Popular Vintage Clothing Store Moves To Barrington Street
HALIFAX-After more than a decade of working in restaurants as an employee, Anna Campbell had enough. She was in a stressful environment so she decided to leave and go all-in on her passion: selling vintage clothing.
The risk has paid off two-fold. Just three years after founding The Loot, Campbell has moved her business into a spacious property on historic Barrington Street. The space is twice as large as her old location.
“I had a boss who I was butting heads with a lot,” recalls Campbell, on quitting her restaurant job. “I have a strong personality; I’m the type of person who stands for what I believe in. People don’t always love that, especially [people with authority].”
“I was pretty fed up with my job and one day decided to call it quits and I had all these clothes in my tiny apartment. I needed a place to put them.”
In 2019, Campbell opened The Loot on Charles Street, specializing in nostalgia-filled clothing made between the 80s and early 2000s. Her transition from employee to employer wasn’t as sudden as it may seem, however.
Before she quit her job, the Halifax entrepreneur sold clothing as a side gig online. She estimates she put in 80 hours of work a week while she essentially did two full-time jobs. It made sense to now focus more on the business she built from the ground up.
Amazingly, Campbell says quitting her job and sacrificing her income security didn’t scare her at the time.
“I was pretty naïve when I started out, which in hindsight was probably a good thing because I didn’t realize what I was taking on,” said Campbell with a laugh. “I didn’t realize how much work and stress it would be. But I love it; I love it so much.”
“The first year was so fun and so exciting, just realizing how much opportunity comes with a creative small business like mine.”
The timing of her grand opening in 2019 looked to be unlucky at first. A little less than a year later, the Covid-19 pandemic shut down retailers across the country. Because The Loot was such a new business, it didn’t qualify for the major federal support programs.
The only way to stay afloat was to make a major shift in its business model.
“We shifted completely online. I kept my employees on payroll and we were just in there working our butts off,” recalls Campbell. “We were buying stuff online from people we didn’t know, not knowing what kind of condition it would be in.”
The Loot also had to start contactless delivery to get the clothing into the hands of its patrons. Luckily, Campbell was able to thrive in the pandemic, while many retail outlets were struggling. A lot of that has to do with Campbell having spent years being an engaging personality online.
The loot currently has an impressive 11,600 Instagram followers. That puts this small Halifax business in influencer-level territory, in terms of pure numbers.
And if you visit The Loot on Barrington Street, you won’t only find vintage clothing. You can also buy clothes made by local designers who use upcycled materials. One Halifax designer who provides clothing to The Loot is 2am Paradox.
Campbell believes it’s important to try and stop the cycle of waste and unethical practices in the quick fashion industry.
“Denim and cotton not only take an immense amount of water to create, but you also have to factor how labourers are being treated and paid,” she says.
Derek Montague is a Huddle reporter in Halifax. Send him your feedback and story ideas: [email protected].