Building Business w/ the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
The Building Business podcast provides compelling stories of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce's journey, its steadfast commitment to the local community, and its forward-thinking approach to addressing the needs of businesses in an ever-changing landscape. It stands as an invitation to listeners to become part of a movement that values growth, connection, and the collective progress of the Mount Pleasant, South Carolina community.
Be prepared to be inspired, informed, and motivated, as we provide a rich tapestry of stories that celebrate the dynamic interplay of business and personal growth right here, in our own backyard.
Building Business w/ the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
From Uniforms To Luxury: The 108-Year Evolution Of M. Dumas & Sons
Some stores sell product. M. Dumas & Sons sells want—crafted through people, place, and a century of smart reinvention. We sit with co‑owner Gary Flynn to explore how a 1917 military uniform shop became Charleston’s menswear destination, why customers still cross town for an in‑store experience, and what it takes to keep a legacy brand modern without losing its soul.
Gary traces his path from Nordstrom’s merchandising ranks to Hugo Boss and Samsung before landing in Charleston, where he learned the art of specialty retail: knowing the regulars, serving visitors so well they become remote clients, and designing a store that tells stories instead of stacking tables high. We dig into the M. Dumas timeline—from early Levi’s dominance to spotting Tommy Bahama before it broke big—and the moves that kept momentum: a major renovation, premium tailoring, and, just in time for COVID, an e‑commerce launch that paired with doorstep delivery and constant outreach.
Charleston’s style scene gets a closer look. Surprise: it’s dressier than many expect. Gary breaks down a go‑to uniform for today—sport coat, open‑collar shirt, five‑pocket pants, and a sharp sneaker—and explains why color thrives here year‑round. We talk Mount Pleasant Towne Centre and the strategy behind shop‑in‑shops from Barbour, Johnnie‑O, Duck Head, and Faherty to make outfitting intuitive. Then we go inside the service playbook: stylists who build wardrobes, label outfits for a colorblind client, host trunk shows, and even stage an annual Italian dinner pairing regions, wines, and makers.
Along the way, Gary shares why he pays people well, collaborates with neighboring independents on King Street, experiments with influencers, and takes Dumas on the road with pop‑ups in DC, Florida, and Dallas. If you care about retail strategy, community, or simply looking great without overthinking it, this conversation delivers practical insight and plenty of Charleston flavor.
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Presenting Sponsor: Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce
Studio Sponsor: Charleston Media Solutions
Expo Podcast Sponsor: @PollenSocial
Production Sponsor: RMBO.co
Design Sponsor: DK Design
Committee:
Kathleen Herrmann | Host | MPCC Immediate Past President | Mount Pleasant Towne Centre
Mike Compton | Co-host | Marketing Chair | RMBO.co
Rebecca Imholz | Co-host | MPCC Executive Director
Amanda Bunting Comen | Co-host | Social ABCs
Ben Nesvold | Co-host | In-coming President | Edward Jones
Well, hello, and welcome to the Building a Business Podcast, powered by the Mount Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. We are recording in the Charleston Media Solutions studio. They are huge supporters of the Chamber, so we thank you for recording us today. And another huge thank you and shout out to our podcast sponsor, DK Designs. My name is Kathy Herman. I am your immediate past president of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce, and I'm also the marketing director for Mount Pleasant Town Center. If you've been listening to us, I'm joined today by my favorite co-host, Mike Compton.
SPEAKER_03:Favorite. Favorite and special and you know, all the all those good things. Yeah, Mike Compton here.
SPEAKER_01:Just keep going back and listening. How many times I called him my favorite? Owner of Roombo Advertising and the chair of the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce Marketing Committee. That's right. Welcome back, Mike.
SPEAKER_03:Hey, it's always good to be here. We've got a really cool guest today. Um, actually, it took me a while to figure out what I was gonna wear today. And on my way here, I'm like, hmm, I'm just gonna have to keep it simple because this guy's gonna be judging me the entire time. I'm wearing a little combo of Lululemon and Costco.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that's the perfect combination. That works.
SPEAKER_03:That works. Uh we've got Gary Flynn on the show of M Dumas and Sons. Am I saying Doumas right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Doomus. Yes. Doomist. You got it. That's amazing. A lot of people say a lot of other things, but doomus is the right word. Dumbass part of that. It is. Yeah, I'm glad you said it. I wasn't sure I was allowed to, but yes, that comes up all the time. Doumas, doomus.
SPEAKER_01:Um also if you don't know um about M. Doumas and Sons, they are the iconic men's specialty retailer from downtown Charleston, founded in 1917 as a military uniform outfitter. We'll talk a little bit more about that. Interesting. Um and then after that, if we want to understand 1960, they became known for their fashion denim and in 93 for the addition of the Tommy Bahama line. Right.
SPEAKER_00:Did I get that all right? You got it. Okay. You did do homework.
SPEAKER_01:I did. Um, and then we're off course, you know, me being the marketing director for Town Center, very excited that also M Dumas and Sons and Southern Tide by M. Dumas and Sons are open now at Mount Pleasant Town Center. Um 108 years in business. We'll talk about that. Yep. Um, he is a veteran of the retail industry. We are so happy to have you here, Gary. Thank you for being here today. Thanks for the time. Um we're gonna talk about the business, we're gonna talk about um what inspires you to do business in Charleston and how Charleston inspires the business, moving to Mount Pleasant, of course, Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. But let's talk about you first. Let's give a quick background, if you wouldn't mind, of um what you've been doing to get to being such a figure in the fashion industry.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, third generation.
SPEAKER_03:My gosh. Oh, so you this a family thing?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, sir. Nice. Um, so my background, I've I've I've now been with Doom is for nine years. Prior to that, um, I I grew up in retail. Um I started working at Nordstrom uh in Southern California when I was uh 18, put myself through college and worked part-time there for a while, kind of fell in love with the the brand, uh uh Nordstrom, and decided to see where I could take my career. And I'd be able I was able to be there for 27 years, kind of working my way all the way through the ladder, all the way up to uh I ran a uh uh merchandising division for the company uh for the last six years of my time there. Um from there I left and went to uh New York City and I ran retail merchandising for Hugo Boss, uh based there in New York for North America and South America, which was very interesting. Um and then from there uh I went to Samsung and ran retail merchandising for the United States. That was a big change uh as far as you know product category goes. Went from clothing into TVs and cell phones and washers and dryers and all that stuff. Wow. It was very challenging. Um and then I got a call from a headhunter to come interview for a job down in Charleston, and that's uh that's what got me here. So I've been here now for nine years, like I said, and enjoying every minute of it. And uh thankfully uh David and I have been working uh well together for these not last nine years, David Dumas, um there's the third generation, um, that we're now um co-owners together. Yeah, I own half the half of it, he owns half of it, and uh it's been working out great for us, I think.
SPEAKER_03:Holy smokes. It's really cool getting to know the different people that live here in Mount Pleasant that have such huge great like backgrounds, you know, and working for these giant corporations that you've been working for. Nobody really understands that. Like there's a lot of great people that live here uh that have done huge things elsewhere, and then they're still living here and still doing huge things you know, in in town and elsewhere.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I I also think that it's great here because we have I think we have the opportunity to um start that second I I hate to use the word second chapter, but that second chapter in life, we've always said a lot of our chamber members were bigwigs up in New York City and they were executives, and then they came down here and opened a hot dog stand or whatever it might be. You know, we have the you know people want to be here so bad, and then we have all these amazing opportunities to start over.
SPEAKER_03:What led you to like did you just visit? You so you got the headhunter, headhunter calls you and you're like, oh, you've been yeah, had you been to Charleston before?
SPEAKER_00:I had not actually. And and I'd been to a lot of states because I was you know running a uh national business for a couple of different companies. So I got to a lot of yeah, yeah, yeah. Got to a lot of the states, but I had never gotten to South Carolina because Nordstrom didn't have a store in South Carolina. We haven't fixed that. Yeah, we still haven't fixed that, have we? Uh I I I can't I I try to play that role now. I'm the Nordstrom of uh of Charleston. That's what I like to think I am. Um so no, I had not come to the to to Charleston before and in anticipation of coming, and I knew the job sounded really good, but what was gonna sell me was to get my wife and daughter to fall in love with it as well. So I brought them with me, and uh we spent a long weekend here, and we hadn't gotten from the airport to downtown. We're like, oh yeah, we can do this. Yeah, it was super easy to fall in love with Charleston. Isn't it? Yeah, well, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Same. I agree a hundred percent. So I mean, I know I mean, I'm in retail property management. Um one of the first names I heard when I moved here, I've been here nine years myself, was this men's store downtown. I'm doing and so the reputation is really kind of precedes itself. Um tell you know, tell us a story a little bit more about the story and the history of um of such a well-known name.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Dave and his family have done a outstanding job um building a great reputation over the over the decades. Um his uh uh grandparents started the job, uh started the the store. M. Dumas and Sons actually stands for Mendel Dumas, and Sons are Abe and Joe Doomas. And so it was the three of them that really kind of took this business on. Um and it was pretty small for a long time, uh, you know, a small-ish type business. Um and then the third generation got involved, uh, David and his brother, um, and they were running it next at that this next chapter, and and David's the one who found Tommy Bahama before Tommy Bahama was known across the country. And he he was the first person in the southeast to carry it. Um, and he turned it into a very, very big business in the store. It was over a million dollars at one point. Um, and then they um they just saw how great it was doing that they decided to open their own store on King Street, and so that was kind of the end of Tommy Bahama and and M. Dumas and Sons.
SPEAKER_01:Well, that I hopefully they give you guys credit for that. Nah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I don't see any royalty checks coming through. I was kind of hoping. But yeah, the the family, I would say one of the things that stands out to me over the course of all this time is how important evolution has been in the story of Dumas. You know, starting, as you said, as a uniform type business and evolving into a workwear business. You know, there's stories of people coming home from World War II and they, you know, coming from the West Coast back to the East Coast, and they're like, there's this little brand that we found out there that we fell in love with. You might not have heard of it yet, but it's called Levi Strauss. You might want to look into that. And so they decided to look into that and became the biggest dealer of Levi Strauss in the state of South Carolina. So they they don't do anything small. Like that. Right? When they get into something, they do it big. And those that remember and have shopped there for a long time, you'll you'll know that the tables are always stacked high. You know, we always call it stack it high, watch it fly. And that was definitely the um the DNA of the business for a long time. Um, they finally moved into a big enough space back in 1973, which is our current location, um, and that allowed them to spread out a little bit and and start you know really growing a bigger business. Um, they they bought out the whole building at one time that was a Havertz furniture store. And if you come to the front entrance of the store, our Dumas rug is over the top of a big H in the marble for Havertes, so that's still there. Yeah, yeah. That's pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01:It's almost like luck, a little luck charm or a little private inside channel. You don't want to mess with it, right? Like I agree.
SPEAKER_00:It served us well so far. So we like to try to keep our heritage stuff uh uh around when we can. Um another thing that they've done, um they put a right before I got there, they went through a two million dollar renovation of the space. Um so we expanded to the next side next building um and got into the tailored clothing business about 20 years ago and then had a big renovation to kind of just take the the the experience up a notch, which allowed us to really start carrying more premium brands too. So it's just been evolution after evolution after evolution. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_03:What was it like taking over such a historic business like this?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's a little bit daunting.
SPEAKER_01:Um, you know, I did come with especially if you're not from Charleston, too, right? I can only imagine.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I didn't really know anybody. Um, but I did know the business, and thankfully I grew up in the business, and there are a lot of similarities to Nordstrom and M. Dumason Sons. Um, Nordstrom is also third generation, also founded in 1917. Um, and so they're very synergistic that way. Um, and the fact that it was all men's and men's clothing, which is what I grew up in, you know, I I I um it was easy for me to fall in step with that. What I needed to learn, though, was a specialty store environment, uh, a one-store environment, um, a a town, um, a tourist business. You know, we had to really understand how this business worked, and it was daunting. Um, but I, you know, the only way to do something is to get in there and do it. And so you roll up your sleeves and you spend every day in the store talking to everybody that you can, and you try to learn, you know, what's worked, what's not worked, um, what customers want to see from us, what they don't want to see from us, what our competitors are doing, what other stores on the street are doing, and really try to analyze what where our point of difference is. And that's something I do to this day. I mean, I've been there nine years and I keep looking for you know what what's next? What are we gonna do next that's gonna make us unique and different?
SPEAKER_03:What's next?
SPEAKER_01:I think that every single I can't tell you that yet. I think that every kind of every business, retailer not, should be doing that. Oh, of course. You know, you can't I one of the things I've always said is you can't you can't just build it and expect everyone to show up. No. You know, you need to make sure this is ever-changing times, you need to see what your customers want. Um, and so great piece of advice for everyone who runs a business here, um, especially retail or customer relations, um, listen to what Gary just said because it it makes a difference.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I tell my team all the time no one needs a thing that we sell really. Needs at the end of the day. The need is not what we're selling. We're selling want. And you gotta remember that. So you gotta remember that when that customer walks through the door, it's a treat that they came to visit us. And it's not an expectation that they're gonna buy something just because they walk through the door. We we need to make them fall in love with the store, with the environment, with you, with the product, with the lighting, with the music, with the beer that we're gonna hand you, what whatever it is. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We gotta go down there if you're not gonna go. That's a party. It can be a party for sure.
SPEAKER_03:It can be a party. I love that. Um, so nine years. So part of that nine years was COVID. Um any pivots that you can talk to, and you know, and how difficult is is a brick and mortar?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it was uh certainly challenging, as everybody knows. Um we thankfully Charleston closed but opened up relatively quickly. Um we were down, we were dark for six weeks. Um and thankfully, literally three months before that, I plugged in an online store. And so we had some I got lucky. Uh I knew it was something we needed to do, and it just so happened that COVID happened right after that. So it it made it um it helped us quite a bit. Um and we were doing anything we could think to do, you know, delivering stuff to people's homes, what whatever, whatever they wanted us to do, we were doing it. Um but yeah, that was that was definitely challenging. And and I thankfully, you know, the way that the um the government funding came through made us be able to get through that time, um, made me allowed me to not have to lay anybody off or let anybody go. That's great. Um we were able to keep everybody on staff. I uh and because we were only closed the six weeks, I I was able to bring people into work. You know, they worked less than they normally do, but we paid them as if they were working full time, and it um it was uh something I never hoped to repeat, but we did learn a lot of stuff through through that time frame.
SPEAKER_03:How is the online presence how is that?
SPEAKER_00:I'd say it's good. I think it can be better. Growing. Yeah, it's growing, yeah. For sure it's growing.
SPEAKER_03:Is it is it a priority though? I feel like more of yours, more of an experience, and where the online is more of people who've already come there to have the experience, already fell in love.
SPEAKER_00:Is that that's a very accurate way of looking at it. Um you know, I but I also think that um I the visitors that come with us, we want to be their local store. So if you're in Cincinnati, Ohio, or Kentucky somewhere, wherever you're from and you come to Charleston, hopefully you fall you discover us and you fall in love with the experience and you buy some stuff from us. We want to keep that connection alive with you. Um and so we reach out uh all the time on the phone, uh text message, sending pictures back and forth on the phone, talking to people about what their needs are. And thankfully the website allows us to facilitate a lot of that too.
SPEAKER_03:Are your employees more like personal buyers type of thing?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, stylists or personal shoppers or however you want to phrase it. Yeah, that what I what I try to tell teach each of my team members to think of is this is your store. Doom is happens to be the name on the on the building, but I want you to come to work every day thinking this is Gary's store, this is Joe's store, this is my business that I'm running. And the customers I'm working with are my customers, and I'm gonna work on developing them and trying to create a great relationship with them so that you know it can turn into ideally more business. Um you know, people shop with people is another great thing that I've heard when I was young in the business and keep saying over and over again. People don't necessarily shop with stores or with brands, they shop with people. And you know, there's a lot of stores on King Street that are mono brand, like there's a you know, there's a uh Lululemon store and there's a Viore store opening up soon, and there's these all these stores, but not that many people dress head to toe in one brand all the time. Right? Like me right now. Yeah, exactly. Like me right now. Nice mix there, Mike. That is a good one. I haven't heard that one before. Um, but um uh so that's that that's just another thing that I think our store provides. Um, people coming from other towns go into that store, and it's a pretty big store that has a lot of product, and we hear that all the time. And I and that's very intentional. I want to hit them in the forehead with how much product we have and how many different brands that we have where they go, holy moly, there's a lot of places to shop on King Street, but I don't have to go anywhere else. I can get everything I need under under one roof.
unknown:Nice.
SPEAKER_01:And and speaking of fashion, we have to give some mics some tips. Nice. What do you mean? I'm kidding. Um, Charleston is is an amazing place, as we all know. Um, what makes the Charleston fashion scene unique? Because you know, I we've got a lot of things that we're known for. Me not so necessarily fashion, but and when I walk into your store, I'm like, I I feel like I'm in a New York boutique. So, you know, what makes it unique and and kind of how do you keep up with that in your collections?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think one of the things that surprises a lot of people when they come to Charleston is actually how dressy downtown Charleston can be. Um, going to dinner, there's a lot of fine dining in Charleston, a lot of high quality restaurants, high quality uh hotels. And so people tend to um downplay how dressed up they should be when they're here. And then when they're here for a couple days, they're like, hmm, I feel a little underdressed here. So uh maybe I need to buy a sport coat to go to dinner with tonight. And that's actually a pretty b good business for us, is um people wearing things while they're here, and so we try to turn that stuff around quite quickly in the in the tailor shop.
SPEAKER_03:That's funny because Charleston and Mount Pleasant is it is a lot of it is come as you are. Uh business casual, isn't that suity, isn't it? Isn't it right? So it's a very it's only specific kind of fashion style here. And you're right, when people come here like they can be dressed down or you can dress as nice as you really want to.
SPEAKER_00:Right, right.
SPEAKER_03:You're right next to a dude in the in, you know, whatever, beachware or what have you. Uh it's it's a lot of fashion here.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's a that's a melting pot that way. And and you know, and that and that's uh something that has evolved the styling of Charleston fashion too, is people coming from all other places. You know, you you could go back and say, Oh yeah, the seersucker suit, that was one of the things that we were very well known for, and that was very Charleston. Um but that's a much smaller part of the business now because so many people have moved here from New York City or from Cleveland, Ohio, or from wherever they're from, where seersucker isn't a thing. And you know what? I'm not gonna change my style. This is who I am, I'm this is how I want to dress. And so we had to evolve what we carried to to meet um multiple looks. And um, but one of the things that I would say is a big part of Charleston fashion is color. Um you know, it the there are the color um dark navy and black and charcoal gray, those are all great for city areas. Like that's a New York thing, it's a Chicago thing, it's it's a bigger market kind of thing. But in Charleston, you know, stone is a color that we wear in your in your wardrobe year-round. It's a it's a light tan, light beige color, and a lot of people up north would never wear that year-round, but down here we we certainly do. Um white. I like the bright colors too. There's a lot of bright colors. I pinks and purples. I wish.
SPEAKER_03:My nine-year-old loves pink. He wears pink all the time. This is great.
SPEAKER_00:It's awesome.
SPEAKER_01:I wish my husband would wear cool clothes like that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's so funny how certain guys um view the view color in their wardrobe uh as um almost uh like a sign of weakness or something, like uh it's not manly enough or whatever. It's that's and that's not anything to do with it. Um uh it's all in how you wear it. And if it's uh if it's not you, that's fine. You know, you don't want to wear something that you don't feel comfortable in. And that's another thing I tell my team is like try try not ask them the question, like, do you see yourself pulling this out of the closet and wearing it? Because it's not gonna do me any good if it just sits in your closet. Because then every time you look at that thing and you don't wear it, you're gonna remember that Dumas sold that thing to me and I never wore it. Maybe I won't go back to that store, you know. They they don't know what they're doing or whatever. So you know, it's fun to sell somebody color or something that's pushes them a little bit, but you just gotta be careful about how how far to push them to.
SPEAKER_03:That's great. You're not just selling fabric, you're selling an experience and you're selling emotion. That's pretty cool. I like it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean the customer experience when you walk in that store is just there's nothing there's nothing like it.
SPEAKER_03:I gotta go. I haven't I haven't been yet. I gotta definitely uh still kind of ask you.
SPEAKER_00:Well, start with the Mount Pleasant store, right? And then and then we'll work right downtown. Correct.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, of course. Well, since you brought that up, let's talk about we'll skip to that question and talk about that for a minute. So now you have your iconic downtown store, and then you have um a full M Dumas and Sons at Town Center, and then a Southern Tide by M Dumas and Sons at Mount Pleasant. So let's talk about those um those stores real quick, how you chose the location, lucky us. Um, and you know, let's promote them. Let's remind people that you and I don't hate to say this, you don't have to go downtown for M Dumas and Sons anymore.
SPEAKER_00:It's a reality, yeah. Yeah. Uh so there's a lot in what you just said there. Um so when we opened the Southern Tide store, that was the first thing that we did that was um new when I got there. Um we had been carrying Southern Tide in the downtown store from day one of Southern Tide being a brand. Literally, the founder came in with a polo and said, Would you please buy this polo from me? Cool. And uh David and his brother said, Sure, yeah, let's let's put it in the store and help them grow a brand into something that was very, very big and powerful in our store.
SPEAKER_01:Again, another one.
SPEAKER_00:Tia Bahamas, Levi's. Yeah, oh yeah, no, it keeps keeps happening. Wow. Um so but we wanted to be a part of the expansion. They said, Hey, we want to put a store in the Charleston area, but you've been so good to us as a as a store, we would really like to partner with you to do it, which we were thankful to hear that. And so we decided to do it with them. And uh it was a natural to land in Mount Pleasant, I think. Uh we didn't want to put it downtown because we didn't want to really hurt the downtown store. Um, but we knew, and it's even more so today, that you don't have to go downtown anymore if you live in Mount Pleasant. You do not. You've got everything that you need is there. Um, you just have to, you know, just know where it is. And so we didn't want to miss out on a customer that was living in Mount Pleasant but deciding not to come downtown any longer. Um, so we thought let's bring Dumas to them. And since Southern Tide wanted to partner with us, we did that first. And that was a really good proof of concept to David and I that our brand uh resonated and would would stand alone on itself as well. So after uh seven years of having it uh the Southern Tide store in town center, uh, the opportunity to do a Dumas store um seemed like the right thing to do, and it seemed like the the center was the right place to do it in. And thankfully the the right space opened up, the right size, it felt right. Um, all the numbers m worked, and um it was it was pretty seamless. Out of all the stores I've opened in my career, with Nordstrom or with Hugo Boss, uh, or we even with Samsung, uh this was kind of the easiest store I ever had to open. Oh, that's well, thank you. I'll pat on my back.
SPEAKER_01:I had nothing to do with it, but I'll pat myself on the back for it anyway. You should. I'll actually let our team know that, Gary. But um yeah, I mean the store is absolutely breathtaking. Yeah, we've we're we're super happy there.
SPEAKER_00:And it was a concept that was different than what we were doing downtown. So here I am. I I live in Mount Pleasant myself. I live out in town, uh, out in Park West. So I drive by town center on my way to work and on my way home. So I know that center very well. Um and um, but I wanted to bring something when we we decided to bring Dumas to the center, I wanted to do it in a way that was different than what we were doing downtown because I wanted to feel like a different experience, yet the same brand. And the thing I can't do downtown as much as I'd like to do, just because of how much volume that we do in that store and how many units that we carry and sell in that store, is I I I don't storytell as well as I'd like to. Merchandising is this is telling stories, and so how do I wear this? Show me the whole outfit. I want mannequins, I want a little bit of space to be able to shop in. I want to be able to see the the whole outfit together. And so we decided to do more kind of shop and shop approach uh in that store. So I went to Barber and they agreed to put a shop and shop in there, and then I went to Johnny O and they decided to put a shop and shop in and went to Duckhead and they decided to put their first shop and shop in the world in in our store. Uh Fardy put a shop and shop in there. And so once those were all decided upon, the rest of it was super easy to fill in the blanks, kind of fill in the other white spaces around it. But I think what I what I really like about it is it's not stack it high and watch it fly. It's more, it's um, it's it's more approachable, it's it's it's um and it's a little bit more um directional. It shows you how things work together in a way that we we can't do downtown. So that was something I was really proud of um when it came together.
SPEAKER_01:And your staff is very dedicated to you, aren't they? Because um I know that um the the the store manager that opened Southern Tide seven years ago. Yep, yeah, um, Scott, shout out to you, um, is now the manager over at M Dumas. So that me, I mean, and I know he worked for you before. I mean, he's just been around, they've been around for they just stay. Yeah, Scott. That's such yeah, that's a compliment these days, Gary, when people are just going in or not even showing up for interviews to be able to have that um loyalty.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's it's it's paramount to what we do because it's you know, w there's turnover in retail all the time. But at the at the leadership level, we've been very sound and uh it matters. You know, what you learned last year, you can apply to this year. And uh thankfully, Scott and I go back way, way back to Nordstrom days. Um, when I was a three-store buyer for the men's furnishings department, uh he was uh an assistant manager in one of those stores of the floors that I was buying the product for. So we we got to know each other then. And then you know, my career went its way and his went its way. And about 20 some years later, um well, yeah, almost 20 years later, um, I was I'd put out on LinkedIn that I had a store that we we needed a store manager in in town center for the Southern Tide store. And Scott of all the people reached out and said, Hey, I want to talk to you.
unknown:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:He said, uh Yes?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah he just said yes. No, sorry, yeah, yeah, yeah, yes.
SPEAKER_00:And I said yes, that's exactly right. And uh I was glad to have him and uh he's he's been great to work with. Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Well he's great. I mean, uh from from from my perspective, he's um one of the my favorite managers um at town center, and I will say that again. He's one of my favorite managers at town center. Uh no, he's just one is again just wonderful to work with. Um he's a good guy. But that's it's hard. It's hard to find. I think one of the big one of the biggest issues at town center, which I'm sure you've you've had unfortunately had to deal with, is finding help. Sure. Um but uh having that, like you said, the manager level. Um we've been blessed at town centers. There's so many stores that have had the same managers since I've been there nine years. That's great. Um I always you know that that makes it um that makes it so much easier to be successful.
SPEAKER_00:Well we were lucky enough to keep uh the Southern Tour Tide store in the family as well. So Scott's wife runs the Southern Tide store now. So uh yeah, it's uh it's a family. Which I did not know about until the grand opening party of M Doom as well we didn't want to necessarily shout about it, but exactly. It was not nothing we were hiding either. She's she's awesome and we're we're glad to have her. She's got a great background herself and she brings a lot to the table. We'll do a shout-out to Susan too, okay? Perfect.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, for sure. How do you stay motivated and inspired in leading this legacy brand?
SPEAKER_00:Uh, you know, I don't think about that that much. I just it just is. Like I I get up every day and I want to go in and go hard charging every day. And uh I I don't know if that's just how I'm built, but I I think it's a a uh a tell that I'm doing what I want to be doing. You know, it's not what I'm doing to pay the bills or do it just till I can retire or whatever. It's it's really what I love doing. And uh so you know, there's plenty of corny sayings around that, you know. Sure. Um you never work a day in a life if you do what you love or whatever that is. Um I'm I I'm sure I butchered that, but um but that's kind of how I feel about it. And and I get inspired. One of the things that really does inspire me is when I go to market. When I go to New York to go look at the new collections and look at the next season, and I love going out and shopping and looking for the new things and trying to find a new brand to bring to the store uh to the team that that they can get excited about. Um always trying to find that next, find that next, find that next. That's uh that's a big part of my motivation, is it's it's a game for me to go out there and and really dig dig around and find some cool new stuff.
SPEAKER_03:It sounds like these brands are finding you as well, but it takes a lot of work to get to that, I'm sure. Right? Yeah. Kathy, is that what you're gonna say?
SPEAKER_01:No, I was gonna say that this probably, you know, I'm not I wouldn't be surprised if there's some brands out there knocking down.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Please, please, please feature me, feature me. That had to be put in to get to that point and and then to delete that. Do you have any advice for uh other folks that have worked with big brands like you have and coming into more of a smaller uh you know community like Charles and Mount Pleasant?
SPEAKER_00:Uh yeah, I think it it is you know, in when you get into those bigger corporations, which you know I was lucky to be a part of them for as long as I was, um you do get further and further away from the customer as you go up the ladder or down the ladder or however you want to look at the ha look at that. You get further or further away from the day in, day out customer, and it's it's possible that you will lose sight of who the most important people in your organization are, and those are the people who touch the customer every single day. You know, I don't I I don't believe that I'm the most important person in the building. I'm not. It's the person who's there on the floor working with the customer that that makes it all makes the magic happen. And so I think remembering that and or re-remembering that if you've been in a corporate world and you've gotten away from the customer a bit, um the customer has so many choices. Again, they don't need anything that we have, they don't even need to leave their house to do a good job shopping anymore, right? They they can just sit on their Couch and surf from their phone and they don't have to go out. So, what is going to make them want to, you know, get out of their house, drive downtown through the traffic, right, through the tourists, find a parking lot, find a place to pay way too much for parking, walk into the store, and then decide to shop with you in your store. Like that's that's the magic right there. Is you remember remembering that it's their decision to shop with you that matters. Because they can shop anywhere they want to. Why you? So if you can remember why you and create a why you, then they'll find you. And uh uh because the customer's looking for that. They they want inspiration, they want to be wowed, they want to see something they've never seen before. You know, like that's that's that's their mentality, that's my mentality, and so trying to remember to provide that is is critical.
SPEAKER_03:Love that. It's great advice. Um, especially the the journey it takes from couch to to front of your uh to your rug over the long journey.
SPEAKER_00:It is, it is, and there's a lot of turns there that they can make and go a different direction. So you gotta say thank you quite a lot, quite a lot to make sure that they know they're appreciated. That's huge.
SPEAKER_01:And then speaking of your customers, is there some favorite customer story or customer moment that you could share with us?
SPEAKER_00:Oh wow. Uh there's there's plenty, but um one one comes to mind. Um we've got a customer that's been with us a long time, well before I got there. He's decades long. Um uh but he's not necessarily a clothes horse, or like he's not a clothes person necessarily, but he just likes Doumas and likes to look okay, and he knows that we're gonna try to take care of him. But we didn't know this for a long time, but it turns out we learned that he was actually colorblind, and that was part of why he didn't really get it all that well. So, but the only reason we found that out is once he he got a good enough relationship with one of the guys that he asked him to come to his home and help him go through his current wardrobe and match things up for him so that he could figure out what outfits to put together in the morning so he didn't look bad when he left left the store or left the house. Um, and so not only was that an opportunity to you know kind of help him get organized, but also help him kind of weed out some stuff that maybe needed to go away, which created a little bit of a room for us to actually sell him a few more things, but he was super appreciative and and happy to do it. And the the salesperson did an amazing job and you know tried to make it almost like garanimals for adults. Right. He literally put he put an A on the inside of a waistband of a pant and an A on the inside of the collar of a shirt. These two things work well together. No way, yeah, swear to God. That's never happened anywhere else. He never got that from me. Yeah, he just came up on it with this well, he said, if I I want to help this guy, what's the best way I can help him? Right. And that kind of ownership, you can't you can't teach that.
SPEAKER_01:Um Mike, I told you they're about service, right? I mean that's insane. That is above and beyond.
SPEAKER_03:You can't find that anywhere else. You should that's that's a cool thing we should talk about, too.
SPEAKER_00:We should actually.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Um lettering your alpha lettering your wardrobe for people who are colorblind.
SPEAKER_01:What a cool thing. Yeah, makes perfect sense to me. I well, I think that unfortunately, I think a lot of retail has has has lost all customer experience. So um, you know, I'm I'm I'm proud and honored that you guys have just continued to get better and better with it after even after all this time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean the the employee line, a lot of big corporations see that as an a big overhead number. And it's a number that they need to manage and bring down. Um and we think of it kind of the opposite. I don't I don't we we pay our people pretty well, which is also part of the reason they stay with us for a while. But that's intentional. We want them to stay with us for a while. If if they're doomus if they're doomus type people, we want to keep them. Um and the way you keep them is you you reward 'em. Um and so you know, we're known to to pay pretty well. Um and I think it's the the best money that we can spend. You know, I'll I'll cut back on tape or something else, or boxes or something else, but I'm not gonna cut back on people.
SPEAKER_01:No, that's um the people are your business. And I and like you said, I think there's uh unfortunately too many businesses out there that don't focus on that and just focus on cutting the bottom line. Um as far as what I've seen in my business is that it just hurts it hurts everything. People start to complain, people say I'll just go somewhere else. People go back to their pajamas and don't get in the car, right?
SPEAKER_00:You don't want to go to a store where you know more about the the product that you're gonna try to buy than the person that's there trying to sell it to you, right?
SPEAKER_01:I mean Yeah, I mean to me customer service is everything, and I really wish we could get some of it back.
SPEAKER_03:Here's a question for you, Gary. Um, what role do you think the legacy businesses like uh Dumas? Am I saying that right again? Dumas? Oh my gosh, I'm such a dumbass. Think French. Think about it. Oh, he did it. He did it, he pulled it in. Nice. Um supporting the local economy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think it's it is important. Um, you know, King Street is a very unique street. There aren't very many King Streets in America. And what makes it unique is it's not just a bunch of mall brands up and down the street. There is some of that for sure, but it's a mixture of local brands along with these big box brands or these you know national brands that make it unique. And I think the the specialty stores that are homegrown here, like a Krogan's, like a Berlin's, or like you know, there's a I can go down the list, there's a ton of them on King Street. You don't see that in other markets very much. It most of the time um the rent gets too expensive for locals to be able to fill the space, and so then it's only the national brands that have the money to be able to do that. And um thankfully there's enough smaller sized storefronts on King Street that a smaller, you know, more more local company can afford to make it work. And that's I think the secret sauce of Charleston. Um it's the great restaurants, it's the great hotels, and it's the great shopping all together, and it's access to you know the beaches and everything else. It's just a very unique um environment that is almost impossible to replicate anywhere else. Um, so and I think that that local flavor is what people want to take home with them when they come. True. Because they can go shop at Lululemon anywhere. It's there in every single month. Unto it, they got it.
SPEAKER_03:Like all these new things coming up, too. It's gotta be every new fashion whatever comes into play, you've got to be like, are you combating that? Are you just you're just doing you? You don't really listen to the noise outside around these other products, that's a good question.
SPEAKER_00:Because you you can go down a rabbit hole worried about everybody else and what everybody else is doing, and oh by that could have been my sale or that could have been my customer or whatever. You can you can definitely go down that rabbit hole. I just think that if we're the best doomist that we can be, we're gonna be okay. And I think that Charleston is unique enough that all um high tide rides all rises all boats, or however that saying is. I totally believe that too. I'm really butchering. I'm butchering everything, and I'm known for that. That's only two, don't worry.
SPEAKER_01:We'll see if we can get a third in before we end up.
SPEAKER_00:Sure. So I just yeah, it and we've we've changed that perspective. Like we used to be very much um the big bad guy on the street. Oh um, we you know, we we had the biggest volume business and we could do kind of what we wanted to do. We could get the brands that we wanted to get, we could get the salespeople that we wanted to get, and we we did that. Um and it made a lot of people upset with us. And I've worked the last nine years on trying to kind of become more friendly with our competitors and our friends on the street, and to the point where if I'm not carrying something that I know that this person wants and I'm not gonna be able to solve it for them, I'll move out and say, Hey, you know what? Grady Irvin carries that brand. Why don't you go see them? They'll they'll take good care of you. Or Steve Berlin's got a tuxedo that's hanging there right now in your size. I'm sure of it. Why don't you go down and see Steve? You know, the end at the end of the day, you're still trying to take care of the customer, and eventually you hope that that comes back and people will do that for you too. Um, so I I think that local flavor um is much better when we're banded together. And one of the things that we go going back to COVID for a second, one of the ways we got through that was we tried we created a locals group um on King Street, and it included Krogan's and us and a bunch of other stores that were local that we banded together and we tried to create uh uh a social media presence of local Charleston businesses that um needed to survive, right?
SPEAKER_03:Smart. What role do influencers play in your marketing? And are you are you going down that road?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Um I'm a bit old school personally, you know, just I am almost 60. I am too. The the influencer thing took me a while to get my arms around, but um we are playing that game quite a bit, uh, more so now than ever. Um I've thankfully have got some uh younger-minded people on my team that uh I get out of their way and let them do their thing. And part of that is getting influencers in them in in the store, um, you know, getting them to have an experience in your store that they feel good enough that they want to shout about for you. And people really do um listen to that. It's uh harder to find a male influencer than it is a female influencer because not as many guys are taking advice from somebody they don't know, but it it does help. It helps to get the word out there. Anytime somebody say something good about you or uh pushing your name out there, it's it's worth doing. Um even though you you can't necessarily draw a line return on investment wise, like okay, I spent a hundred dollars on that person to come in and shop. How do I know that they actually did anything for me? That sounds like you hope it works and you hope it's worthwhile. And and and I I know it is, uh, so it's just hard to quantify. Are there any fashion shows that we can talk to, or is there any kind of events that you have on your uh so we do a lot of events in the store, um, especially in the peak of spring and the peak of fall, we do a lot of what we call trunk shows. Um so we have vendors that come to town that we've been doing business with, and they come in for a weekend and set up shop at our store, and they'll bring additional product in that we didn't buy for the store potentially, or you know, we'll do custom made things for people and we'll do custom measurements, and you can come in and create your own that way. Um, so that's a big part of what we we do um marketing-wise and event-wise in the store. But then we do other things. Um we have we have something I'm super proud of is once once a year we have an Italian dinner served in the store for some of our best customers. And we literally have to go shop there first. You said best customers. I missed that part. Or our our best friends, you know. Thank you. Um, but yeah, that we we sat 50 people uh for dinner in the store um and turned it into a fun thing. We had uh Graf come in and do the wine for it, and so we we took a kind of an interesting approach to it. We we said, okay, what brand, what what part of the region of Italy is this brand from that we're doing business with? Now, what's that region known for for food, and what's that region known for for wine? And let's pair all three of those things together and make it educational but also fun. And it was was something I'm super, super proud of. Um, customers look forward to it, um, and our team really enjoys it. So you know, we're always looking to try new things, um, and that's just an ex one example of them. Um, but we don't we haven't had much success doing fashion shows. Yeah. Um, you know, we we were part of Charleston Fashion Week uh one time, and I did that because I thought it was the right thing to do, and it was a lot of fun to do, but it didn't really move our needle all that much. And I don't know if that's our guy who's a fashion show guy. Um our guy's a guy that just wants to wear nice clothes, but isn't so tied to runway or to um designer. There's a big difference between designer and luxury goods. Designer is very cutting edge and on the run on the runway, and you know, try to push the envelope and push your sensibilities as far as you can go, and always showing you something out there. Luxury is kind of quieter. Um it's still just as expensive as designer, but it's it's it's a softer way of coming across. It's about the quality and it's about how you feel in the clothes, and it's about um the exclusivity of it. Um so that's the approach that we take and and that seems to work for a lot of guys. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Well, half the stuff that I see on a designer runway, I you couldn't wear in public anyway. It's laughable.
SPEAKER_00:Some of it's like, what who would who would wear that?
SPEAKER_01:A lot of memes made from some of the things that people are wearing on those fashion shows. That's funny. Um so what's in style right now? Like so, if I was gonna actually get my husband to go shopping to um dress like he wasn't from 1969, what am I telling him to get? Like what is what is hot right now?
SPEAKER_00:Uh so right now we're kind of in a sports uh sport coat cycle uh as opposed to a suit cycle. Um so it's a good sport coat, a pattern of some sort that is timeless almost, you know, something you can wear throughout the seasons. Ideally, I want to sell you one for spring and one for fall, but there's a way to buy something that works the year round. Um and it's something so that, and then um just a nice open-collar uh dress shirt or sport shirt underneath it that complements it, and then a five-pocket pant, uh, which is called a five-pocket pant because it's like a jean model, which with that fifth pocket is that little coin pocket that's there. Um so it's a more casual model, but it's in something that is wearable with a sport coat. So you can kind of dress up and dress down, is kind of a thing that's going on right now. Um, and again, color. I would think put those together and you're gonna be appropriate. Um, a nice shoe of some sort, whether that's a it can be a sneaker even now. You can wear a sneaker with a sport coat and get away with it and be comfortable, um, but still stylish. So yeah, I that's my favorite.
SPEAKER_03:I love that. Yeah, apparently. Take it easy, lady. He's got it on right now.
SPEAKER_01:I'm very no, I'm very impressed that you're wearing Lululemon if you want to know the sport. Oh, thanks.
SPEAKER_03:I don't own anything from Lululemon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The pants are unbelievable. A lot of the comforts. That's what I've heard. Comfort. That's what I've heard.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. So then um what's what's next? What's next for um M Dumas? I mean, you've opened now have three stores.
SPEAKER_00:Four.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that's right. The one in the uh we opened the Johnny O store in Charleston Place. Yeah, that's where Megan works, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, that's exactly. Yeah, yeah. Old friend. Yeah, yeah. There's another Mount Pleasant connection. Yeah. Um, yeah, so I think this year is the year that I we breathe. Um we've been running pretty hard. Um, and there's a lot of interesting noise out in the marketplace right now of over that customers have to navigate um with the economy and all lots of other things. And so I I think we're we're now just gonna focus on being the best that we can be in the four stores that we have and our online store. I do think that the online business can be um better and bigger, and so we're we're investing in that right now. Um and then we'll see where things go. Um I'm never gonna say never. Uh we really could put a Dumas in a lot of different towns. It just depends. You know, I'm I'm not getting any younger, and uh I gotta start thinking about transition and who's gonna take over for me when it's time for me to ri you know retire, and when David turned turn to retire. Um De Rillis isn't a fourth generation Doomist, so maybe the fourth generation will be a Flynn. So we'll see. I don't know. We'll see. Try to figure that out. I've got a daughter that's kind of showing some interest, so uh we'll see we'll see where things go there. But for now, I'm just gonna work on trying to just continue to be the best doomist we can be and see where things go.
SPEAKER_01:That's pretty awesome. I also forgot to mention, and Rebecca's gonna kill me, is um thank you for your membership in the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. Yeah, happy since this is a chamber. I was so excited to talk to him about it, I completely forgot about that. Um but thank you for your support on, of course, with the chamber and all that. Um we have some fun questions, if you don't mind. Just a few more before we let you go. Sure. If that's all right. Um what is the most Charleston thing a customer has ever asked for?
SPEAKER_00:Um well, an oyster shucker might count. That that's something that a lot of people come, we carry some and they're at the counter, and but most most people who are not from here look at that and go, excuse me, what is this? Um so that that would be one. And uh a pink seersucker suit. That's that's another one.
SPEAKER_01:Um you couldn't find that anywhere?
SPEAKER_00:It was I did find it. Uh of course you did. But I had to have it made for him. Um but yeah, it wasn't something I could just I I didn't have just hanging in the ra in the rack. Yeah, I thought those are the things that come to mind.
SPEAKER_01:I'm sure there's something else, but what's one fashion trend you secretly love but you would never admit to your customers?
SPEAKER_00:Um That's a good one. Uh so actually, performance fabrics in dress clothing is something that has been a trend, and true purists of the of of this business don't l appreciate that. They like they want cotton, they want it to be you know all natural, all but these performance fabrics are so great. They I mean they they they stretch, they breathe, they they make you comfortable. You know, you can wear something that's a little bit more form-fitting, and yet because they're stretched, it's not uncomfortable. So I've I've I've unfortunately had to use the comfort of stretch quite a bit in the last five years or so as I've gained some weight. So um, yeah, I'd that that's something I would say.
SPEAKER_01:And then what is your favorite Charleston event to dress people for?
SPEAKER_00:You know, it's a new one for us. Uh I think it's only had its second year this uh last fall, but the Gibbs street party is so much fun. Um, they do a great job. Um, we've got friends that are on the board of the Gibbs, and they asked us to kind of help sponsor and be a part of it. And uh our customers were coming to us saying, hey, I'm going to this party and I need something to wear because it's going to be a thing. And so we have outfitted a ton of different people at that for that event. And so this year I went for the first time, and I couldn't believe how many local Charleston people I saw that were wearing Dumas. We we have a little hashtag dressed in Dumas and they were posting about that for us, and it was a lot of fun. And and the street food that they brought to the party was great, and the music was great, the vibe was fun, and uh yeah, that that hands down is. It's just a ticket you gotta buy. Okay, yeah. It sounds like that sounds like a street fun party. Uh the street party, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:The street party? Very cool. We're gonna have to look into that. We'll definitely have to look into that. I always like a good party. It's a fun time. It's a fun time. Yeah, it's true, Kathy. It's true.
SPEAKER_01:That's so awesome.
SPEAKER_03:Um, I've got kind of one last question. Go ahead. Uh kind of wrapping up um a little bit. You know, things like Stitch Fix come into play and come into mind when when when knuckleheads like me don't know really know how to dress well and maybe can't afford to dress well. Um they seem to be more of an affordable and they put together some different packages. Why not? Well, I want to go to to do math. You know, I don't want to go to Stitch Fix. Can you explain and and and tell our listeners why you're the more superior brand.
SPEAKER_00:So I think it helps to have you know a human helping you put things together in a way that works for you and your and your world. Ideally, we need to know a little bit about you to really have the best chance of solving what you're trying to solve. So um I think that having that one-on-one relationship and being in the store and trying product on um and dedicating an hour or two of your day to go through that process was is a much more streamlined way of doing it than trying to do it via mail, um having, you know, a box of stuff sent to you that you try on at home, but then you have to ship half of it back, and then you know, things don't fit the right way, or it, you know, the fit wasn't quite the way you wanted it to be, and then it's kind of a back and forth and becomes a little bit more cumbersome than you'd hoped it to be. So something you were trying to do to make your life easier turned into making it more difficult, unfortunately. That's a great point when it could have been solved just by going to a store that has a great assortment and a and a good team. Um but I appreciate what Stit Stitch Fix and Trunk Club and all those other types of people are trying to do. Um, you know, at one point Nordstrom actually owned Trunk Club, which was one of those that was doing that too. So I I I was involved in that a little bit too. And um I think anything that anybody can do to try to simplify the the fashion um experience for for guys is is is a hero in my book because a lot of people really do struggle with it, they just have no fashion sense at all. Um and yet they really don't like that they don't have fashion sense, so they want some help. Sometimes it's just hard for guys to ask for help. Um so uh yeah, I think I think uh little smaller boutique-y type local environment stores are easier to have that one-on-one connection with, and and that's the key piece.
SPEAKER_03:It's the human touch. It's the human touch. They can come here to Mount Pleasant Charleston, come to your store, get fitted, travel back to wherever they are, and still keep a connection with y'all, either online via phone, email, what have you, because you personal shoppers, I'm sure, is what you guys have there.
SPEAKER_00:And and one of the other things that we're trying to do, and I'm probably pushing us over our time for a minute, but when you said what what uh what's next or what's new is we're actually trying to take Dumas on the on the road. Um, and that's uh been something we've been experimenting with. Uh we we did a little pop-up shop in Washington, DC. Um, we had a couple customers that were from DC, and they said, Hey, we've got some friends, and they would love to shop with you guys too, but they just don't go to Charleston and I'm all like, well, let's go to them. And so we did that, and then we did one in Florida, and we've done one in Dallas. Um so we we we're now starting to kind of branch that out a little bit, and we're trying to um bring Dumas to to you, bring it down the road.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, I love it. That's a whole king.
SPEAKER_01:So it's like your own trunk show.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01:Your own trunk show exactly.
SPEAKER_03:Yep, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:That's amazing. Well, while you're here, please make sure you uh let all of our listeners remind them where they can find you. So we got uh King Street and Mount Pleasant Town Center.
SPEAKER_00:Yep, yeah. So there's the main store, the the first store is on at 294 King Street at the corner of King and Society.
SPEAKER_03:It's been there since 1917.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, we've been on King Street that long. Um the other downtown store is our Johnny O store that's in the Charleston Place Hotel on Market Street. And then in Town Center, it's uh in uh Mount Pleasant, we have the Southern Tide store. Um it's right there on Belk Drive, right in front of the Belk Store. And then the Dumas store is also on Belk Drive. Um, it's just a little bit further down the road. Um, so all four stores are very close and very, very easy to get to. And then our fifth store, our www.mdumasandsons.com. Well, what was it again for yet? What was it again? ww.mdumas.com. Nice. That's awesome, Gary.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much for spending some time with us today. I was happy to do it. Thank you. Yeah, it was a lot of fun. Did we learn anything today? We learned a lot, are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I didn't know fashion was so present here in in Charleston. Oh, it's huge. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But I think one of the things you said earlier which made me laugh is I I when I go down to downtown for dinner, no matter if it's my friends or my husband or a special occasion, I always get dressed up. Always. Always. I mean, not obviously not an evening gown, but I always put a dress. I I I stopped wearing heels because I've fallen too many times on the cobblestone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I always get dressed up. And I I laugh because I I couldn't be sitting right next to somebody in a t-shirt and jeans. You know? And so, but it's all acceptable. Yes. But in my mind, when I'm going out downtown, I want to get dressed up. So I can see how that happens.
SPEAKER_03:Such a cool experience downtown. Yeah. You know, there's nothing. Mount Pleasant's great, obviously, but the experience at downtown, there's nothing else like it.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_03:Apparently, nothing else like shopping at DeMonts as well.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. You all got to get there. Thank you again so much, Gary, for being with us today, and of course, for your membership with the Mount Pleasant Chamber of Commerce. Before we leave, we need to thank our sponsors again, um, DK Design and our friends at Charleston Media Solutions for their support, not only of the podcast, but of the Chamber of Commerce. If you're interested in sponsoring our podcast or being a guest on our show, just reach out to Rebecca and someone will get uh someone will get back to you. Now we've got a lot of channels, so we've got Spotify, iTunes, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. I happen to like the YouTube because I I like watching. Yeah. I like watching. Even though it's I know they're supposed to be listening, watching always makes me laugh. It's fun. Um so come on, uh, make sure you subscribe and follow us on all of those. Thank you again for being with us today. Until next time, Mount Pleasant. Until next time, listeners.
SPEAKER_03:Thanks, guy.
