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ThriftyCat, at 2070 Martin Luther King Jr. Way (at Addison), closed on Feb. 15 after about a year in business. Credit: Nathan Dalton for Berkeleyside<\/p>\nThriftyCat, at 2070 Martin Luther King Jr. Way (at Addison), closed on Feb. 15 after about a year in business. Credit: Nathan Dalton for Berkeleyside<\/p>\n
After just a year in business, ThriftyCat, the secondhand shop on Martin Luther King Jr. Way, has closed. The reason for the closure centers around the small parking lot outside the shop, which owner Bryce Kalousek-Maritano wanted to use for both retail and storage.<\/p>\n
According to Kalousek-Maritano, before signing a lease in April 2024, he met in person with an assistant city planner and was told he\u2019d be able to use the parking lot for retail and storage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Believing he had the city\u2019s informal permission, he then signed a two-year lease that did not include mention of the outdoor space. He said he also talked after signing with another city planner, who confirmed what the first planner had told him. (Kalousek-Maritano applied for a business license during this second meeting.)<\/p>\n
But after he purchased 40 tons of secondhand clothing<\/a>, which he stored in large boxes in the parking lot, the city informed him that he was using the space illegally and his landlord was sent a notice from code enforcement due to \u201caccumulation of trash and debris,\u201d \u201crodent harborage\u201d and illegal outdoor uses. The city also informed him that he could not use the parking lot for retail.\u00a0<\/p>\n Berkeley spokesperson Seung Lee wrote in an email that the city \u201cwas unable to verify ThriftyCat owner\u2019s claims that the City OK\u2019d a use permit for the parking lot for retail and storage.\u201d Lee said such approvals are not possible under Berkeley\u2019s municipal law. The two planners who spoke with Kalousek-Maritano did not respond to requests for comment. Kalousek-Maritano\u2019s landlord also did not respond.<\/p>\n Kalousek-Maritano\u2019s has argued that Flora Arte, the flower and gift shop that occupied the space prior to ThriftyCat, used the outdoor space for retail and as a plant nursery.<\/p>\n When asked about Flora Arte\u2019s use of the outdoor space, Lee wrote that the flower shop\u2019s permit was for \u201ccontinuing non-confirming legal use of the retail space, which states the outdoor space on the parcel was to be used as a parking lot. Flora Arte, like Thrifty Cat, was only allowed to use the indoor space for commerce.\u201d<\/p>\n But ThriftyCat\u2019s 40 tons of old clothes appear to have drawn more notice from the city than Flora Arte\u2019s rows of plants.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lee shared an email from Russell Roe, an associate planner and code enforcement officer, sent to Olivia Ramos, who co-managed Thrifty Cat, which stated, \u201cIf Flora Arte later moved some of their retail activities into the parking lot, it was in violation of their permit. They only got away with it because they never got caught.\u201d<\/p>\n Kalousek-Maritano blamed any trash outside his store on a woman who camped in front of the building for a couple days and said the city should have contacted him directly about any issues instead of informing his landlord, who lives in Maryland.<\/p>\n Kalousek-Maritano, who has opened businesses in 15 other jurisdictions and also owns Curiosity Shop, home of 100,000 things you don\u2019t need<\/a>, just a few blocks down from the thrift store, called his dealings with the city \u201cone of the worst experiences with a government bureaucracy in my life.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Even though its use of the parking lot was limited, ThriftyCat opened in January 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n Instead of using the parking lot for storage, Kalousek-Maritano said he had to rent a separate warehouse to store his clothing stock, which made running the business unsustainable. Especially given the fact that ThriftyCat was created with low prices in mind.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u200a\u201cWe\u2019re just trying to give clothes to the community at good prices,\u201d Ramos told Berkeleyside around the time the store opened. \u201cWe have the dollar bins and the $5 jackets outside and that\u2019s our priority.\u201d<\/p>\n The last full day ThriftyCat was in business was Feb. 15 but the store did $1 sales and giveaways for a couple more weeks, according to Kalousek-Maritano. The store donated most of its clothes and racks to Dorothy Day House, which runs a thrift store<\/a> that benefits Berkeley\u2019s homeless community.<\/p>\n Kalousek-Maritano, who said he lost a significant amount of money on the thrift store, vowed that this is not the end of ThriftyCat.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a successful little business,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it will reopen. But not in Berkeley.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In the past two years, several other second hand clothing stores have shuttered in Berkeley, including Mars Mercantile<\/a>, Indigo Vintage Cooperative<\/a>, and 2nd Street<\/a> on Telegraph, as well as Paisley Vintage<\/a> on Bancroft Way.<\/p>\n ThriftyCat, 2070 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley. Connect via Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n “*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n \t![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Screenshot-2026-06-03-at-2.06.32-PM-2560x1459.png\")
A camera mounted on a Google Street View vehicle captured this photo of the the parking lot in July 2024.<\/p>\n