Surprises Await Inside New Pink Building Along Route 50

Surprises Await Inside New Pink Building Along Route 50
Surprises

BERLIN — Fashions For Less has moved into Berlin and is making its presence known with some unconventional marketing.

“The pink building is an advertisement itself,” acknowledged owner Don McLane.

Located off Route 50, across from Stephen Decatur High School, the brightly colored Fashions store specializes in fashion accessories, and Don McLane is confident that his business will fill its own niche in Worcester County.

“We really wanted to introduce wholesale to this area,” he said.

What makes Fashions different, said Don McLane, is how it’s directly connected to a supplier, allowing for lower prices. By owning the factory that creates the product, Don McLane explained that Fashions is able to offer better prices than would otherwise be possible.

As for what exactly the store offers, Don McLane admitted that many customers are surprised when they visit the site.

“We have so many different product lines in fashion accessories,” he said, noting everything from belts to bags to sunglasses.

Don’s wife, co-owner Jodie McLane, said that she enjoys when students from Decatur first come into Fashions and realize that there’s a large inventory that is also affordable.

“The coolest thing for me is when the kids from the high school come over,” she said.

Besides the Route 50 location, Don McLane revealed that a lot of his products are sold on the Internet or to other retailers.

“We have a great import and wholesale business,” he said.

But with the new, physical location, which opened in February, Fashions is able to reach an untapped local audience while continuing with the bulk of its business elsewhere. The healthy import and wholesale portion of Fashions’ sales means there’s never really a slow season, according to Don McLane. The actual store itself will be open for the majority of the year as well.

“We’re only down for two months — January and February,” he said.

Besides his wife, Don McLane’s children work in the family business as well, keeping management close-knit.

“We’re all in it together,” said Don McLane.

Though only open for under a month, the McLane family is already thinking about eventual expansion. Nothing definite is in the works yet, but they are optimistic about the future of Fashions.

“We will have other locations,” said Don McLane. “In 10 years say, if we have 10 stores, great.”