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Recently, a friend of mine came perilously close to buying a pair of pants from the Stuff by Hilary Duff line at Zellers.
And late last year, I carried a funky leather cuff all the way up to the counter at Shopper's Drug Mart, before realizing those smiling twins on the label were Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
If those teen queens are almost sucking in adults, just imagine what they're doing to kids.
Sure Jennifer Lopez has a perfume, and this spring will launch a line of clothing and lingerie, soon to be followed by shoes. Gwen Stefani has been designing handbags for awhile. Britney Spears has a bad movie, Crossroads, and a perfume, Curious. P. Diddy has his clothes and Ashton Kutcher has his restaurant. And Lindsay Lohan and Mandy Moore have their singing/acting careers.
But when it's business, big business, on the table, not many can compare to the success and influence of Miss Duff and the Olsens-squared.
This is how brisk their business is: Both made it onto Forbes Top 100 richest celebrities of 2004.
Call them mini-moguls, but only because they did it all before turning 18.
As triple-threat Duff told reporters last fall while doing press for her movie Raise Your Voice, it's happening just like she planned.
"If I want to do it all I'm going to have to put in the work, and I'm willing to do that, you know?" she said, not seeming to want to dwell on the topic of her multi-millionaire status.
"We don't really talk about it in my house. We don't talk about how I have a clothing line that's doing this or my tour's doing this or how my movie is coming out," she said. "It seems weird when people talk about it. "
Duff's Stuff line, which includes mostly pink items, including backpacks, T-shirts, pants, hair gel and even bedding -- much of it bearing her likeness -- has been doing a brisk business at Target in the U.S. and Zellers in Canada.
Just imagine how those Lizzie McGuire DVDs and movie posters will fly off replenished shelves this Saturday when Duff pays a visit to sign autographs at the Bayshore Shopping Centre before her first, sold-out concert at the Corel Centre.
At least mothers worried about daughters wanting to don "Spears-esque" low-riders needn't worry about coverage. The Duff mantra, as always, is squeaky clean.
"Because Hilary Duff doesn't believe you have to show a lot of skin to be glamorous," reads her website, "the clothes in the Stuff by Hilary Duff line are things you can wear to school or on that movie date you have lined up for the weekend -- and you'll look super-stylin'."
And to think, before the mini-moguls, all parents taking their kids to concerts had to worry about buying was some snacks and a T-shirt.