National store that left the Wichita market more than two decades ago is returning

A couple of local franchisees are bringing a Wild Birds Unlimited store back to the Wichita market with one big focus: joy.

“The main point of the store is to provide . . . high-quality products that bring more birds into people’s backyards because that just provides more joy,” said Megan Kimbrell, who is opening the business with her husband, Joe Baca.

The store is opening near the northeast corner of 21st and Webb Road where Simply Mac had been, next to Commerce Bank.

“There’s just so many great business popping up, and there’s a lot of traffic in the area,” Kimbrell said. “We wanted to be part of that scene.”

The Indiana-based franchise, which has more than 350 stores in North America, sells supplies to feed and observe songbirds.

That includes bird seed, food, feeders and binoculars.

Kimbrell said there are other backyard-type items, such as sturdy birdbaths and birdhouses “so you can have a beautiful backyard as you’re attracting birds.”

She said Wild Birds makes a good gift store, too.

The franchise, which started in the 1980s, used to be in Wichita more than two decades ago.

“The franchise is really well established,” Kimbrell said, adding that it “is really supportive of their franchisees.”

“My husband and I have always . . . loved nature,” she said. “We were already starting to feed the birds, and then we saw this.”

Kimbrell, who has been a divorce attorney for 13 years and had been in criminal defense before that, was wanting to find a new career working with customers.

“It’s not to diminish what I did as a divorce attorney because you’re helping people there as well,” she said. “But it’s also very contentious.”

She said she was wanting to try something a little different.

“This is definitely that.”

Baca is a prosecutor in Harvey County.

“He’s very involved with getting the store set up,” Kimbrell said.

However, he’s not quitting his day job.

The two plan a soft opening around the second week of June and a grand opening later in the month.

Kimbrell said they’re looking down the road at potentially adding another Wichita Wild Birds.

“We’d love to have more than one location.”