We are hosting a pop up Saturday August 31st at our Berkeley Location. Activewear And Vintage? YES Long gone are the days when you could only like one style or be pushed into a niche.
We can like it ALL!!!
We love the idea of taking care of our bodies and having activewear that makes us feel our best and is size inclusive.
Incl.usiveinc is a small brand that prides itself on accessibility and diversity. "The beauty of everyone is what drives our activewear brand. We make products that honor the ordinary and the unique in all of us".
It's August 2024 and I think we can all agree that inflation is effecting us all. Regardless of where you live you are seeing the cost of groceries, gas, clothing, haircuts and just about everything go up. Inflation went from 0.8% in 2014 to 6.5% in 2024 according to "usinflationcalculator.com" What does this mean for spending? Small Businesses and Affordability? They are all linked and work like a circular system. Lets first talk about spending. Our spending habits are directly linked to access and affordability. As prices have increased spending is down at small business, specialty businesses and for services deemed "not necessary" or to expensive. But spending and revenue increase is up with billion dollar corporations such as amazon, shein and Temu.
When it comes to establishing prices its important to understand how are they determined? There is a huge difference between small businesses and large corporations and setting prices. We are talking about huge sums of money and power vs small and local mostly family|independently owned businesses. This is why you see small businesses opening and closing more frequently especially since the pandemic and post pandemic. There is not a big pool of money or bail out for smaller independtly owned businesses. Large corporations can get costs of good much cheaper by purchasing | creating items for pennies on the dollar. If you are a small maker, artists or service worker your cost of goods are much higher. Small businesses can't compete. And the loss is small and local. I'm not sure if small businesses can or will recover, especially with more people shopping online and with more convenience. The pandemic trained everyone how to shop online and I'm sorry to say I don't think shoppin in stores is coming back to where it once was. Ask any small/local business owner. We can't offer rock bottom prices to compete, we can't do same day delivery, we are already stretched so thin with social media, marketing and all the other jobs that small business owners must do daily to just keep the doors open.
Spending: This brings into play companies like Shein and Temu, who have horrible worker practices, products and environmental impacts, yet are making TEMU - 6 billion dollars yearly SHEIN $32.5 billion in 2023. How are we reconciling affordability for environmental, societal, personal beliefs when spending with companies that directly oppose our personal beliefs. Whats the ultimate cost of affordability?
On the flip side of this I am noticing trends with buying expensive designer, big ticket items and vintage moving into a territory of unafforability. Vintage stores were once "vintage" now they must carry designer, new brands, candles and diversify stock to catch more customers who might not be a vintage shopper. This goes for Pretty Penny too. We started incorporating our "curated collection" 10 years ago because we wanted to expand our customer base. In 2024 the landscape has changed even more to a place I don't quite understand in what the general public are looking for ? price points? quality ? sustainability ? design ? small designer? affordable ? accessible ? Or just to be entertained ?
Affordability. Accessibility. Budget.
Nick and I have been thinking long and hard on how we can keep the doors open to our businesses and make enough to just survive, because at this point the financial future of living in the Bay Area, being small business owners and just living is the hardest its ever been. We look at cheaper places all over the country weekly fantasizing about living somewhere more affordable. This means pulling our kid out of school, dismantling the businesses AGAIN and moving, all which is disruptive mentally and physically. We've also tried the grass is greener when we moved out of the Bay Area once before and it didn't work out and we came back. The Bay Area is our home I just wish it was a more affordable place to live and have a small business. So what do we do ? How do we want to show up for our community and our businesses.
Moving forward we will continue to provide you with high quality service and products in a comfortable environment for accessible price points.
We will use our space to house community members and small business giving others opportunities with pop ups and collaborations.
Nick has thoughtfully put together his budget cut and I have thoughtfully priced items in the shop both in store and online, we want everyone to be able to have access to quality items and services.
I hope to see you in store and online and if you aren't able please share with your family and friends, we would love to keep serving you as long as we can.
I am back!!!! I have been gone from the store for 2 months due to a medical emergency that ended with surgery and recovery. I have one more final doctors appointment Monday February 12th that will give me the final O.K to be back to full capability status. I am grateful for all the support me and my family have received over the past few months. I love our community. I am excited to see everyone in the store again and get back to normal routines and activities. I am on the other side of this thing !!!!!!!!!!!! I am especially excited to start this new year off in better health and am looking forward to putting all my energy into maintaining and growing our business. Lots of love and peace in 2024 from our family to you. Sarah + Nick + Vienna
Pretty Penny
2981 College Avenue
Berkeley, CA. 94609
Hours Wednesday - Saturday 12-6 Sunday 12-5
ONLINE: www.prettypennyclothing.com
UPSTAIRS
Hey Pretty Hair Studio w/Nick St. Mary
Book At: www.heyprettyhairstudio.com
We have both an online store and a brick and mortar shop. Both of these are full time jobs. You can shop in store Wednesday - Saturday 12-6 and shopping online is 24/7.
There are over 400 listed items for sale on our website and over 3000 items available in store. We choose the items for the website that are the most unique and have wow appeal. It is challenging for us to sell basics online like cotton t shirts or jeans and when we do we have to add high detail photos and style the items. It is an ebb and flow when it comes to finding what appeals to an online shopper vs in store. There is a lot of psychology that goes into shopping and decision making.
After 17 years in business our customers have grown into shoppers who look for high quality, unique and accessibly priced items. Anytime we have tried to deviate from this formula there is resistance. We started carrying new items we call our "curated collection" and had to ease our customers into the idea of branching out to new items. We showed customers how to mix modern with vintage and showed them how it could work and 10 years later it is still a wonderful union.
We have loyalty to the people who have helped us survive and grow our business. We give our customers what they want. You ask for it, we try to get it/find it. It is challenging to keep the inventory fresh and rotating daily but the excitement of seeing new items keeps the customer coming back often. We do have customers who refuse to shop online and we have customers who refuse to shop in store. So we have both. Customer service is the key to success and longevity to our business. We answer questions and share photos, tips and tricks on how to get an item that fits what you are looking for.
Thank you for shopping in store and online. We appreciate you.
photo Fryers Sunglasses as part of our curated collection. Available In Store And Online.
We took a family trip to Italy in October. It was the first time we had a vacation in almost 7 years. Its not cheap to travel but luckily square has a loan program that really worked for what we needed. Plus a travel credit card. I mention this because I believe in financial transparency especially these days when things are so expensive. We started our trip in Rome. It was a great introduction in how to order food, take public transportation and begin to learn the cultural norms of Italy. We saw most of the tourist places like the coliseum Vatican. We really wanted to eat as much food as we could and do some vintage shopping. And we did. After 5 days we took a train to Lecce in southern Italy. This was my favorite part of the trip. It was a smaller town and incredibly beautiful. We shopped for vintage and ate some more. We learned about the culture in this part of southern Italy and we absolutely fell in love. It was very hard to leave and I day dream of living there someday. We then rented a car and drove to Cosenza Calabria where my husbands family is from. We explored the town ( which was not touristy at all ) and toured a castle and graveyard looking for my husbands family members. We then drove to the almafi coast. It was beyond beautiful and the food was delicious. After a few days we drove to Naples, which was a big switch up from smaller towns to a big bustling city. It took a few days to get adjusted to being there but once we started exploring we feel in love. The art, music, culture and food were amazing. We stayed for 5 days which was enough time to really see everything and learn so much about the city, history and people. We returned our rental car and headed back to Rome by train. We stayed in the outskirts of Rome which was such a new perspective from staying in the center of Rome. We went to a big mall, saw monuments from the Mussolini era. It was 3 weeks of exploring and we were ready to come home completely changed from this experience. It was eye opening to see a country that has healthy food, health care and a culture that supports small business. The markets were bustling and there was an ease that felt different than how we live in the U.S We cant wait to go back and visit. I have a dream that we will go back and live for a few years and if they will have us be able to live out our lives in Italy. Being part of the EU would be an amazing experience for our entire family and would give our daughter a chance to see that there are different ways of live other than the American hustle culture and capitalism on a toxic level. There are problems everywhere but Italy gave us a chance to see there are different ways to live. And bonus we brought back over 200 pieces of the most amazing vintage for our customers. Available in store and online.
CIAO xo
