It is no secret that I am absolutely obsessed with Another Man’s Treasure. I’ve been shopping there since I moved to Jersey City 7 years ago. Not only do I love their fashions, I also their service! Every shop keeper is extremely knowledgeable and so helpful, which you really don’t get anywhere these days. Meika and Warren have become good friends of mine, and when I first interviewed them almost a year ago, I got a glimpse into their crazy lives.
It’s not easy running a vintage shop, think about it, they have to run around to estate sales, flea markets, appointments at people’s homes to find the clothing as opposed to just getting a shipment like most stores do. Then they have to go through it all, steam, sew and refurbish some of the items so that they can put them out in the store. Everything they sell is top-notch quality, and very carefully curated, at the same time it is competitively priced.
After 9 years of being open, they have now outgrown their current space and recently signed a lease to move to the new Charles & Co. building. This will allow them to combine their store and showroom into one location as well as better serve the community and offer more services and fashions. That being said, moving is extremely expensive and they need our help. They created a kickstarter campaign to help raise the some extra funds to help them move. I reached out to Meika to get more details about this campaign and to clarify some questions people may have about it.
Tell me a little bit about the kickstarter campaign? Why did you guys start it? To raise some extra funds to help us with our shop move.. The money will go toward moving costs, store fittings, lighting, new shop fixtures, etc..
Why not just get a loan? A loan wasn’t an option for us. Not to mention we are about to undertake a big rent increase so having to worry about paying back a loan on top of this would be too big a financial burden.
How much do you have left to raise? As of now we still have another $3500 to go.
Can you describe the gifts that people are going to get for participating? Yes. We are really excited about our rewards! We are offering several limited edition gifts such as AMT t-shirts, swag bags, AMT membership which gets you the former rewards plus 10% off all purchases for a year as well as first pick on new items, giveaways through the year and more!
One of our favorite rewards is a vintage hand sewing and restoration class that Meika will be teaching. We are also offering some great deals such as a $200 pledge for $250 store credit, and we have been adding new one-off vintage rewards every few days to keep it interesting.. We even have a mint condition vintage ‘Hermes’ scarf up for grabs!
When are you moving into the new space? We are hoping to move early fall. Fingers crossed September!
What can people expect from the new space? We are going to be merging our appointment only showroom and shop together, so you will no longer have to make an appointment to view our full inventory and some of our rarest vintage! This will also be an expansion for us, so we will be able to offer a larger selection of everything, including a vintage kids section!
We are bursting at the seems right now in our current space and do not have enough room to keep all categories in throughout the year. For example vintage t-shirts and lingerie will be in-store all year, which are currently in and out due to lack of space. We also have plans for expansion which include taking our shop online at some point as well as plans to do more events and special features, fashion talks, etc.. Our ideas go on and on!
Any future plans? So many! We intend to go online at some point. We would like to do more events, monthly curated racks by local fashion muses, in-house alterations and perhaps continue to offer our sewing classes! The ideas are limitless!
Anything else you would like us to know about the kickstarter campaign? It’s really important for us that people understand we are not just asking for money. We have spent a lot of time thinking about what rewards would benefit our customers and we want people to feel like they are getting something great for their contribution. And most importantly we want to make an amazing shop that they can be proud of!
Go to the Kickstarter Page to pledge!!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1110922669/help-another-mans-treasure-vintage-store-move-and
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