She calls herself a “retail therapist.” It’s printed right there on her business cards.

And whatever your need — be it a gift or something for your own home — she’s ready to help.

She is Vicki McRoberts, the owner of East Bremerton’s Real Deals, a home decor and gift store that opened recently at 5960 Highway 303, Suite 160. As a franchisee of the company, she’s the first Real Deals in Kitsap County.

It was one of her daughters who told her about Real Deals.

“We were living in Minnesota at the time,” McRoberts said. “My daughter told me she had this really neat new place to show me and I said ‘Let’s go.’ But then she said ‘We can’t. It’s only open on Thursdays and Saturdays.’ I told her ‘don’t tease me,’” McRoberts said. “And the next day we went and I just fell in love with the place.”

Real Deals opened its first location in April of 2003. It was started in Georgia as a place to find good bargains on furniture. But soon, with the help of the four sisters of the person who began that store, it ventured out into home decor.

It spread to Idaho and Oregon and today, there are 75 franchises throughout the United States.

McRoberts, who has spent most of her life being a pastor’s wife and a mother of two daughters, has no formal training in business or interior design. But she has the eye for it and has used that to create Real Deals in East Bremerton. It has 3,400 square feet of interior decor, including seasonal items, signs, tables, clocks, frames, trunks, and even jewelry.

“Because of the franchise, I have oodles of vendors I can order from,” she said. “And I can go to market, too, to fill the store.”

The real philosophy of the business is giving shoppers great decor at warehouse prices, she said. And on top of that, she also has discounts and sales.

“Right now I’ve got all Thanksgiving decor at 15 percent off,” she said. “People are amazed at my prices.”

McRoberts considers herself “crafty,” and loves to paint, draw, sew and scrapbook. She also is someone who takes pride in her home and knows others do, too.

“I really like to help people with decorating,” she said. “In fact, our customers can bring in a photograph of an area of their home that they want to decorate and we’ll set up a couple of options or ideas for them to choose from.”

And, she said, the inventory is always changing.

“We’re a place you have to come back to often because we’re always adding new things,” she said.

Right now, besides decorating for Thanksgiving and Christmas, anything turquoise is “big.”

“It’s the ‘in’ color right now,” she said. “Anything turquoise sells.”

She also has decor for the cabin, a western section, and beach decor, including floating glass balls.

McRoberts and her husband have been in Kitsap County for a just over a year. Her husband is the pastor at the Bayside Community Church in Kingston where they live.

“We’ve moved a lot,” she said. “My husband was in the Air Force and then in the ministry. After we got here, and I told him I wanted to open up a Real Deals, he said ‘you’ve followed me all over the place. Now’s the time for you to do this. Go for it.’”

And so she began looking for places to locate her shop. She decided on East Bremerton because the rent was reasonable and there was enough square footage. She had her grand opening Oct. 22.

As the wife of a pastor, McRoberts said she is good with people. She also had a career in law enforcement where she was a police officer for two years and a criminal analyst for 10 years.

“I like people and I like helping people,” she said. “That’s part of what drew me into law enforcement. And being a pastor’s wife wasn’t that much different. I listened to people compassionately and spent time with them. I truly enjoyed helping others.”

And now, as a “retail therapist,” she’s helping people, but in another way.

“The Lord has given me unique experiences and I’ve loved every one of them,” she said. “And now, I’m enjoying something new.”

Real Deals is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. Call 360-479-3325 for more information, or visit eastbremerton@realdeals.net.