Stay-at-home mom Stacy DeWall's unique idea could lead to new rules for doing business in Madera.
Among the hot rods and cools cars every Friday night at the Palm Bluffs Shopping Center in Northwest Fresno is a very different set of wheels. The eye-popping "Eye Candy Mobile Boutique" is hard to miss from the outside, with its hot pink and zebra print wrapping, but it's what's inside the converted catering truck that has customers talking: wood floors, racks of trendy clothes and jewelry displays, even a dressing room.
First-time shopper Tiffany Franklin was impressed.
"Oh my gosh, the colors, the styles, the dresses, everything! And the prices are so reasonable. What a great idea," Franklin said.
Owner Stacy DeWall explains, "People are doing this all over the place. LA it's really big, someone in Sacramento."
The stay-at-home Madera mom says what started as office jewelry parties grew into this business idea.
"How can I be mobile and not set up and take down so many times and it just dawned on me. I need a truck with a store in the back!"
Every time she hits the road in her $30,000 investment, from farmer's markets to private parties, she is turning heads. Stacy takes her truck wherever she's welcome, but for now, that doesn't include her hometown of Madera.
The challenge for her mobile boutique is that it is so new, there is no city code for it. So for now, doing business in Madera is on hold until city code can be re-written.
"Right now our mobile vendor ordinance is specifically related to food. And so what creates a challenge for officials is this doesn't fit into that category," explained Jim Taubert for Madera's Code Enforcement, "Any city's code can be changed or amended and I think she will probably be the impetus for that being looked at in Madera."
Taubert says it's been a learning process for the city with Stacy paving the way. He adds, mobile vendors often encounter resistance from established stores, who pay higher overhead to stay in business like rent/lease and utilities. Stacy is currently going through Madera's planning commission for a use permit. In the meantime, thanks to the success of her mobile business, she is working on opening a brick and mortar store on Gateway Avenue on August 1st.
For a link to Eye Candy's facebook page:www.facebook.com/pages/Eye-Candy-Mobile-Boutique
