Who makes up the major demographic group shopping at your store?

Most of our brides are 22 to 32 years of age, and weddings make up about 40 percent of our business. The other 60 percent is made up of mostly college-educated women, aged 25 to 55. I would say that 98 percent of our clientele is white, not because of the marketing we do, but because of cultural expectations. When it comes to custom printing of invitations, it's what you're brought up with or what your friends are doing that makes you aware of the possibilities. Among the non-white clientele that we serve, however, we are very popular with the Pakistani community. Most of them fall within the same demographic. They're college-educated and have disposable income. They are either upwardly mobile or they've "arrived."

The main demographic at OOP! is a 30 to 50-year-old woman who shops in upscale specialty stores. She tends to be educated. In addition, one of our stores, being on a main thoroughfare of two college campuses, attracts a fair number of college students. College-age customers make up about 15 to 20 percent of our business, and about 80 percent of them are female. The college-age male doesn't have gift buying on his mind. Once they get a little older, we see men buying family or hostess gifts on their way home from work. The remaining 20 to 25 percent of our business is 20-something or over 50, and again, predominantly female.

It's definitely female; I'd say age 25 to 60. Within that, the majority are Baby Boomers. I think that they'll continue to be the basic group. However, we have noticed that we're getting more men shoppers. I'll hear a lot from guys, "You have a neat store," or "I like your stuff." And they're not just buying for their wives or girlfriends, they're buying for themselves, too. We have a wide range of products, so we can reach a broad audience. As with the women, most of the guys are anywhere from 25 to 60. Most of our customers are middle class and upper class, and mostly white. In Des Moines, the percentage of minorities in our population mix is very small.

Cottura has shops in upscale malls that cater to a high income demographic community. We're in Las Vegas at Caesar's Palace, and in Los Angeles at Century City and Newport Beach. We also are opening a store next month in Palo Alto, near San Francisco. Las Vegas, of course, caters to America — from factory worker to CEO, and every one of them is a possible Cottura shopper. In our other locations, we cater to an upscale residential clientele, and a large tourist trade. The demographics of the tourists are unknown, but I would assume most to be middle income or above. As far as the profile of our shopper changing, I don't see it. We are in established retail markets that are attractions in themselves. That's the way we like it.