Today we’d like to introduce you to Allie Motyka.
Hi Allie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My mom (Kathy!) and I started with the idea way back. We both enjoy finding treasure out in the world, so in 2017, we decided to give it a shot as a business. Agora Downtown Market (now Shops at Agora) opened in June of 2017, housing a handful of small businesses, including ours, Heartworn Vintage. Through the years, we have seen small businesses come and go in our shared space, and some have stayed around with us. We’ve been here nine years now and we still love what we’re doing! We’re located downtown in a college town, so the foot traffic is what keeps us going. That and sharing the space with other small businesses!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Is there a such thing? Haha There’s always struggles with small business. I swear, I really don’t think they want us to succeed. But we keep on working through the little struggles. You learn as you go and you try to pass that information on to the next small business to make it a little easier on them. It has been slower this last year or so, but we keep holding out hope that it’ll pick up. As we head into the end of the year, we know sales will be better.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Heartworn Vintage?
We are Heartworn Vintage, a mother – daughter owned vintage shop! We specialize in basically everything from the 1940s-1990s (occasionally some older antiques will find their way in). Everything from clothing, accessories, jewelry, housewares, dish ware, art, wall decor, furniture, Knick knacks, records, and more. We take pride in seeking these items out, sometimes from places where they otherwise may have ended up in the landfill. That’s our goal, keep these items alive. They’ve been around 40-90 years, let’s keep that going! Vintage items are unique, you can’t always find the same thing again. That’s the fun in it. We try to be as sustainable as possible. We clean, wash, repair, and mend our items if they need a little boost. All of the things we find already existed in the world, we didn’t order it online. We’ve been all over seeking out the things we sell. And what a blast it’s been!
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
Dang. I actually can’t think of anything in particular. We do keep a stack of books on the desk for research purposes. We even have some old Sears catalogues to flip through.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Bio.link/shopsatagora
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/heartwornvintage/
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/heartwornvintage
