Mom a la Mode
This entrepreneur wasn't expecting to find such a fashionable franchise.
"My mother-in-law brought me to Pickles & Ice Cream
when I was five months pregnant, and I essentially bought my whole
wardrobe there," says Grantham, 30. "I had a really fun
experience, and I knew I needed to bring Pickles & Ice Cream
here."
She did, but opening the franchise came with a lot of
challenges. For one, Grantham, who had been an administrative law
judge and attorney specializing in criminal and international law,
had no retail experience. "I had no idea what I was doing. It
seemed like every day, I woke up to this huge hurdle, but I just
overcame it," she says.
Grantham brought her mother in to help with setting up the
store. "She didn't have any retail experience either, but
we were blessed with good heads on our shoulders, and we just
muddled through it," she says. Grantham's store made its
debut in an open-air shopping center last October. She now has
three employees.
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Just as Grantham predicted, the store attracts grateful
customers from all over Scottsdale. They appreciate the
personalized attention just as much as the hip clothing.
"People are already coming back with their babies. We have a
bulletin board with pictures of moms and their newborns,"
Grantham says. "It's nice—they pop in to say
'Hey,' change their baby's diapers and go on their
way."