BEHIND THE BUSINESS
Two for One
At Mason Dixon in Shallotte, customers contribute to community nonprofits just by shopping. BY CLAIRE LYNCH | PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRENT GALLANT
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From left: Mashona Klamar, Tierra Bryant, Mason Dixon owner Wendy Brown, Jeff Brown, Amber Todd, Chelsea Sibbett and, in front, Wendy and Jeff’s daughter, Allie Brown.
When Mason Dixon owner Wendy Brown moved from Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, to Brunswick County, North Carolina, in 1999, she brought the best of the North to the South. As a girl, Brown and her family had visited her aunt and uncle in Sunset Beach, and she was drawn to the warmer weather, the friendly people, the food and, of course, the beaches. In North Carolina she married, started raising a family and worked in the restaurant business as a manager. Her most recent job before opening Mason Dixon was as a senior manager at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville in Myrtle Beach,
and during her training at the company’s headquarters in Orlando, Florida, managers reinforced the facets of running a Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville restaurant plus the fact that having fun was key to a good restaurant experience. “An integral part of dining out is the customers enjoying the good food and entertainment, and it’s equally important for the staff to have fun while assisting them,” Brown says. She’s brought that sense of playfulness, as well as her business sense, to Mason Dixon, a clothing and gift shop for women, men and children. The store opened in Shallotte on April 1, 2017, and Brown took her time choosing the Summer 2021
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