Customers are greeted warmly, often by name, when they walk through the doors of Mills Touché women’s boutique. The store’s owner, Ann Carroll, said she knows most of their names, as well as their kids’ names.
“I have great, loyal customers,” Carroll said.
And she is hoping to keep them and gain new ones when the store moves from its Crossroads Festival location at East Grant and North Swan roads, to Plaza Colonial at East Skyline Drive and North Campbell Avenue.
Although customer Nancy Williams lives near the store’s Grant Road location, she plans on following it to the Foothills. Williams has been shopping at the store for about five years, after modeling in a fashion show for the Skyline Country Club. “That’s what got me started shopping here,” she said. “The people are nice and friendly. Especially Ann. ... And they’re good clothes.”
Mills Touché has been at the Crossroads Festival for 28 years. But with changing demographics of the center, Carroll said it’s time to go.
“Most of my customers, about 80 percent, live in that area (the Foothills),” she said. “And I love the mix of stores at Plaza Colonial. I love that it’s filled with local stores.”
Carroll looks forward to joining locally owned, upscale stores such as Bravo and Elements in her boutique’s new 1,900-square-foot store at Plaza Colonial, 2840 E. Skyline Drive, Suite 100, early next month.
Retail and fashion are in Carroll’s blood, said her husband, Pima County Supervisor Ray Carroll. The store was opened in 1958 by her father, Alberto Touché. Its original location was Broadway Village, at Broadway and Country Club, and after that it was at El Con Mall for 28 years.
“We like to move every 28 years,” Ray Carroll joked.
When Ann Carroll finished college in 1985, she took the reins at Mills Touché . “She’s really involved in the industry,” Ray Carroll said. “She knows what her customers want, and we’ve had a lot of success.”
She’s even been known to purchase inventory with specific customers in mind, Ray Carroll said.
An opening date at the new store has not been determined, but the current location will remain open through the end of January. Carroll has discounted all of the store’s inventory up to 60 percent to make money for the move, which is going to cost a lot, she said.
