"We want to know where people know us from. Following your Journalist Audrey's visit, and your October article, we'd had several times feedback from people mentioning Sortir à Paris. We weren't at all expecting an impact and for you to cover the subject of thrift shops!"
"I love advising people, but I don't like selling, which is what we're forced to do in the luxury sector. I work on the principle of 'the better you advise, the better you'll sell'.
Fabien, who has ten years' experience in the ready-to-wear sector, embarked on an entrepreneurial adventure to set up the RETRO thrift store around the values of quality selection, for a varied clientele: from teenagers and fashionistas to parents with young babies.
"I created RETRO on my own, to open on September 16, 2020: I experienced, a month later, the closure due to Covid, in 2020. Fortunately, we'd already started doing well and I was able to reopen afterwards."
"As soon as I opened, we had access to the 100 square metre ground floor. Then, for the two years, in 2022, I opened the basement, where I renovated and repainted everything: it's a completely different atmosphere from upstairs. I wanted to have two rooms, two atmospheres: upstairs for the playlist, it's a lot of hip-hop, old-school RnB, while downstairs we'll have underground music: Berlin style. To complete the ambience, the walls upstairs are white, while downstairs they're black. I really like these contrasts between light and shadow. "
"There aren't necessarily any differences in the pieces, however. At RETRO, we sort the pieces by type of clothing, not by gender: we scatter winter and summer pieces throughout the store, to encourage people to go and look everywhere: the aim of a thrift shop, after all, is to make the rounds."
A lively boutique in the image of the Etienne Marcel - Les Halles district
"I created this store for the human side above all: the sofas that are here, I kept the idea from another thrift shop, where I was the manager. They complained that people sat on them and didn't buy. For me, this is a place to live, these sofas are here so that everyone can come and sit down, there's room, space: 340m2 is for people to feel good."
"I picked them up second-hand, from a friend's box on rue Tiquetonne (the NEXT), and from a friend's restaurant on rue Étienne Marcel (chez Pierrot), and the last one even saved from the rubbish dump."
"I knew this was the area I needed, not necessarily rue Tiquetonne, but Etienne Marcel was super important. This space of almost 350m2 was the first thing I got when I submitted my application, and then it was all over. This neighborhood is eclectic in terms of residents and tourism: Châtelet brings in 55,000 people a day: even if we only take 5% of them, out of 2,500 people, even if 10% of them buy, that's still a lot more to recuperate than elsewhere. Here we're looking for people, crowds, providing the store with several rooms, several budget levels."
"We want to know where people know us from too, where we know for them that it's new: In terms of provenance at least 50% is the location for sure. But following your article in October, we'd had several feedbacks from people mentioning Sortir à Paris, so we weren't at all expecting an impact and that you'd address the subject of thrift shops!"
Ten years' experience with a focus on customer advice
"I 've been in the ready-to-wear business for about ten years: first in a luxury boutique, then I was manager at EPISOD for 4 years. I drew a lot of inspiration from that, trying to keep only the positive aspects. A year before I left, I started thinking about doing my own thing. With my experience in the luxury goods industry, I'd been in it for ten years and I wanted to do something other than run a boutique, I wanted to stock it: I love advising people but I don't like selling, which is what we're forced to do in the luxury goods industry. I work on the principle of "the better you advise, the better you'll sell". Even when I managed the boutique of a major affordable luxury brand on rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine, I had better figures than the boutique of the same brand on Avenue des Ternes, their biggest store. For me, the relational side is the most important."
"I wasn't that interested in thrift, vintage: my personal style is more sober, dressy. To be able to run a business and welcome customers, you have to be at least presentable, and not necessarily represent my personal style. But I can dress anyone with any piece in the boutique: I love colors and prints, but not on me in the boutique. At home, I have a full dressing room, about fifty coats... I sort through them and put them in the boutique to keep things moving. My personal style has an impact on the boutique too, that's for sure."
A different concept of thrift store: selection, choice and affordability despite the economic climate
"Entrepreneurship, running your own concept, is completely different from managing a boutique. A lot of things come into play, you apply what you hear here and there, and you learn on the job. It's been very rewarding over the last 3 years, I've held the covid, but right now a lot of boutiques in France are struggling, I hope to get through the crisis."
"For the 3 years, I had to take over the premises next door, as agreed with the landlord when I signed the lease. In a thrift shop, the more merchandise you can offer (on a larger surface, ed. note), the more turnover you make. On the market, there are thrift stores like Freep'Star or Guerrissol, where you go in, everything is mixed up, nothing is legible and you have to rummage everywhere to find a piece."
"Here, there's this work of tidying and sorting, and displaying parts. With just a few references, it's complicated: at RETRO, we have over 300 references that we offer, so there's something for everyone."
"This is also my concept: in the boutique I want to offer a wide choice, selected above all by customer requests. I don't impose things on people that I want to see! Filling the entire boutique is complicated: unfortunately, my best salesman left in January, because he was bored by the very low footfall, which is understandable... Business has really fallen off since September 2023: there's very little footfall at the moment, we wait all day for something to happen, sometimes until 4pm, not a single person has been in the store..."
"I've been questioning myself: is it me, the store, my prices? I know where I stand, I'm not in the lowest or highest bracket, my prices are correct for a thrift shop where there's a selection of pieces. Before, the average basket was around 35 euros, now it's more like 26-27 euros, which is -30%: kind of what's been happening every month since September, and in October when I was -47%: but my prices remain unchanged, I want to stay there and keep this affordable image too."
Eco-responsibility and the paradoxes of industry
"Sales of second-hand clothing have really increased in recent years: from 3 billion in 2021 to 5 billion in 2023. It's an exponential market, very buoyant, but it's going in all the logical directions of society's evolution. If all clothing production came to an end now, each person on earth would still have more than 1,000 pieces of clothing per person - it's disproportionate! We need to stay in the second-hand sector, and invest in it."
"There are a lot of things I'd like to see change in the industry: a 10% VAT, for example (ed. note: VAT is 20% for the clothing sector), because our pieces have actually already been taxed before and we're being taxed again on them: why not help businesses like us, when we're advocating all these ecological values?"
"If I can do my part that's the most important thing: since 2024, we've been buying back our customers' clothes. The thing to know is that the big collection boxes that are on the street, you think 'that's cool that reduces the footprint for recycling'. But in fact, these clothes are going to be put in containers, sent to other countries to be sorted, and brought back to France: which is absurd in terms of carbon footprint, with all the boat journeys that are made to get them there, it's not at all environmentally friendly."
"We take the clothes back, but it has to have a place in my store. And if I plan to resell an item for 15 euros, I can buy it for 5 euros maximum, taking into account all the charges I have behind it."
A simple economic logic infuses the boutique's offerings: from a young parent for young parents
"I kept the room next door for the children's room and the part for less than ten euros. The children's part I really wanted to do, because I've been a dad for 21 months, with little Anna, and I know how much it costs ! I'm very gaga with my little one, I want her to be cute, and the clothing budget is huge, it can go up to 200 euros a month. So I thought, why do the same thing but for the little ones: I put my little one's things in it and it goes round and round, and the parents come and take an interest. There aren't too many thrift stores with very affordable children's selections: from 5 to 10 euros maximum, so that it turns over, and the parents are very happy. And that's something I have to display in the window and communicate.
"Beyond parents, my clientele ranges from 12 to 99 years old! We dress everyone, but my typical customer profile is the 15-16 year-old teenager, those who are bathed in it and have parents who are in their forties, have experienced the birth of thrift shops and have their children bathed in it. It's all about fashion and eco-responsibility, and young people are adopting these consumer habits. Over the age of 25, many of this generation are newcomers , and it's the first time they've been to the thrift store and started to take an interest.
"It's normal for young people to be immersed in it these days, especially with their purchasing power. Our best sales were between Christmas and New Year's. We had all the youngsters coming in with their Christmas envelopes, sometimes even with their names on it. They know that here they're going to get an outfit for a specific budget, whereas new clothes can quickly fetch exorbitant prices for lesser quality."
Great team stories
"The team today is made up of a young work-study student, Dieurich, whom I'd already had for an internship. I've saved his year until September, then we'll see if I have the opportunity to take him on. I also have a second work-study student on the team , Carmen, who is in charge of communications, social networks, etc."
"Also, I welcomed to the team a Ukrainian artist, Olena Siniuhina, whom I recruited, a very beautiful human story: she fled her country following the war, and came to the south of France to learn French in a school and in November she made a request for contact to do an internship in the store: she sent 100 requests, I was the first and only one to respond. She came for two weeks, then resumed learning French in March 2023. She came back to Paris, and offered to make some pieces with paint on clothes: the pieces went super fast, and now she takes care of all the pieces that are stained, have holes, unsaleable... And finally, I offered her a 15-hour-a-week contract. It's a lovely story that really touched me and put the day-to-day running of the store into perspective: there are solutions for everything, even when things are complicated."
Discover the original Sortir à Paris articleRetro, the coolest thrift shop in Paris' Les Halles district: fashion tips and events
Welcome to Retro: the temple of second-hand clothing in Paris's 2nd arrondissement! This 125m2 thrift store offers men, women and children trendy, quality pieces at totally affordable prices. And the best part? Its monthly events combining shopping, flash tattoos and DJ sets. [Read more]
Retro, the coolest thrift shop in Paris' Les Halles district: fashion tips and events
