Tacoma’s beloved Mattice Beauty Supply gets a new owner
A beloved beauty supply store in central Tacoma is getting a new owner.
Mattice Beauty Supply was until last year under the helm of Mattice Hoyt, a fixture in Tacoma’s local political scene who was known for her fierce advocacy for the city’s most vulnerable residents. After Hoyt died suddenly in November, her husband Chris Hoyt sold the establishment to Champaine McNair, who earlier this year started to revive the store with plans to maintain Hoyt’s legacy.
But McNair pulled out of the sale in March before it was final. McNair declined to comment on why she did so, and Chris Hoyt said he couldn’t comment on her reasoning beyond that “sometimes things just don’t work out.”
“No bad feelings, just it didn’t work out,” Hoyt recently told The News Tribune.
Enter business partners Davida Sharpe, Patricia Crocker and Patience Brown, the new owners at Mattice Beauty Supply. Sharpe bought the store with her business partner and her daughter in April, and they have spent time since then gearing up to officially open its doors again.
Mattice Beauty Supply will be open after its grand reopening on June 20, though the new owners intend to launch with a soft opening before then. Sharpe, once a customer of Hoyt’s, told The News Tribune that she always wanted to open a beauty supply store of her own and told Hoyt as much when she was alive.
“She would keep telling me, ‘Keep going, it’s going to happen,’” Sharpe said.
Sharpe was excited when the opportunity arose for her to take over.
Sharpe said she plans to keep the store’s name and Hoyt’s overall vision for the store – though she has been working on some light remodeling, a “facelift.” Hoyt was known for the cooking classes and financial-literacy workshops she would offer at the store, and Sharpe said customers can expect that type of work to continue.
“The vision for the store, for the most part, is keeping it Mattice Beauty Supply,” she said.
Chris Hoyt said Sharpe has maturity and life experience that he’s looking forward to seeing put into practice at Mattice Beauty Supply. Hoyt said he’s received only positive feedback from fans of his wife and her store.
“It’s filling a need for the community that Mattice Beauty Supply, since my wife has passed, the community hasn’t had,” he told The News Tribune.
Sharpe said she wants to do right by those who have loved and supported both Hoyt and her store, and she has received an outpouring of support from those people since she announced she was taking over. Chris Hoyt said he’s looking forward to seeing Sharpe’s vision in action.
“There’s nobody in the world that can replicate the exact way that Mattice did business, but in that same vein, there’s nobody in the world that is going to be able to replicate the way and do things the way that Davida does business,” Hoyt said. “Just giving Davida the grace of the time to learn what she needs to learn is vital.”
Sharpe said Mattice Beauty Supply will hold its soft opening June 4-6 and June 13-14. The store will be open noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. the rest of the days of the soft opening.
After the grand reopening on June 20, Mattice Beauty Supply will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day except for Sundays when it will be open from noon to 5 p.m. The store is at 3906 S. 12th St in Tacoma.
