[bright holiday music] I found a couple of long time shoppers here at DeWayne's.

Tell me, what do you enjoy most about coming here?

- There's such a variety of things to shop for and to look at, and every year, you can change your theme for your Christmas tree.

There's always good little snacks to buy and stocking stuffers to get, but we also come all year round.

We like the flowers in the spring and all the things that they have, so it's just a great experience.

I've been coming with my cousin for years.

- And it's so much fun.

We can get together with family and just enjoy things and plan what we're gonna do, and it's just a great place to come.

- Right now, I'm here with DeWayne and Tina Lee, the owners of DeWayne's, and this place is just fabulous.

I would love to know more about your how-you-came-to-be story.

- Well, it's a long one.

Are you sure you have time?

[Deborah laughing] The short and sweet of it is DeWayne, at the age of 20, was on the family farm working, but his income off the farm was the pumpkins.

And that particular year in '91, they lost the pumpkin crop.

So he was outta money, decided to borrow some money from his mama, come set up a little stand right down the road at the outlet center, right on the front lawn, and that's how DeWayne's got started.

He never went back to the farm.

- Well, there's a lot to DeWayne's.

Tell me how big is this place and tell me what some of the departments are.

- So under roof, we have a little over 40,000 square feet, and that is a Christmas Land, of course.

We have a ladies' boutique.

We have a men's shop.

We have a sweet shop, fudge and ice cream.

We have a gift shop, and we just added a new little pet boutique, so lots of different shop and shops throughout DeWayne's.

- DeWayne, can you tell me how did Christmas Land start?

- Many years ago, there was another store down the road just about a half a mile from here that had a big Christmas shop, and they went out of business.

And everybody was coming into the store wanting to know where this Christmas shop was.

And so I told Tina one day, I said, "We need to start selling some Christmas merchandise.

"Everybody wants to know where this Christmas shop is at.

"We need to be selling Christmas merchandise."

So, we started getting into Christmas a lot smaller than this.

It was actually up on the top floor of the main store, and we outgrew that space really quick.

And so it just started expanding from there.

- [Deborah] What's the experience?

When people come to DeWayne's, what are they coming for?

- I think experience is the word.

We hear a lot of people say that DeWayne's is their happy place.

They'll come on their lunch hour just to walk through, because they always tell us our employees are the best, that they're just very pleasant and nice and smiling, and they acknowledge 'em, and that's what we want.

That's really, I think what we've built our business on is stressing to our employees that customer service is number one, 'cause that's how we built our business at the little fruit stand many years ago.

- What do you think people find particularly unique about shopping here at DeWayne's?

- The diversity of the product offered.

I mean, you can come here, and you can buy everything from a bag of Pot and Soul to a Pandora bracelet to a Louis Vuitton bag, there's just so much, and it's for all ages and all price ranges.

And I think another key part that seems minor, but it's huge around here, is we offer gift wrap.

We do over twenty-five thousand gift wraps a year, and not many people offer that anymore.

And that's just something you can come in if you've got to go to a party or a celebration, and you can come in, and you can walk out with a proud gift, and it's ready to go.

- I love that.

And I've seen some really unique things already.

I can't wait to explore it some more.

- We're glad you're here.

- A lot to see in here.

- DeWayne's is at 1575 Outlet Center Drive in Selma, and they're open seven days a week.

To find out more, give them a call at [919] 202-8471 or visit them online at shopdwaynes.com.