Maytag Chief Cutting Ribbon on OC Store
Maytag Corp. Chief Executive Ralph Hake is returning to Orange County to open The Maytag Store in Costa Mesa on Friday.
Hake, the former chief financial officer at Also Viejo-based Fluor Corp., left last year to join Maytag.
The Costa Mesa store is one of several Maytag retail outlets that let buyers try washers and other appliances before they buy them. The stores, owned by independent dealers, have big showrooms and wide aisles where shoppers can do dishes, laundry or cook.
Maytag tested the store idea a few years back in Iowa. The 4,667-square-foot Costa Mesa store across from Triangle Square is the first in Southern California. Laura Garrett, vice president of advertising and marketing at the Business Journal, and husband Thomas Gill own the Costa Mesa store.
Also set to be on hand for the opening: Gordon Jump, the lonely Maytag repairman in the company’s TV commercials who also starred in “WKRP in Cincinnati.”
