Values

Tio Perfumes LLC is a family owned brick and mortar business dedicated to the retail of fine fragrances. Founded in 1989 by Mr. Fidel Gilberto Muñoz Brandi and Mrs. Felicidad Muñoz Gonzalez, they named their business ”Casa Carolina” in honor of their first born daughter.

In 2005 the legal structure and name of the business was changed to ”Tio Perfumes” or “Uncle Perfumes” in English. Being a family business, my cousins called my father ”Tio”, and as our customers heard his nickname, they began calling him “Tio” too of affection. This led my parents to change the name to ”Tio Perfumes.”

When I was 5 years old my parents initiated this adventure. I grew up living at our first store. After school during elementary, my brother, sister and I would come back to the store with my parents and there were endless nights in which we slept on a bed in a room my father made when the business began. We would stay at the store until 12-1 in the morning. I learned mathematics very young, at the age of 5 because my father and I would practice every day when he would let me sit and take care of the cash register; letting me charge and give customers their change, but only if I could do the math in my head.

My father was a very intelligent man. When he was studying to open Casa Carolina, before bar codes, he began to study department stores downtown. He was able to decipher the codes the department store would write on a sticker and place on the perfumes. He would learn from the stock code the department store created what the cost of the perfume was. The code written on the label would teach him the sales price, cost of the perfume, mark up, and profit. He spent almost 3 months studying the windows of the department stores. Once he deciphered the code, he knew at what price to purchase the perfumes. My father would travel for many weeks at a time searching for perfume distributors. After a few months, he opened Casa Carolina; now the oldest perfumes store in Laredo.