Derby asked for it, and the owners of Bling are obliging

A mere six months after moving their family to the Wichita area and opening a new distribution center here, husband-and-wife Mark Campos and Nicole Hedges-Campos are opening another Bling retail shop.

This one will be at 2100 N. Rock Road in Derby next to Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers.

“This is 12,” Hedges-Campos says.

That’s a dozen stores across Kansas and in Nebraska in the decade since they started the women’s clothing and accessory shop in Scott City.

Three more Blings likely will open yet this year, though Hedges-Campos says she can’t talk about those yet.

But can she talk about how she does it? Perhaps offer an entrepreneurship class in how she can open more than a store a year, not to mention moving her family and opening a distribution center?

“We have learned along the way,” Hedges-Campos says.

“Building the infrastructure to do it is the tricky part.”

At each growth spurt, she says there are readjustments. That’s why before the hard work begins, Hedges-Campos says she and her team “have to get ourselves ready for it mentally.”

“We know the systems. . . . We’re getting better at being able to do things quicker now.”

Hedges-Campos says she lets customers be her guide.

“That’s a big reason why we’ve opened a lot of our stores,” she says.

There are Blings in Greenwich Place and NewMarket Square, but Derby customers kept requesting a store.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve heard it,” Hedges-Campos says.

The store will open in late May or early June.

For anyone who hasn’t been to a Bling, Hedges-Campos describes her merchandise as “everything you could want to wear.”

Affordability is her biggest selling point, she thinks.

“That’s what people get really excited about.”

This story was originally published March 9, 2020 at 5:01 AM.