For the Love of Shopping

In 1994, California retailer Mary Elam was shopping at the Los Angeles market with her husband, Guy, when they noted a distinct product trend that neither of them had seen before. "Suddenly there was all this garden merchandise available," recalls Mary, who, along with Guy has owned and operated gift stores in the San Diego area for more than 24 years.

To capitalize on the emerging trend, Guy suggested that they open a specialty store that focused on garden and garden-themed products. The Elams called to the owner of a mall complex that housed one of their other retail stores, where they had heard of a vacancy, and presented the idea to him. "He knew we were good retailers," says Mary. "So he told us to come up with a concept and bring it back to him." After that, they shopped the L.A. market with a renewed vigor, developing the concept for what would become Mary's Secret Garden.

That Christmas, Mary's Secret Garden opened as a 2,000-square-foot temporary store in San Diego, and the customer response was so good that they soon opened a 3,000-square-foot permanent location in the same mall. Five years later, a second Mary's Secret Garden store was launched in Poway, an upscale San Diego suburb of 48,000 people.

"I absolutely love to shop," says Mary Elam with great enthusiasm.

And shop she does. When she opened her first gift store, Elam shopped mainly at the Los Angeles market. But over the years, as she has diversified her business interests (her other stores include a specialty pet franchise, Animals Galore, and several Hallmark outlets), she added several more trade shows to her schedule. "You just can't get enough new ideas from one show," she says. Now, Elam and her daughter, Christie, who is the supervisor of the 11 stores that Mary and Guy own, regularly shop at Dallas, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Los Angeles.

"We're looking for products that nobody else has," says Elam. "That's what keeps customers coming back, and that's why we go to so many shows. Sales reps are looking to sell the same merchandise to everyone in town. We want our store to be unique."

The new Mary's Secret Garden, which employs a full-time manager and 12 part-time workers, is housed in a 5,000-square-foot space specially designed to highlight a wide range of merchandise for the patio, lawn, and garden.