preneur

The story of MODE is not your typical retail narrative In 2006, seeing a growing need for fashionable maternity apparel, both comfortable and fashion forward, Ciara Stockeland [34], along with her husband Jim, decided to open their first retail store, Mama Mia—a high-end maternity boutique, in downtown Fargo, ND With no retail experience, but an attitude of tenacity, Mama Mia was off to a fast start By the end of the year Ciara was approached by a company storing a large quantity of designer overstock product that needed to be liquidated Without hesitation, Ciara and Jim opened a second retail store next door to Mama Mia and called it MODE This store was intended to be a short-term retail setup, but very soon proved to be a booming business By the fall of 2007 they knew they had something unique and less than a year later merged the two retail concepts and MODE was born — a designer outlet in a boutique environment Today Ciara and husband make their home in Grand Forks, with kids Harrison [10] and Isabella [8] and continue to manage and open additional store locations while growing a franchised business