St. Cloud clothing store caters to younger generation of Somali shoppers

Sarah Kocher

ST. CLOUD — Right now, Fartun Jama’s store is small. It’s one room in a one-story brick building on East St. Germain St. But Jama has big plans. Macy’s department store-sized plans. Stores-around-the-world plans.

Jama, 32, runs Mako Store and has since 2015, she said. She said being a business owner is hereditary. She gets it from her mother, a businesswoman herself before her death. Jama named the store after her mother.

Mako Store offers clothing for men and women, accessories and skin care products. When she opened it, Jama said there wasn’t a store in St. Cloud that catered to the tastes of a younger generation of Somali shoppers, although the clothes she sells are for everyone who likes them.

“We (would) always go all the way to the city, in Minneapolis,” she said. 

Her demographic focus is teenagers and young adults. Now, they see what Jama offers through Snapchat, either by following Jama herself or snaps taken while others shop at the store. This is how she spreads the word about new arrivals.

“Every time I bring in new stuff, I get a new customer,” Jama said.

The store has undergone small reimaginations, the largest of which, at the end of 2019, was to switch her store’s focus from women’s to primarily men’s clothes. Offering clothing for men was more in line with what Jama’s peers expected of her anyway, she joked. In high school especially, Jama was a tomboy.

“Fartun, if she opens a store, (she’ll) open it for a man,” she said people would say.

The Initiative Foundation helped her make the inventory transition sooner than she could have on her own, she said. She is a graduate of its Enterprise Academy program.

It has been tough at times, Jama said. People told her she was too young and that she would not make money. But Jama has already done tough things. She survived losing her mother. There’s nothing worse, she said. Jama is looking ahead to success.

“It’s gonna come one day,” she said. “It takes time, and it’s very tough, but I’m still winning my game. And it’s gonna come.”

She said her goal is to become an international business. 

“This business is not my short-term,” Jama said.

At the front of the store is a selection of women’s clothes Jama designs herself and has manufactured. Women can peruse the displayed designs and accompanying fabric swatches and ask Jama to have a piece made. She also has a small inventory in-store.

Jama started designing women’s clothes after she didn’t find what she wanted to wear in St. Cloud. 

“You believe what the people need (is) the same thing you want,” she said.

Her male customers are more likely to bring in a photo of a popular singer or other Somali superstar.

“They say, like, ‘Fartun, we need this,'” Jama said.

She estimated approximately 20% to 30% of the clothes she stocks are ordered based on what people come in and say they want or like.

“At the same time, I know what they like and what they don’t like,” Jama said.

Mako Store hours are somewhat flexible, but Jama said she is open Mondays through Fridays from 11 a.m.-8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Source: SC Times