RETAILING

Watch out, Mrs. Fields! T.J. Cinnamons is moving its buns into Orange County.

The Kansas City, Mo.-based chain recently started selling its “gourmet cinnamon rolls” in the Laguna Hills Mall. A second store is scheduled to open at Fashion Island’s Atrium Court in about three months.

And if the company’s products are any measure, Orange County residents either aren’t worried about their weight or they are doing a lot of exercising.

The bakery’s piece de resistance , after all, is an eight-ounce, 530-calorie, sticky-sweet cinnamon roll ($1.35) that is about the size of a softball. It reportedly has been gobbled up by such notables as Vice President George Bush and U.S. Sen. Bob Dole. Then there are the big, sticky pecan roll ($1.49), cinnamon raisin bread, cinnamon bread and teensy, 1-inch-by-1-inch cinnamon rolls called Mini-Cinni’s ($1.25 for a five-pack.)

So far, business at the Laguna Hills franchise has been “real good,” reports manager Joanna Drohan. “People walk in the mall and smell your bakery. It’s awesome. They come and gawk at us making rolls.”

Privately owned T.J. Cinnamons Bakery bills itself as “the nation’s largest specialty bakery chain,” with more than 200 franchise bakeries throughout the United States.