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.
Weird Sisters is in the basement of the Hidden Underground building in downtown Astoria. Visitors first enter The Grotto, a shopping space where the ceiling and walls are textured to look like the inside of a cave. The backroom is both an enchanted forest and a sales rack. In between, shoppers pass through the world s smallest disco into theExperience Bar, where bartenders sell experiences, which are a combination of jokes and social practice art pieces. An experience might be a riddle or a scavenger hunt.
It s basically anything we can sit around and brainstorm that would make people giggle, challenge them a little bit, explore something that maybe they haven t seen before, Carr said.
Across the roughly 1,800 square feet of the store, shoppers will find a mix of funky vintage clothes, artisan-made objects and designer pieces. Sprinkled in between are talking alien statues, octopus tentacles and spinning disco lights.
Weird Sisters is just one of the art-focused businesses in the basement of Astoria s historicSanborn building. Shoppers can also visitMasquerade Food and Drink, a nerd-centric fantasy themed bar and restaurant, andMysterious Others, a studio and gallery that sells art, crystals, incense and more. TheShapeshifters Costume Depotis opening soon, and Carr is working on opening a separate art gallery in a space upstairs.
Combined, the shops are creating an experience economy that encourages patrons to not just to buy, but to explore.
I really want to see more people playing around with these kinds of things that sometimes just don t end up in small towns, Carr said. My goal is always to build things other people have not seen before.
Weird Sisters, 1004 Marine Drive in Astoria, is open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. daily. Learn more at weirdsistersfreakboutique.com.
Looking for more unusual shopping experiences? Here are some of our favorite thrift stores on the Oregon coast:
Lex’s Cool Stuff in Netarts in Tillamook County is a unique shopping stop on the Oregon coast.Samantha Swindler/ The Oregonian
Lex s Cool Stuff
4955 Crab Ave. W. in Netarts; open 1-4 p.m. Thursday-Sunday
Lex Webster, 82, has run this tiny, eclectic shop a few blocks from the beach for 20 years. The outside is cluttered with outdoor art, driftwood sculptures and seashells. Inside, shoppers will find jewelry, art, used clothes, hats and an array of strange and interesting things all stuff Lex has found at area rummage sales and deemed cool. Don t pass up Webster s famous free brownies, which she bakes regularly for shoppers.
Time Bomb thrift and consignment store in Coos Bay.Samantha Swindler/ The Oregonian
Time Bomb Clothing Exchange
175 S. Third St. in Coos Bay; open 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday
This largethrift and consignment storein downtown Coos Bay has 2,800 square feet of funky clothes with reasonable prices and regular sales. Time Bomb also carries accessories by local artists and has booth spaces where vendors sell used books, crystals, witchy-style clothes and punk accessories. Shoppers can find used skate equipment and high-end sneakers.
The Polka Dot Thrift Store at Art Park 101. Artist Angela Haseltine Pozzi is opening an art gallery, thrift store and coffee shop just south of Bandon on U.S. Hwy. 101 called Art 101.Samantha Swindler/ The Oregonian
Polka Dot Thrift Shop at Art 101
47134 Highway 101 south of Bandon; December hours, noon-4 p.m. Thursday-Sunday
This one-of-a-kind shop is found inside a polka dot-covered yurt, right next to an 84-foot-long phoenix statue made from recycled car parts. The shop is part ofReUpIt at Art 101, an art park with a focus on reusing materials. Owner andartist Angela Haseltine Pozzimakes all her sculptures from discarded items, many of them salvaged from Goodwill Outlets (aka The Bins. ) Some of her best bin finds that don t end up as art pieces are for sale in the thrift shop. ReUpIt also has an artistic resale shop with used art supplies and previously owned artistic creations, and a gallery that sells puzzles, jewelry and artwork. (As a bonus, spending $5 earns you a token to play a 100-year-old player piano at the rear of the gallery.)
Samantha Swindler covers features for The Oregonian/OregonLive andHere is Oregon. Reach her [email protected].
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