It's been only seven months since a Cal Poly wrestler and his girlfriend opened a vintage clothing and furniture business in downtown San Luis Obispo. Now, they're planning to open a second location in the 26,350 square-foot storefront off Higuera Street that used to house Beverly’s Fabrics and Crafts.
Beverly's was a fixture downtown for more than 50 years. It closed in 2020.
Its former location will soon become the new Thrifty Beaches Headquarters.
Owners and couple Adam Kemp and Maria Trott opened their first Thrifty Beaches location off Broad Street in March.
“I didn't really think I was gonna get a store downtown. I was just telling everybody I was and everyone got excited," Kemp recalls of the leasing process. "Then my girlfriend [Maria] was actually scrolling on Craigslist and she found our place.”
Thanks to a little bit of luck and positive affirmation, they got the Broad Street space, transforming it into the vintage clothing and furniture store it is now. But now they have a much larger task at hand. Hemp Shak and Euphoria co-owner Steven Wick put it into perspective.
“My first thought process is they're crazy," Wick said. "Hemp Shak is 1,000 square feet, and that's 26 Hemp Shaks in this building.”
“When I walked in here, my heart started beating really fast because I realize it's a big undertaking and obviously in a month is not a large amount of time,” Trott explained.
Planning to open in September, there are piles of clothes to be sorted, fixtures and racks still to be constructed and the layout is yet to be finalized but for Kemp and Trott, it's a day-by-day process and they believe they'll be ready to open.
“I'm like the captain of my ship," Kemp said. "At the end of the day, I can steer wherever I want to go. I would tell myself as a little kid, I can be whatever I want. I can create a business, I can be an entrepreneur, I can have X, Y, and Z.”
As a graduate student at Cal Poly and a standout national wrestler, Kemp has become the master of balancing things that need to get done.
“At practice, I'm just a wrestler. If I'm here, I'm just a business owner. When with [Maria], I try to be just a boyfriend,” he said.
With plans to not just buy and sell vintage clothing and furniture, Kemp says they want to eventually add in unique art installations, use the upstairs of their new space for people to donate or sell their clothes and down the line be able to sell coffee and drinks.
“They always put like one idea into the pot, whereas Adam is putting in like 20,” Wick said of the previous suggestions people had for the large storefront.
“I never really felt a part of something this big ever, so it's just exciting and it makes me want to keep doing more,” Trott said.
