San Clemente children’s shop Mac & Madi is hitting the big time, South Coast Plaza.
The story is that in October, the wife of one of the Segerstroms (we don’t know which one) went to Mac & Madi to buy a birthday present.
She must’ve been pleased because she brought back the whole family the following Sunday to peruse the store.
“The leasing agent was at my door on Tuesday,” said Corey Bauman, owner of Mac & Madi. “I found it very flattering. But I didn’t take it very seriously.”
Mac & Madi, named after Bauman’s two children, carries kid things, from birthday gifts to a boy’s Hawaiian shirt. The store also sells books, toys, bedding and furniture.
“If I wouldn’t purchase it, I wouldn’t carry it,” Bauman said.
Expanding from down-town San Clemente to South Coast Plaza has its risks, according to Bauman.
“I’m just a small-business person,” she said.
Bauman’s background includes working as an event planner and two years of retail experience (Mac & Madi opened two years ago).
South Coast Plaza has been looking to add more children’s shops. Mac & Madi caters to the mid- to high-end shopper.
Mac & Madi’s lease at South Coast Plaza is better than the one in San Clemente, Bauman said.
“I kept waiting for this corporate veil to fall down but it just didn’t,” she said of dealing with South Coast Plaza.
Still, the county’s largest shopping center is different than laid-back downtown San Clemente, Bauman said.
“I’m in a 40-year-old building downtown,” she said.
The San Clemente store is 2,500 square feet, versus 1,450 square feet at South Coast Plaza.
“We won’t have as broad a selection on the floor,” she said.
In San Clemente, Bauman has seven designer rooms set up.
Bauman calls running a store the “hardest work,” particularly when it comes to finding good workers. In San Clemente, everyone has been hired by word of mouth, she said.
Bauman said she also wants to be able to be home for her kids when they get out of school, something she’s been able to do in San Clemente. She lives about a minute away, she said.
Mac & Madi is expected to open July 15 at South Coast Plaza.
Try the Web
A new line of clothes from “The O.C.” won’t be sold in the shopping heart of Orange County, Fashion Island and South Coast Plaza.
Producer Warner Bros. made a beeline for the Internet, where it licensed “The O.C.” line to Amazon.com, according to Women’s Wear Daily.
Market Place Music
An 8,000-square-foot Keyboard Con-cepts Piano Superstore recently opened at The Market Place in Tustin. The store sells keyboards and other products from Yamaha Corporation of America, the Buena Park-based arm of Japan’s Yamaha Corp.
Triangle Adds Fudge
Kelly’s Coffee & Fudge, a family cafe serving gourmet coffee, sandwiches, fudge and other goodies, opened at Triangle Square in Costa Mesa.
Triangle Square is looking to new shops to revive the ailing square. Chronic Cantina, a Mexican eatery, is next in line to open.
No word yet on a tenant for the deserted 30,000-square-foot NikeTown building.
Cobra Strike
Custom Motors Enterprises of California Inc. has moved into a 14,000-square-foot building on 175 Paularino Ave. in Costa Mesa.
The move is aimed at cranking out more Cobra kit cars.
With sales spurred by boomers, the auto repair shop discovered it could make extra money putting together Cobras, which sell for about $45,000.
A real Carroll Shelby Cobra sells for $125,000 to $250,000.
The shop is building eight Cobras now and has four more on order, said service manager Barry Bloch. The shop builds Cobras replicas for the years 1965 to 1969.
Many of the customers like the Cobra style but are getting away from the traditional blue and white paint job, Bloch said. They’re opting for red with silver and yellow with black paint schemes.
Hillbank Motor Sports in Costa Mesa supplies the Cobra chassis. The cars are registered as “specially constructed” and don’t need smogging.
But they can be built with modern motors, Bloch said.
Custom Motors shows the Cobras at the Crystal Cove Promenade car show in Newport Beach and the Donut Derelicts show in Huntington Beach. Both car shows have become places for dealers to show their cars.
