Friday, Aug. 28, 2009

Shop Around: More garnet for sale

With football season close enough to smell, it’s time to update your outfits for those first few games. A new store near campus run by a Carolina coach’s wife and her friend recently opened, and an old favorite has expanded its offerings, catering to both sides in the USC-Clemson rivalry.

The target shopper for the new Miss Cocky store is what the owners call “fashionista fans” — women who want to look good and look Gamecock all at the same time.

Miss Cocky is a new boutique on Gadsden Street, nestled between USC’s Greek Village and the Colonial Life Arena, that specializes in garnet and black. But it also carries items such as a pink tank top with an embroidered flower that says “USC” on one petal.

The shop — one of many in Columbia catering to the Gamecock faithful — also carries clothes for children, including a garnet and black Gamecock tutu and a ruffled bathing suit with “Gamecocks” on the seat.

The store is run by lifelong friends. Caroline Johnson — wife of USC assistant head coach Ellis Johnson — and Mandy Fannin have known each other since they were in the nursery together at St. Andrews Baptist Church. They graduated from Columbia High School in 1994, and their mothers are best friends.

After graduation they went separate ways — Johnson to Clemson University and Fannin to USC. The women stayed in touch through the years even as Johnson accompanied her husband to various coaching gigs throughout the Southeast.

Johnson remembers driving a year and a half ago with her three children on a six-hour trip to Arkansas, where her husband planned to coach. Halfway there, she got a call from him. He told her head coach Steve Spurrier had offered him a job as USC’s defensive coordinator.

She plopped in a CD of Southeastern Conference fight songs and tuned to “2001,” and the lifelong Clemson fan immediately switched allegiances without a second thought. “It’s the business,” she said.

Fannin was thrilled to have her best friend home and immediately started pushing to go into business together. The two got serious six months ago when Johnson realized she couldn’t find a jersey for her toddler son or any Gamecock Santa Claus figurines. (Her mother-in-law buys one for her husband each Christmas depending on what team he’s coaching.)

They wanted to create an affordable boutique that offered some items that are unique to the Midlands.

So far, the partnership has worked.

The two figure if they got through one’s kissing the other’s boyfriend when they were teenagers, they can surely navigate the struggles of running a store together.

• More claws (and paws) news

Gamecock and Tiger fans now have more options from Jewelry Warehouse, which is expanding its collection of college gear at the Two Notch Road location in Northeast Richland.

The store took over the space recently vacated next door by S&K Menswear to create its largest Garnet & Black Traditions store. It nearly tripled in size to 3,400 square feet. The move also gave the store room to open a Tiger Paw Traditions at the same location in the 1,200-square-foot space vacated by the Gamecock shop. Previously, Clemson fans have had to drive to the Lexington store.

Store owners had been looking for a building to expand when S&K closed down its store, said Bryan Harmon, collegiate buyer for Jewelry Warehouse.

“It was just perfect timing,” he said.

The new Garnet & Black Traditions has space for bigger displays and larger merchandise, Harmon said. Staffers have set up a tailgating scene and a bedroom display, and they are waiting for pool tables to arrive. They also have a display window that is half Carolina, half Clemson.

Harmon said eventually he would like all four locations to follow the same model.

Both Gamecock and Tiger fans have been pleased, he said. But they still get Clemson fans asking why the Carolina side is so much bigger.

“We are in Columbia,” Harmon said. “It’s a good rivalry.”

• New grocery store enters Cayce

Reid’s grocery store opened its first Columbia-area location this week at 2245 Charleston Highway in Cayce.

The store, which strives for a “hometown” feel, will carry local produce and fresh-cut meats. It will have a full-service hot bar serving three meals a day.

Reid’s is an affiliate of Food Lion, a subsidiary of Brussels-based Delhaize Group. This is the chain’s 10th store in South Carolina.

John Davis of Orangeburg will manage the 37,000-square-foot store. He has been with the company for nine years and has 24 years of experience in retail and management. The store will have 80 employees.

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