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  • Downtown Divas Teresa Kopenhiemer (Merle Norman Cosmetics), Sara Lance (Zoe’s Apparel), Jyme Beth Cochrane and Montana Hammonds (Wild Horse) have combined efforts, sharing business space at 214 E. Choctaw to provide a variety of styles and tastes in clothing, accessories and cosmetics. By Kevin Harvison

    Divas.jpg
August 7, 2010

‘Downtown Divas’ pull it together

BY Mandy Carter Staff Writer

McALESTER — It’s a common statement – times are tough. The current economic strain has everyone looking for creative ways to tighten the belt and get ahead at the same time.

McAlester’s self-proclaimed Downtown Divas have decided collaboration might be the key, so they pooled their resources and went in together, combining three separate shops into one large downtown location.

Zoe’s Apparel, Merle Norman Cosmetics and the newest McAlester merchant, Wild

Horse, are all housed at 214 E. Choctaw Avenue, in an effort to ease the burden of overhead, according to Wild Horse co-owner Jyme Beth Cochrane. She and her daughter-in-law, Montana Hammonds, co-own and operate the western-themed clothing and accessory store Wild Horse, while Teresa Kopenhiemer owns and operates her Merle Norman cosmetics store, and Sara Lance owns and operates Zoe’s, also a clothing and accessories shop with a style complimentary to but different from that of Wild Horse.

One step in the front door reveals variety and integrated yet unique style all at the same time.

“We all moved in at the same time,” said Cochrane, who added the shops collectively opened May 1. “It all came about from the need to split rent and cut overhead.”

Until the move into the new location, Wild Horse was primarily a mobile shop, setting up its predominantly western inventory at rodeos and barrel races, but convenience and storage between events caused issues.

“We needed a place to go during down times,” she continued. “We’d been talking with Sara and Teresa, and they both liked the idea of going in together. That’s how it came to be.”

The business owners rent the building owned by McAlester’s Roger Key, and the location’s space and design are allowing for business opportunities the four didn’t originally anticipate, but intend to capitalize on nonetheless.

“We painted, and closed off the back to make dressing rooms,” Cochrane said of the initial preparation of the building. “We rented the whole building, and there’s enough space that we can hold parties and showers, and that sort of thing. Upstairs there’s a kitchen and banquet area. We have tables, now we need chairs and we can host large parties and banquets.”

“It’s going well,” Cochrane said of the creative collaboration. “We sell some of the same stuff, but with different styles and tastes. There’s some overlap, but we mostly serve different clientele.

“(Wild Horse doesn’t) do weddings or proms, and Zoe’s does; we carry kids’ clothing, she doesn’t,” Cochrane explained. “We both sell jewelry, but ours is more horses and cowgirls, while hers is more flowers. The inventories don’t overlap when it comes to style.”

And of course, Merle Norman is there to help finish the looks customers are going for as they shop to fit their personal styles.

“We try to keep new things in all the time,” Cochrane said. “And between the three shops, there’s something for everyone.”

A new website featuring store offerings of all three merchants is in the works, with plans for www.mcdivas.com to be up and taking on-line orders by next month.

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