ARTpool Gallery Boutique and Record Store<\/a> is where all things funky and unique go to thrive.<\/p>\n\u201cARTpool is a treasure trove of all the decades, all the genres from 1920s flapper to 1970s disco,\u201d said owner Marina Williams.<\/p>\n
The store offers a look at secondhand hats from different decades, vintage shirts, or handmade items, and jewelry.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes they need a little more love to continue their journey on the planet,\u201d Williams said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Williams opened ARTpool Vintage and Vinyl in 2008, and said it took a while for her business to take off.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople thought, ‘What is this? What is vintage?\u2019” she said. “They were just so used to either being new or it being thrift.”<\/p>\n
But\u00a0nearly 20 years\u00a0later, things have changed. The shop has moved locations and\u00a0is now\u00a0a family business, with her husband\u2019s record shop next door.<\/p>\n
With vintage becoming trendy, business has\u00a0improved \u2014 in the last five years, Williams said she has seen a spike.<\/p>\n
Customer Aurora Jamenez said she comes in often to reduce textile waste.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s kind of brutal,” she said. “So, something like a silly costume that’s usually made out of plastic anyway, might as well get it used.”<\/p>\n
Williams reducing waste is one of the reasons for the uptick in\u00a0sales. The other, she said, is the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople want to find more value and be economical and very conscientious of where their money goes and how far it can stretch,\u201d Willams said.<\/p>\n
University of South Florida associate professor Richard Smith said economic data backs up that observation.<\/p>\n
Smith said that while wages have risen by 18% in the last few years, when you account for inflation, he said it\u2019s actually a 2% net decrease.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo they can, in terms of actual goods and services, afford less on average,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
And Smith said prices aren\u2019t likely to come down anytime soon either.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we generally see is eventually wages rising to meet the new price level,” he said. “But we haven’t reached that yet, and that\u2019s the uncertainty.”<\/p>\n
Williams said she always makes sure to\u00a0prioritize affordable\u00a0pricing for her store, with the economy and locals in mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are looking for some things that are going to be more affordable than those mall venues, and also supporting a local economy, pour so much more into your own neighborhood, which is vital right now more than ever,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla \u2014\u00a0Secondhand vintage apparel is becoming\u00a0a popular option for many.\u00a0 ThreadUp, one of the world\u2019s largest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[767,2031,274,558,28,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,1374],"class_list":{"0":"post-174785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-app-community","9":"tag-app-local-business","10":"tag-app-top-stories","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-pinellas-county","15":"tag-st-pete","16":"tag-st-pete-headlines","17":"tag-st-pete-news","18":"tag-st-petersburg","19":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","20":"tag-st-petersburg-news","21":"tag-tampa","22":"tag-top-stories","23":"tag-tyler-oneill"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174785"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174785\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}