How can stores bring back in-store shopping? The solution at Astoria’s Weird Sisters Freak Boutique is to add artwork.
Here, customers can purchase secondhand clothing beneath a stalactite ceiling while listening to jokes from experience-tenders in a speakeasy without drink. The area combines elements of a retail store and an interactive art project.
Owner Sondra Carr stated, “I believe that the future of retail will be very immersive because people no longer necessarily want to get out of their couches and come down into a town just to shop.”
Online purchasing is inexpensive and simple, but it’s not particularly memorable to pick up an Amazon box from the front porch.
Carr has experience as an artist and has created immersive installation art and traditional sculptures, such as those found at Burning Man or music festivals, before entering the retail industry. She has also created window and store displays in her capacity as a visual merchandiser.
She remarked, “I was kind of seeing these two areas merge together.”
Carr wanted to launch a consulting company to assist retailers in advancing their immersive merchandising, but she was unable to find customers. Have you ever considered opening a store and showing people what you want to do rather than telling them? This was the suggestion of a small business expert.
As a result, Weird Sisters Freak Boutique was established in 2019.
The three witches from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth are referenced in the name. Carr’s son works there, but no sisters are involved.
According to Carr, we receive real sisters who are drawn to the moniker at least three times per day.
In downtown Astoria, Weird Sisters is located in the Hidden Underground building’s basement. The Grotto, a retail area with textured walls and ceiling that resembles the interior of a cave, is where guests first enter. The backroom doubles as a sales rack and an enchanting jungle. Customers go through the tiniest disco in the world before entering the Experience Bar, where bartenders sell experiences that combine social practice art and comedy. An experience could be a scavenger hunt or a puzzle.
According to Carr, it’s essentially anything we can generate while sitting around that might make people laugh, push them a little, or explore something they might not have seen before.
The store’s about 1,800 square feet are filled with a variety of designer items, artisan-made items, and quirky antique clothing. In between are spinning disco lights, octopus tentacles, and talking alien statues.
The basement of Astoria’s historic Sanborn building is home to several art-focused companies, including Weird Sisters. Additionally, customers can visit Mysterious Others, a studio and gallery that sells paintings, crystals, incense, and other items, and Masquerade Food and Drink, a bar and restaurant with a nerdy fantasy motif. Carr is preparing to create a second art gallery in an upstairs location, and The Shapeshifters Costume Depot will open soon.
Together, the stores are fostering an experience economy that invites customers to explore as well as purchase.
Carr stated, “I would really like to see more people experimenting with these kinds of things that don’t always end up in small towns.” Creating things that others have never seen before is always my aim.
Weird Sisters is open everyday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 1004 Marine Drive in Astoria. Visit weirdsistersfreakboutique.com to find out more.
Are you looking for more unique ways to shop? Our top picks for secondhand shops along the Oregon coast are as follows:
On the Oregon coast, Lex’s Cool Stuff in Netarts, Tillamook County, is a distinctive place to shop.Oregonian Samantha Swindler
Lex’s Cool Things
Netarts, 4955 Crab Ave. W., open 1-4 p.m. Thursday through Sunday
For 20 years, 82-year-old Lex Webster has operated this little, quirky store a few steps from the ocean. Seashells, driftwood sculptures, and outdoor artwork abound outside. Inside, customers will discover hats, jewelry, artwork, secondhand clothing, and a variety of odd and intriguing items that Lex has discovered at local thrift stores and thought were cool. Don’t miss Webster’s well-known free brownies, which she frequently makes for customers.
Coos Bay’s Time Bomb consignment and thrift shop.Oregonian Samantha Swindler
Exchange of Time Bomb Clothes
Coos Bay’s 175 S. Third St. is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday
With 2,800 square feet of unique clothing at affordable rates and frequent sales, this huge resale and consignment business is located in downtown Coos Bay. Additionally, Time Bomb features booth spaces where exhibitors offer secondhand books, crystals, witchy clothing, and punk accessories, in addition to carrying goods made by local artists. High-end sneakers and old skate gear are available for purchase.
Art Park 101’s Polka Dot Thrift Store. Just south of Bandon on U.S. Hwy. 101, artist Angela Haseltine Pozzi is launching Art 101, an art gallery, thrift store, and coffee shop.Oregonian Samantha Swindler
Art 101’s Polka Dot Thrift Store
South of Bandon, 47134 Highway 101; December hours, noon to 4 p.m. Thursday through Sunday
This unique store is located next to an 84-foot-long phoenix monument built from recycled auto parts, inside a yurt decorated in polka dots. The store is a component of Art 101’s ReUpIt, an art park that emphasizes material reuse. Angela Haseltine Pozzi, the owner and artist, creates all of her sculptures out of trash, many of which are repurposed from Goodwill stores, also known as The Bins. The thrift store sells some of her best bin finds that don’t become artwork. ReUpIt also features a gallery that sells puzzles, jewelry, and artwork, as well as an artistic resale store with used art supplies and previously owned artistic items. (As an added bonus, you may play a 100-year-old player piano at the back of the gallery with a token that you can get by spending $5.)
Here is Oregon and The Oregonian/OregonLive are covered by Samantha Swindler. You may reach her at oregonian.com/sswindler.
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