Downtown San Mateo welcomes new clothing store Honey & Hive

But after having conversations with her husband Berat and his uncle, who works in the clothing industry in Turkey — as well as traveling back and forth to visit factories there — the couple decided to start their own baby clothing store, one that only sold outfits that were high quality and ethically made.

“We went to several different stores and saw a lot of the clothes contained polyester … they were probably not ethically made either and just poor quality,” Tasan said. “I talked to a lot of my friends who have babies, and they’d say the same thing, that they’d get a onesie from Target, wash it once, and it’ll have holes in it, and they can’t find anything with good quality anymore.”

The Tasans eventually found a spot downtown to open Honey & Hive, which, despite the new venture, still feels familiar given Zella spent so much time working and living downtown. She said she is also proud of helping to diversify the area, which is heavily skewed toward food service businesses.

“With opening this store, I just hope it invites more people to open up some retail in San Mateo, because there are an abundance of great restaurants, cafes, boba and everything edible but not as much retail,” she said. I know people say they want it … but customers have to also buy things and support them to make the stores thrive and stay open.”

The store hosted its grand opening May 13, which Zella said, given the high turnout, was demonstrative of retail’s high demand in the area. And though the products they sell are a little pricier than a big-name store like TJ Maxx, there is certainly a market for it, she said.

“We found there was a strong amount of people who are willing to pay $10 or $15 more for something that is actually going to last and is good quality,” Tasan said.

Honey & Hive is located at 320 E. Third Ave. in San Mateo.