New curated thrift shop in Fircrest acts like an indoor market, supporting local artists
Move over Value Village: there’s a new thrift store in town.
Just across Mildred Street West in the Sunrise Center strip mall sits Keep Counter, a curated resale shop with a mission to uplift local artists and makers. The expansive space is filled with artisan goods: local jewelry, curated clothing, vintage decor, candles, coffee table books, glassware, prints, furniture and a variety of clothing – including for kids.
Its official opening Aug. 11 fills a boutique gap in Fircrest, said owner/operator Katrina Lepp, who grew up in the area and actually took driver’s ed in the building that’s now home to her 2005 Mildred St. W. storefront.
Lepp brings a unique approach to reselling by offering physical retail space to local small-scale and hobby resellers looking to build their businesses and increase their presence in town.
Currently in store you can shop crystals from Ombre Crystal Co., retro-inspired sunglasses and hair clips from Cositas by Sarahí, vintage decor from Ocea.Jade.Vintage, ‘90s t-shirts and hats from Recipe Club, second-hand clothing from The Garage and Serendipity and kid’s clothes from PopUp Kids consignment and Soluna Kids Boutique.
Items are rotated out weekly, so the supply is always fresh, Lepp said.
“There’s so many good markets: maker’s markets, resale markets, vintage – there’s a strong, strong presence of those things in the South Sound,” Lepp said. “I wanted to kind of just piggyback off of that and create a full-time all-season opportunity for people that’s less labor intensive.”
Lepp has been reselling vintage goods in a varying capacity for years, and said operating a booth at a market was a lot of work without a guarantee that she would make more than she spent to be there, or even break even.
“It takes so much of your time, so much of your emotion. And this [business] basically simulates the same thing. People can shop around to different displays and see the personality of it without actually having to see the person,” she said. “And it’s less pressure too for both parties. Because making a sale face-to-face is not always the most desirable thing … although fun for a lot of extroverts.”
Keep Counter vendors pay a membership fee and have a six or 12 month contract to have their goods in the shop, Lepp said. They can advertise their business in store, keep their inventory in one spot and photograph their goods in an in-shop studio too, she said.
“When people show up here, it’s a better alternative [to corporate thrift stores like Value Village] because it’s supporting not just my small business, but other people,” Lepp said. “It’s like a win-win-win-win on all fronts. The customer wins, I win, the members win and I’m just surprised there aren’t more businesses with this model.”
Lepp said retail spaces like hers are especially needed in winter during the cooler and wetter months when there’s only a handful of large indoor markets nearby. In the future she plans to make space for “probably 15 more vendors” and host pop-up events as well.
Growing up as the youngest of five with a single mother, Lepp said she learned to thrift out of necessity when she was a teenager, but has since grown to love thrifting as a way of self-expression, with benefits to the environment and local economy.
Now a self-described “thrift hound,” Lepp finds a lot of her goods in thrift stores around the tri-county area, as well as garage and estate sales, and said she tries to keep prices competitive with the Value Village down the street to remain accessible.
Unlike other thrift or second-hand shops in town, Lepp said she was sure to include dressing rooms “you can basically do cartwheels in,” large enough to accommodate kids, strollers and wheelchairs. She also accepts consignment by appointment, which you can learn more about on her website.
If you go:
Hours: Monday-Wednesday 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., Friday-Sunday noon to 6 p.m.
Address: 2005 Wildred St. W
Website: https://www.keepcounter.com/
Event calendar: https://www.keepcounter.com/calendar
