Bad Kids Club inside Mammoth Mall in Downtown Fresno sells used retro clothing and items, defined as 10 to 20 years old. Photo by Frank Lopez

Everything old is new again, which means good business for local vintage stores and vendors.

In the last few years, there has been a rise in popularity of vintage and retro clothing, jewelry, toys, furniture, décor, knick-knacks and collectibles.

With consumers having more disposable income and the rise of social media and e-commerce platforms, the collectibles market is growing. The pandemic also spurred many to start selling their items, either as a side hustle because of financial hardship or to declutter their homes.

According to market research and consultancy firm Market Decipher, the collectibles market was estimated at $458.2 billion in 2022, and is expected to reach $628 billion by 2031.

Though any city could have a long-established presence of antique shops and antique malls, in more recent years, vintage fairs and vintage shops have been popping up in the area.

While many local vintage stores carry mostly clothing, there are also shops that focus more on collectibles toys, décor, art, furniture, posters and any miscellaneous item.

 

Over the past few years, shops including Forever Vintage and Vintage Me in Fresno and Visalia Vintage and Antiques have sprouted up, along with plenty of vintage clothing stores.

Fabio Linares co-owns Bad Kids Club with his wife inside Mammoth Mall on Fulton Street in Downtown Fresno, opening in February 2021. Like many other thrift, vintage and antique stores, Linares rents out space to others to sell in the shop.

Linares has nearly 10 years of experience of selling vintage clothing and items, starting with eBay and other online platforms.

Prior to opening his own shop, Linares was subleasing a small corner of a record store — and considering the idea of moving into a permanent space.

He said that Yoshi NOW! in Downtown Fresno was the first vintage store in town that he could remember that wasn’t quite a thrift shop nor antique store, but one that sold more handpicked items that were unique.

This made him think that there could be a big market for vintage in Fresno.

Linares said that people like showing off their unique finds and want people to be in awe of them, but also to share the history of their nostalgia.

“In the end, it’s all kind of worthless, but the value is what we assign to it, what somebody is willing to pay, almost like on eBay,” Linares said.

Linares said one could go with a “Webster’s Dictionary” approach in defining what exactly is considered antique versus retro or vintage.

“Antique” refers to an item 100 years or older, “vintage” is 30-50 years old, and “retro” within the last 10-20 years.

He said he has friends who have been rejected by swap meets because they don’t want “retro” vendors present.

A lot of what Bad Kids Club has would be considered retro — clothing and items from the ‘90s and early 2000s, which is popular with both teenagers and young adults. It’s also popular with millennials, who now have money to spend on their nostalgia.

The store allows Linares to pursue his thirst for thrifting.

“This really supports our passion, which is going out and looking for old junk and old T-shirts and appreciating them. That collective sense of getting together and being able to sell and share that passion is what puts us apart,” Linares said.

He said that he has seen a lot of vintage and retro shops open, but he still hopes that they could be sustained, and the community supports their businesses.

It’s not just vintage clothes and collectibles that consumers are after, but vintage furniture as well.

According to a 2022 report from vintage home furnishings and art online marketplace Charish, 36% of Americans have purchased secondhand furniture.

At Re-Loved Vintage in Fresno on Shaw Avenue, co-owners and founders Veronica Mechem and Amber Gorman specialize in selling furniture and home décor from the mid-century modern style, a design movement popular in the U.S. from around 1945-1969.

When the store opened nine years ago, the local vintage market consisted more of antique shops, but they decided to take a chance.

 

At the time, no one locally was really selling mid-century furniture, and it was easy to find in the area.

Re-Loved Vintage is not located at a storefront building, but rather in an office suite.

“We hand select every item in the store, we don’t just let any vintage piece come through, Mechem said.

Every item is cleaned, and if needed, refinished and reupholstered — truly “brought back to life”.

Since Re-Loved Vintage doesn’t have a storefront, it’s more of a destination, with customers coming from the Bay Area, Los Angeles and even as far as Oregon, the owners said.

Because of the rising popularity of thrift stores and vintage items, and with anyone being able to look up anything on their phone, prices for items have gone up.

People often try to sell items to the store, comparing their items with very high prices they find online.

Though a lot of their clients are in older demographics, Gorman and Mechem have noted more young people investing in furniture because it is of better quality and will last decades longer.

Lots of people come into the shop and tell the owners that what they do looks fun and that they could do it.

“I think people underestimate the amount of time you have to put in this job,” Gorman said.