delaware, the Nigro’s see you out there, don’t be shy, theres room for every state to shop at Nigro’s online!).
Serena says that her favorite part about working at Nigro’s is pretty simple: spending time with her Nigro’s family. After being away from them for so long during her husband’s military tour, Serena commented, “I love being able to make up for that lost time with them each and every day at the store.”
According to Serena, “There is never a dull moment, that’s for sure. I feel like I missed out on so much while I was gone, so it’s nice to be back with everyone. It can be trying at times because of how close we are, but it’s also a lot of fun.”
Along with spending time with her Nigro’s family, Serena said working at the store also enables her to enjoy and explore new and upcoming fashions – and helping to choose which items will be sold at Nigro’s Western Store. Some of her recent favorites are Judy Blue ladies’ denim and the wide variety of dresses the store carries.