This week we’re joined by Maggie Scivicque from the arc Thrift Stores Get Thrifty Podcast. Maggie is the Vice President of Marketing at arc Thrift stores in Colorado and the host of the Get Thrifty Podcast. The Get Thrifty Podcast is a podcast for thrifters, collectors, lovers of anything vintage, and for anyone who loves the thrill of finding amazing treasures in unexpected places.
The Seller Community Podcast from List Perfectly is the e-commerce resource for the seller community across all platforms and a hub for information on growing your business. Find out more at thesellercommunitypodcast.com, leave a message or ask a question at anchor.fm/sellercommunitypodcast, or email us at podcast@listperfectly.com.
Links
Seller Community Podcast on Anchor
Doug Smith (snoop.dougie) linktree
Trish Glenn (Super Sale Trish) Instagram
Episode Links
Transcript
Intro
Doug: Alright, Trish, first official podcast under your belt. How does it feel?
Trish: Feels great, Doug. It was really fun. I had a great time.
Doug: Yeah, this was a good one. This was a good start. This is gonna go down as one of my faves. All right. So what do we have for our fabulous listeners this week, Trish?
Trish: So this is Season 3: Episode 34: Maggie Scivicque From the arc Thrift Stores Get Thrifty Podcast.
Doug: All right, and what’s the name of our podcast?
Trish: Ours?
Doug: Yes.
Trish: The Seller Community Podcast.
Doug: From List Perfectly. And so Maggie was great to talk to. Obviously, she’s got the Get Thrifty Podcast. I’ve been on her show. Clara and Amanda have been on the show. Theresa’s been on the show. She wants to have Trish on the show, so that’s gonna happen.
But she told us all about arc Thrift Stores, the great mission they have there in Colorado, and what she does for ’em. She talked about her background in the corporate world and marketing…
Trish: Wait, wait, wait, wait. You forgot about Dolly Parton.
Doug: Dolly’s coming up. Dolly’s coming up.
Trish: Okay. Okay.
Doug: Um, and how she connected with arc Thrift, not Dolly, Maggie. Then of course, how the Get Thrifty Podcast came together.
Trish: And of course, she did go on about Dolly Parton. It was great to know how she felt so close to her and why, and also Maggie’s speaking at BOSS Reseller Remix this year. So that will be great.
Doug: Maggie and I talked about Southern California music a little bit beyond Dolly.
Trish: Alright, Doug, let’s just listen to our chat with Maggie Scivicque from the arc Thrift Stores and the Get Thrifty podcast.
Doug: Alright.
Maggie Scivicque
Trish: Maggie Scivicque is the Vice President of Marketing at arc Thrift stores in Colorado and the host of the Get Thrifty Podcast. The Get Thrifty Podcast is a podcast for thrifters, collectors, lovers of anything vintage, and for anyone who loves the thrill of finding amazing treasures in unexpected places.
So there Maggie gets to talk about what she loves to do and all the things she loves. Maggie also loves yoga and she’s a little bit of a fan of Dolly Parton, which I think is kind of an under-exaggeration since I see Dolly right behind her as she sits. We’re excited to welcome Maggie to the Seller Community Podcast. Thank you for being here.
Maggie: Thanks for having me.
Doug: Yeah, thanks for coming on Maggie. I’ve been on your show. Theresa Cox has been on the show. Clara and Amanda have been on the show. Now it’s time to pay us back.
Trish: Douglas, you’re only supposed to think those things. You’re not supposed to say them out loud.
Doug: Did I say that out loud? Alright, so Maggie, but thanks for coming on. So, Tell us a little bit about arc Thrift Stores. Let’s start there.
Maggie: Absolutely. And you know, I love that we get to chat about arc Thrift Stores. I get so caught up in the guests that come on our show that I often forget to talk about how awesome arc is. We typically get it in. But, um, this is just a cool opportunity to really showcase, um, ARC thrift stores of Colorado. You know, we are a 55-year-old nonprofit. Our mission is to enhance the lives of people right here in the state of Colorado with intellectual and developmental disabilities. And we do that by funding 15 arc chapters across the state. So the chapters provide services to families of people with IDD services in school, help with housing, independent living, uh, law issues, legal issues, those kinds of things, and our role as the thrift stores is to make as much money as possible to fund those chapters. So that’s why I get up every day is to make as much money as possible through the thrift stores as our major fundraising mechanism.
Trish: So Maggie, tell us how the arc Thrift mission resonates with you personally.
Maggie: You know, I used to work in the for-profit world for many years. I’ve talked to Doug about my past. We have some mutual connections from years gone by. I was with Papa John’s Pizza for many years, a wonderful company, but it was really time for me to find a new spot. Living in Colorado, new to Colorado, the franchise sold and I really felt like it was time to find a place in the nonprofit world.
I had been doing a bunch of cause marketing programs through Papa John’s Pizza and arc Thrift Stores. We did a giant fundraiser for Volunteers of America with a food drive. I met some wonderful people and it was just the perfect connection and I thought it was time to stop clogging arteries for a living and, you know, find a way to really, you know, give back to my community.
And Colorado is such a cause marketing Mecca. I really found this home with arc. Never in a million years did I ever think I’d be in thrift, but it is never a dull moment, as you both know well. It is like its own little world and community and I couldn’t be more delighted to represent this organization for the state of Colorado.
Doug: And just a quick note, Maggie and I connected over pizza because I love pizza so much. So, and you just mentioned this, it’s like you never thought that you would connect with, basically a thrift store. Thrifting, things like that. How did you connect with arc Thrift Stores?
Maggie: You know, years and years ago I dated a guy, shout out Van Carter, that was very into reselling NASCAR diecast toys. You know, little diecast cars and he had no joke, thousands of them. So I got really, really good as a marketer in writing descriptions for him and helping him to sell those things. He was also really into vintage Schwinn bicycles, which was a fascinating little niche that I didn’t even know existed.
So that was my first taste of eBay, my first taste of reselling. And he made quite a lot of money. He made a lot of money. And it was one of those things where I kind of realized at that point, wow, there’s, there’s some money to be made. That was in the late nineties. I never thought I’d be back to it, but it really kind of opened up my eyes to what’s possible in terms of reselling online and you know, him finding things at thrift stores. He kind of introduced me to that world. And then when I found arc, I mean, the thrift stores in Colorado are so just different than California. They’re these giant warehouses. It’s like the Costco of thrift and it, it’s just overwhelming and huge and I think that kind of spoke to me as well. And then having the mission attached to it, it was kind of the perfect storm, you know.
Trish: So can you tell us what you, as the Vice President of Marketing, do for them specifically?
Maggie: You know, I would love to say it’s just doing the podcast, right, Doug, but No, no, it’s not. There’s so much more to it. You know, right now I’m in the middle of, we’re starting to open a store off Sheridan in Hampton. We’ve got a delay, supposed to be a ribbon cutting on Thursday. There’s a delay with the city. You know, I deal with pretty much all of those things I was lamenting about, you know, some sales that, you know, we’re trying to revive.
We just had our big children’s sale. So my goal, my job really is marketing the entire brand, to the state and getting as many people as possible to shop thrift. You know, the metrics that I’m kind of measured on definitely are customer counts, sales, you know, we treat this, my CEO treats arc thrift stores as a traditional retail business, which is sort of unusual in the thrift world and the nonprofit world to really treat it as a business and, you know, have metrics that we’re all held accountable to. It keeps it fun and I love that part of it. So my main job is marketing and then a side project, the podcast.
Doug: Awesome. That’s a good side project to have. So do you sell online yourself or have you ever besides helping that ex-boyfriend?
Maggie: No, absolutely not. But the, you know, my only real, you know, an example is I am also in charge of our gala. The arc Thrift Stores hold one of the largest galas in the state of Colorado, a huge event, and we do a virtual online auction. So that’s really my only example of selling online is that little side project that I’m responsible for. And, it’s very fun because a lot of the items that we put online are like weird things we find in our store.
Like last year we did a suit of armor, seven feet tall, full suit of armor that was donated. So those kinds of things come to me and then we get to like research them. Put them on our auction and sell them through our auction site.
Just sold a basketball that was signed by the Nuggets. We decided to put that on early since the Nuggets had such a banner year. Sold for five grand, you know. So that was pretty exciting. So that’s kind of my only taste each year of being able to sell online is our online gala auction, in which anyone in the country can bid on our items and we ship all over the country. It’s pretty phenomenal.
The suit of armor sold locally. Thank you, God. I mean, that one was scary. It was one of those things where I was like, oh, please let this be a local buyer and we delivered it to their home.
This year I have this like, I can say this on here, right Doug? It’s like this lady that looks like she’s in bondage. It’s like totally a silhouette of a woman in full black bondage. It’s a lamp. I mean, it’s retailing online for 1200 bucks.
Trish: Don’t bid Doug, use someone else’s name, Doug.
Maggie: It’s pretty exciting. This thing is cool, cool, cool. It’s retailing for 1200. Hopefully, we’ll get someone to buy it now for 5,000, but it’s fun. It’s weird. Again, it was donated.
I think that’s one of the cool things that makes our auction the most unique. Even the gift cards that we auction off, which you can bid on virtually, are gift cards that were donated in people’s purses or the back of their jeans. So all of these things came. It’s really cool.
So I have a whole team that that’s what they do. A good chunk of the year is to get found, we call ’em the found gift cards that come into people’s wallets or whatever, and then we look them all up and put them all together and create a hundred-dollar gift cards to Starbucks or whatever. It’s pretty awesome.
So since
Trish: you’re not a reseller, And you, you know, you don’t thrift, how did the Get Thrifty podcast come about?
Maggie: You know, it’s a great question. You know, I’m a huge podcast listener myself. Shout out the Morning Toast, Juicy Scoop.
Trish: I love Juicy Scoop.
Maggie: Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald. So I definitely am a huge podcast listener. The real story is I was doing my master’s at CSU, in 2017, and 2018, and they were trying to really gear up to get more people to do their executive MBA. You know, try and get people to sign up for this program right before Covid. And I said, oh, I’d love to do a podcast for you guys and share the stories of all of, you know, everyone has these stories, whether they just got out of, you know, finished their undergrad and are doing their master’s or like me, they were 40 years old and decided to do their masters, why they wanted to do it, what it did for them and the benefits.
So we started telling these stories and I was like, God, I really like doing this. I should. Figure out how to do this for arc. And, you know, at the time there was kind of this adversarial relationship that we were trying to break away from with resellers where, you know, we wanted to embrace our resellers.
You know, a reseller at arc Thrift Stores comes to five-plus stores in one day. You know, these are a viable piece of our demographic, something we cannot ignore. And we thought, well, let’s start talking to them. Let’s do a little show. Let’s talk to people who upcycle. Let’s talk to our customers who love thrifting.
And it really grew from there to where we were like, oh my God. There are people all over the country who do this. Oh my gosh, this community is so vibrant. The stories are insane. Doug and I really connected on the stories of these wonderful people who are either making a living. Reselling or they’re doing this passion. They left corporate America. They’re putting themselves through college, they’re feeding their kids. The stories blew me away and just like this wonderful podcast, I wanted to talk to every last one of them and get to know them, and I want them to be my friends. I’m grateful that they let me into their world.
You know, it’s, it’s such a ride and never in a million years did I think it would go this crazy. I had a girl this morning, email can I be on, you know, yes. The answer is yes. You know, email me, tell me your story. I’d love to have you on.
Doug: Awesome. Awesome. And do you have a voice acting or radio background or anything like that?
Maggie: No. You know, I’ve told you my story of the way that I really got into, you know, being okay with the whole voice thing at Papa John’s. I was, you know, 20 years old and they asked me to do the on-hold message. Little known facts. In some parts of Los Angeles you can still hear my voice when you call for more great specials, order online at papajohns.com.
So that’s how I got started and my mentor was like, call up the radio stations, get to know how to like to do the N correctly, say the S’S correctly. And you know, in San Diego where I really, you know, came of age as an adult, you could talk to the DJs there, you could get to know the radio. They were. So welcoming. It was such a small market. So I got to learn those kinds of things. And I was the face of Papa John’s when we just opened our first store in San Diego. I would go on TV for them and you know, I was so young, they just threw me in and I figured it out. I’m definitely not professionally trained at all, and you know, hopefully, I’m on the right track.
Some days are better than others and I listen to myself and I’m like, oh my God. You know, you don’t wanna hear your own voice, but that’s really how I got into it.
Trish: I have a big problem then. So, Doug knows what I’m gonna say. If saying words correctly and not having an accent or a prerequisite to be a podcast host, you guys should just fire me right this second because I definitely say resellah. I definitely say, you know, cah. There is no getting away.
Maggie: Those are beautiful things. That’s my favorite part of being the host of the Get Thrifty podcast is the accents. I think I say that every time because the Canadians, the New Yorkers, the Bostonians, like, it’s amazing the Southerners. I absolutely love the accents, so bring it on.
I think the more of that, the better. People like hearing that it’s real, you know, it’s reality. And as Californians, we don’t hear accents that much. I don’t know if you’ve had the same experience, Doug, but the first time I heard somebody from Minnesota. When I got off the plane in Colorado, I was like, oh my God. I’m absolutely obsessed. I love that accent, but I had never heard it in my life. Californians, we just don’t have that, those accents, you know, we’re missing out on it.
Doug: I’m from New York. I lost my New York accent when a friend teased me ‘because I talked a lot like Trish. He teased me and I consciously lost it
Maggie: Ah, it’s so sad. I think it’s a beautiful thing accents.
Trish: If he had teased me, I would’ve punched him in the face. I would put that right there.
Doug: It’s Boston.
Maggie: Like a true Bostonian, New Yorker. East Coast. Any kind of East Coast accent. I love it.
Doug: So what can listeners expect to hear on the Get Thrifty Podcast?
Maggie: Oh my gosh. You know, we’ve interviewed every, every kind of person you could possibly imagine. I love some of these makers that are just so creative and they are taking. Lady Forge, I can’t remember where she’s from right off the top of my head, but she takes old spoons and forks and designs jewelry from them.
The stories are the best part and you know, I’m a marketer at heart, so I’m always interested in, you know, these wonderful people who have become influencers in this space. You know, in a million years did I ever think that the people that I’m talking to, especially right here in Colorado, they’re going to reach out to me during my sales days, like this children’s sale for instance? They’re reaching out to me, we’re reaching out to them, they’re going into our stores, and they’re creating content in our stores. They’re tagging us. That is the most valuable piece of marketing. I can’t even pay enough money for it.
It’s so tremendous that these young men and women across our state use the content for their own good, but then they do these great videos for us that have gone viral. Some of them get great viewers. It’s incredible to have their influence. And when a young gal is in a thrift store saying, I got it at arc, it’s just the most valuable piece of content for me and I couldn’t be more excited. To me, the most valuable part of our podcast is the influence that it’s grown on us on all of our other social channels.
Trish: I think what’s really interesting, and this is kind of an aside, you just made me think of this. What really is interesting to me is that you embrace resellers. That is something that a lot of thrift stores do not publicly do, and they don’t go out of their way to embrace us. And I think especially if you’re a clothing reseller. There is an abundance of clothes. People do not understand how many clothes end up in landfills, and how many clothes we have to burn every year.
I think that what you are doing is fabulous on lots of levels. Of course, what you do is fabulous and why you’re doing it is fabulous. But I also think it’s fabulous for our community because I do think that we would get further if other thrift stores would see the light, so to speak. I mean, I think it would be good for everybody.
Maggie: I love that you said that, that to me is a really important distinction that I think we’re trying to create as a leader in this industry, in the state of Colorado. And as we grow, you know, hopefully, God willing we go out of state here in the next few years, is really to have those good relationships and understand the value.
As I said, a reseller, a DIY, or a maker, shops five plus stores in a day. I can count on them, you know, I can count on them to come and buy during Halloween and, really, help us out. I was saying to Doug that we’re having some issues with sales at the moment, but I know that this is just a weather issue, things are gonna turn around, you know, give me two weeks and I’ll be singing the praises again. But I count on the resellers. We rely on them. They truly are great.
Now that being said, we’re not perfect at it. We have a lot of old-school employees that have been with us for 20-plus years. We’ve been around for 55 years. I have employees who’ve literally raised their kids in the back room of our stores. So breaking that cycle of it being this adversarial relationship has been growth and change over the years and taking time and we’re not perfect, but this podcast is an opportunity to share and hopefully make it better every time we go on air and say, come to arc, you know, source from another state, see how great we’re, we’re doing at this, and then gimme feedback if we’re not, you know, so that’s been a learning opportunity too.
Trish: With everything we just said, can you pull out a couple of episodes or a couple of guests that you think epitomize everything we just said?
Maggie: Absolutely. I mean, I had a moment with Doug. I’m not gonna lie. I tell everyone this because we discovered this like joint love of some old music and we’ll get there eventually today. But you know, when you connect with these guests, sometimes it’s like this moment of like, oh my gosh, I have a new friend for life. You know? I mean, you probably experience all the time, it’s like so special to connect on, whether it’s Dolly Parton or whatever this shared love of thrift is and resale or vintage or items, or there’s just so many ways to connect.
But the Doug episode was one of my favorites, but I also loved it. I don’t know if either of you heard it, but we interviewed a gal out of Ireland named Valerie, and she’s French. She runs a charity shop in Ireland and she told this great story of hearing someone from Colorado in her store like this family came in and they were obviously American and she was kind of listening to them and she heard them talk about Colorado and then she heard them talk about arc Thrift Stores and she was like, oh my God. Do you know arc? Do you know the Get Thrifty Podcast? She was able to share that with them many miles away. But it inspired her. She was so happy that they knew arc Thrift Stores. She reached out and said, let me tell you about Charity Shops in Ireland.
I mean, those kinds of things happen all the time. Laura Caldwell, I was so obsessed with her. She does these like thrift tours around the world. There are so many I hesitate to even pick one. There have been some really cool moments that make me go no matter what, I wanna keep this going at all costs.
Sometimes I’m doing it in the dead of night because my boss has me running on 50 things and I gotta push it back and things come up. I had to reschedule on you guys once. There is a real job in this too, but, gosh, the podcast part of it is so rewarding. It really is.
Doug: Yeah, it is fun. We love it too. Trish does too.
Trish: I do.
Doug: Maggie, you have a team you work with, so tell us a little bit about that, how that came together, and how that works.
Maggie: Sure. I mean, I have two teams here. I work with an ad agency out of Longmont, Colorado. It’s a little bit up north, kind of near Fort Collins and they are wonderful. They actually were really fans of coming up with the Get Thrifty Podcast and really pushing it the way that we do. They work with me on everything from, you know, three social media posts a day, opening the new stores, all the things that go into the PR.
We’re really pushing this week National Thrift Store week is August 17th, so we’re trying to get a coupon out for that, going on the local news to talk about it. Our local paper interviewed us for that. Any chance I get to promote the Get Thrifty Podcast, of course, I’m trying to slip that in, super important, but I love working with that agency. They’re kind of a boutique agency. They’ve been with me for a lot of years. I actually did our very first Facebook post with Papa John’s with that team. So I’m very close to them and in love with you know how they’ve grown with me over the years when Facebook was like, oh God, do we even have to do this? Is this worth it? And now we would die without it. Right? All these social channels.
So that’s my ad agency team, but then I also have a team here that’s a lot of fun. Gerda and Mark are my merchandisers and you know, we buy all of the Halloween products. A lot of our Halloween product is used, but a portion of it is new. We actually go to Halloween shows and we buy wigs, makeup, and accessories. And then the base foundation is your gently used costume, you know? So that team is a lot of fun too. They are pulling their hair out at my warehouse right now, because, of course, Halloween is coming in hot and heavy.
We’re gearing up for Tour de Fat out in Fort Collins, one of our college stores where the kids go nuts. And we have to be ready for all the fraternities and sororities to come back. We have to have Halloween on the floor. You know, the ladies that you interviewed from BOSS are like come on, when do we need to plan our trip? Because once Halloween hits the floors, they wanna shop all that vintage that we keep year-round. So that part is so fun. I mean, every day is fun at this job. There’s literally never a dull moment. But shout out Gerda and Mark. They are much older. They have really cool stories. I’ve been begging them to be on the podcast. Gerda was an original Macy’s buyer in the sixties.
She should be long retired, but she’s like, If I retire, I’ll die. So I’m like, just keep going, girl. And she runs circles around me. And then Mark also worked for May D&F, formerly Macy or pre-Macy’s and he was a florist and he is just so creative. He does all my gala decor. When I go on TV, the TV stations want us to bring these elaborate sets, you know, Halloween costumes.
Last year we’d done this for three years in a row. Actually, we do the Hocus Pocus sisters. Very elaborate costumes and all of it from arc. So that’s a big part of our year is the Halloween department here, but I’m going to BOSS this year. I’m gonna ditch for four days and go to the BOSS Reseller event right in the middle of our Halloween season. So they may murder me, but that’ll be exciting.
Trish: I mentioned her at the beginning and she’s behind you right now, Miss Dolly Parton, who is a treasure. So tell us where that came from and you know, what’s the tie-in? I’m assuming you’re a super fan.
Maggie: I do love Dolly Parton. I mean, really it’s an homage to my grandmother. And my grandmother Betsy was from the South. As I said, Cajun French is our background, so she was a science teacher, and every year she would wear a different colored wig in her school picture. And she saved them all. And she had very large breasts and she was totally unapologetic for it, a very deep accent. So she was really my own personal Dolly Parton.
She was wild and crazy, and she never had a bad word to say about anyone. I mean, to the extreme, never said anything negative about anyone ever, ever, ever. She was only Miss Positive, very much Dolly Partonesque. And she always talked about, you know, my grandmother was a single mom and raised my dad as a science teacher.
And there were lean times, very similar to Dolly Parton, where it was, you know, a tough growing up. It was thrift stores or secondhand in general was their life. Right? So she’s a nod to vintage in a way. She’s a nod to low-income shoppers, and to my grandmother, and she just brings me peace and happiness.
So I always like to give a nod to her Coat of Many Colors song, I mean, it just speaks to a lot of thrifters. People understand that secondhand message and grow up that way. And I think that Dolly just brings everyone together. So it’s, it’s a little bit of a roundabout story I guess, but nobody has a negative thing to say about Dolly. She’s like a common thread. We can all be united by Dolly Parton.
Trish: She’s the sweetest.
Doug: No, that is cool. That is cool. So obviously you’d love to have Dolly on the show.
Maggie: Oh, yes.
Doug: Well, who else is on the guest wishlist?
Maggie: Oh my gosh. Maybe you can get this person, Doug, you know her, I’m sure. Bailey Sarian does that crime makeup tutorial. Have you guys ever seen her? Gosh, it’s been, it’s probably been a year now. She did a post on decorating her house in 100% thrift and vintage, and I was like, we have to have her on. So we have pitched her a couple of times.
She’s obviously way too powerful and cool for us, which I respect but you never know. So that’s like our big whale, you know, besides Dolly, of course, I would kill, literally die for Dolly Parton, but I’d say Bailey is a close second to that because she really does live this lifestyle. She has a great following and I love the stories that she tells.
I’m sure she has some kind of tie to thrift that is even more deep-seated and funky and weird, which is, it would be the dream. So she’s definitely the big fish.
Trish: Okay. So other than Bailey, what’s next for the Get Thrifty Podcast?
Maggie: You know, one of the reasons I really wanted to do this, and this goes back to even, you know, going back to school for the masters, I wanted to have a seat at the table when our thrift stores expanded into other states.
We consult with a lot of our chapters, our sister chapters across the country and we have recently signed a deal, hopefully with Albuquerque to open a store there that’s kind of next on the horizon. You know, we will help that chapter and really get ingrained in that community, hopefully.
But I feel like the Get Thrifty Podcast is a great way to kind of usher us into these other states, right? It allows us to be friendly with that cool thrifter down in Albuquerque, who I still need to find. Shout out if you’re out there. Come on the show and then go on that next date. Who knows where that is?
But hopefully, we’ve made a friend through the pod. So we have these built-in influencers who will come and check out our stores and shop and spread the word for us. So that really is the next big, big goal. It’s probably a few years out, but you know, fingers crossed it’s closer than I think it is.
Doug: All right. Now we’re gonna talk about BOSS Reseller Remix. You’re gonna be there. We’re gonna be there. There’s gonna be four podcasts there.
Maggie: Oh, cool.
Doug: And then you can hear me say I remember three years ago when I was the first podcast here. You kids with your little portable recorders and stuff.
But we’re excited to meet you in person, but you’re gonna be there and you’re gonna be speaking. So tell us about that a bit.
Maggie: Yeah, we’re really excited. I just set up our, like, display behind, where we’ll actually do the podcast, so I’m pretty excited about that. I need to ship that out to Vikki and Katy and I’m gonna be chatting about marketing, which is so interesting to me because I feel like I’m gonna be in a room full of these like influencers that are doing it so much better than the local thrift store. You know what I mean?
So, you know, I hope to share some, you know, fun little quips about what I’ve learned over the years. And you know what I hope to learn while I’m there that week, I can’t wait. I’m bringing one of the gals from my ad agency. I call her my partner in crime, Lisa, and she’s this tiny little thing and she will walk up to anyone and won’t hesitate to ask a million questions.
So I’m hoping to get people to come and record. Maybe our goal is kinda like six to eight people, hopefully, recorded during that time frame. And then hopefully, Doug, you’re in the front row when I’m speaking, so I don’t like, throw up. I don’t know. You know, people are always like Maggie, you’re so good at talking in public. I’m like, yeah, but I really do get nervous right before, so…
Doug: I have that calming effect.
Maggie: I’m really hoping you do, because I’m a little nervous, you know, but, what a cool opportunity to, you know, share the Get Thrifty Podcast, meet these people in person, and some of the following that you guys have is just incredible. And the names, you know, Voodoo Lobster, I mean so many fun, creative names on all these resellers. I just can’t wait to meet them in person and if they’re as nice as they are to me on the podcast in person, then I’m sure I have nothing to worry about, but I’m really excited. It’s a really cool opportunity.
Trish: You have nothing to worry about. It’s great. Resellers are great when they get together. It’s hysterical, you know, BOSS is wonderful. You’ll have a great time.
Maggie: It really is exciting in that we’ve been welcomed into this community as a thrift store, we could really be viewed as outsiders. So I’m loving that we’ve been accepted and we’re not like the enemy, so that’s very exciting. I’m trying to do this whole thing and I’ve invited Doug, Trish, please come out. I wanna show people our warehouse. Really show you guys what we’re all about. Show you the back room of our stores. We wanna be as transparent and open about how we run this business and why things are priced the way they are.
You know, we don’t have time to be looking. People are always saying, oh, you check the prices on eBay. Gimme a break. We got a quota. That’s not happening. We are all about volume, you know?
Trish: So tell us where people can find you, where they can listen to the podcast.
Maggie: The Get Thrifty Podcast is available literally, anywhere you find your podcasts, the same as List Perfectly. Spotify, iTunes, all the places. You can find us @arcthrift on Instagram. You can find me @podcastwithmaggie on Instagram. We’re just really excited to be part of this community and that everyone’s welcomed us. My goal in life is to get people to shop at our stores. So hopefully if you’re, you know, in the process of planning your last-minute summer sourcing trips, hit up Colorado. Besides arc, we have a huge number of mom-and-pop thrift stores and chains that do an excellent job in our community. We all wanna help each other, and the goal is if you’re gonna hit my neighboring mom and pop hit arc as well.
Doug: Trish and I say this all the time, but it’s true. We know, like, I wouldn’t say everybody, but we know a lot of sellers and we know a lot of influencers. So at BOSS or outside of BOSS, if there’s somebody you’re looking for, let us know and we can, we’re happy to make a connection and we’ll send people your way at BOSS.
Maggie: Yes. Wait, am I gonna be able to set this up? Is there gonna be room to do this?
Trish: You are getting your own room. All podcasts are getting a room.
Maggie: Oh my gosh. It’s so exciting.
Doug: But we’re all in the same room.
Trish: No, we’re not.
Maggie: So we can hear each other on our recordings.
Trish: We’re all getting separate rooms. Some rooms are better than others. I did hear Maggie’s room was the best.
Maggie: Oh, what? I’m shocked. I feel like you guys are rolling out the red carpet on every front. I’m like just blown away by it. So hopefully we’ll do right by you guys.
Trish: They could just be, you know, they could just be giving me cred, Maggie. I’m just saying I heard this grapevine.
Maggie: Oh my gosh. Okay. And am I okay to like to send stuff ahead of time? I gotta call Vikki. I gotta call Katy.
Doug: But I think we should, all the podcasts should interview each other at the same time.
Trish: That would be hysterical.
Doug: But I’ll give you a tip. So the first year when I went, I brought all the stuff, I brought my mixer, I brought the fancy mics and the stands and all this. And we’re all in the same room. It was a nightmare.
Maggie: Too much sound.
Doug: So, and then the, so the second year I switched over to a portable recorder and it was fine. It’s just easy. You go sit in a corner and, because that’s what I had. I get a corner now. Whatever corner’s open I take.
Maggie: Am I okay to bring my mic then and just my laptop? I think that’s what I’ll do then.
Doug: Yeah, if it’s gonna work. My backup is always the phone or I have a little mics for the phone.
Maggie: Show me your gear, Doug. I love talking to Doug ’cause he has got all the newest stuff.
Doug: It’s a taser and a ghost detector as well.
Maggie: Yeah, it looks a little high-tech to me. It looks like a taser. I’m just gonna bring my Yeti and hope and pray.
Doug: There you go. It should be fine if it plugs right in. So and just, yes. I use just Streamyard and would set stuff up and you have it right there.
Maggie: Okay, I’m just gonna cross my fingers. It works and, you know, I’m just excited to get pictures and content and, you know, hopefully, share some, some fun little quips. I mean, I really wanna learn from some of these people how they do the social media and the TikToks and the web stuff. It’s pretty incredible. All these influencers just do an incredible job. Did you see, I haven’t told you about this, Doug?
So we had one of our local influencers join us on local news. They asked us to do all the Taylor Swift eras outfits. She pulled, it was so cool. We did it for, a young mom, a millennial, and a 13-year-old girl. And it was super cute and just a super cool way. I think I’ll share that in the marketing piece. ’cause I think that’s one thing that people don’t realize. Local news needs content so badly. It’s a great way to get your name out there. So I’ll use that. That’s a good idea. Local news, make notes.
Doug: Trish, we’re gonna talk about music now, so if you need to go, that’s fine.
Trish: Do I not have ears? I have things to add about music.
Doug: When Maggie and I first chatted, somehow we found out that we were both from Southern California and we knew we had been at some of the same shows back in the nineties.
Trish: I know, I heard that.
Doug: I’m also gonna tell a little story.
Maggie: Oh my gosh. Yay.
Doug: So a couple, probably about a month ago, one of my favorite San Diego bands. Do you know Lucy Fur Coat?
Maggie: I have heard of this. Yes.
Doug: So they were, they were a crazy band back in the mid-nineties and they got together for a couple of shows at my favorite place in the world, The Casbah. So I decided to go down and see them and they’re, I mean, they’re all, I’m not gonna say how old I am, but they’re all my age too. So it was still crazy, but not like it used to be. And the crowd, you know, you get bumped around a little bit. It wasn’t too crazy. But I was right up front in front of the singer. And it’s been like, I don’t know, like 14 years since I’ve been to The Casbah and I don’t know how many years. I used to go to punk shows all the time and be upfront and all that.
Maggie: It’s so dangerous now.
Doug: So I get up front and I brace my leg against the stage and I’m like, okay, just, you know, and everything was fine. You get bumped a little bit and they play for like an hour and a half. And then they played the last song, which was kind of their alternative hit called Treasure Hands. And so I feel my watch vibrating and I look and think, somebody’s calling me and I look, and first of all, my watch is telling me that my heart rate, heart rate is accelerated to 177.
Maggie: Oh my gosh.
Doug: Which apparently is, my wife said it’s, it’s quite dangerous. And then I look at that and then the show ends and they’re like, thank you, goodnight, blah, blah, blah. And I stepped back and it was like my whole leg was frozen.
Maggie: No!
Doug: I pulled a muscle in my calf and I’m limping. My friend who was with me had to go outside because it was very hot there. And then so I come out, it’s like, what happened to you? I’m like, I don’t know. My leg seized up.
Maggie: Oh my gosh.
Doug: And I got a high heart rate warning!
Trish: I just love a minute ago you didn’t wanna tell anyone how old you were and then you told that story, my friend. They’re gonna think you’re older than you are.
Doug: That’s right. That’s right.
Maggie: That is an indicator. But, yeah, I couldn’t brave them anymore. I don’t think I could do that anymore. I just don’t think I could, unless it was something really great. My husband just sent me a note the other day ’cause Richard Cheese is coming here. Do you know who that is?
Doug: Of course I do. I can’t believe you had to ask.
Maggie: Like I even had to ask. He’s coming to Boulder. He is like, you wanna do it? And I’m like, only in Boulder. ’cause the other option was like Vegas or something. And I’m like, oh, I’m too old for Vegas.
Doug: How late is it gonna be? Oh, that’s the other thing, so we get the tickets and it’s like they’re going on at 10 o’clock. We’re like 10! Usually in bed by then!
Maggie: 10 o’clock. That would be my cutoff. You know, that’s a tie, tie night, nighttime.
Doug: Alright, so we bonded over music. Talk about that a little bit.
Maggie: Well, I was thinking about it more and you know, you talked about Social D, Social Distortion, and I was thinking, oh my gosh. Those Mike Ness shows that he used to do like in Garden Grove outside. I think we may have been at some of those together too. I mean, there were some old, oh my God, I, every time I talk to you, I get all the feels. I’m like transported back to my old, my youth, you know.
So I was definitely thinking about Mike Ness, but I think we may have been at some No Doubt shows back when Gwen was doing free shows at Cal State Fullerton and like all the places, you know, where she’d be like in the bathroom with you.
Trish: I saw No Doubt open up for three before Tragic Kingdom dropped.
Maggie: Oh my gosh.
Trish: Why I’m seeing a 311 show I don’t even know how I ended up there, but it’s some, you know, in some random college in Massachusetts. And out comes this girl. Sweating, doing pushups. And I literally said to my friend, I’m in love with her. Like, I love her.
Maggie: A hundred percent, a hundred percent.
Trish: 311. Why are we here to see 311? Like, she’s awesome.
Maggie: She was a star, you know, still is. And back then she was, So young, you know, I mean, I was 16 ditching school in 93 trying to get to her show.
Trish: Okay. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Doug: Alright, Maggie, thank you.
Trish: It was a nice day, Maggie. You ruined it.
Maggie: I thought you guys were in that same realm maybe a few years ago.
Trish: We are, no, we’re in the same realm. We’re just a little older than that realm. My daughter was born in 92.
Maggie: I graduated in 94 and let me tell you some great, great music in Southern California, but I had a girlfriend who moved to Hillsborough, New Jersey my junior year, and we would go out there and see some fun punk bands. God, let’s see if I can remember some names.
Doug, you’re always so good at names. Operation Ivy.
Doug: Oh yeah. Yeah, that’s a good one.
Maggie: I loved them and we got to see them in Hillsborough, New Jersey of all places. My dad was a pilot, so I was able to kind of fly for free back then. But you didn’t have to go anywhere in Southern California. You could see the craziest bands, Bad Religion at San Diego State, you know, middle of the night, ditching. Oh, mother, please god. Mom, if you’re listening, I’m sorry.
Doug: Yeah, exactly. I guarantee like, if you saw Social D at that time, I guarantee we had some shows. I’ve seen them like 20-something times.
Maggie: What a small world.
Doug: Violent Femmes too.
Maggie: Oh, the Violent Femmes. I’ve been seeing them on TikTok. They’ve had a little resurgence. The kids are like, my son is gonna be 14 next month. And I know I’m probably responsible for like, subliminally putting it in his head, but he’s like, coming along, Add it Up, Prove Your Love to Me.
You know, like, you got it, bro. I heard it on TikTok. He thinks it’s a brand new song, and I’m like, no. Absolutely not. There is a lot of that happening and although it’s good that they’re getting it, they literally think I’m lying when I say, no, no, no. That’s an old song. That’s my song, not your song.
Doug: Yeah. Turn it off. My son’s on the cusp of getting his license, so he drives now, but he still needs somebody in there. I used to be the coolest dude alive, and now I’m the geekiest, most annoying person alive.
Maggie: Thank you’re doing something right.
Doug: That’s right. When he is driving around, don’t think, I don’t hear the occasional, it’s mostly like rap and hip hop now. Don’t think, I don’t hear that occasional Smiths song or Duran Duran or stuff like that that pops up in there. But I did ask him, Lucy’s Fur Coat is playing one more show. It’s the Adams Avenue Street Festival. It’s free, it’s an all-day thing.
Maggie: I used to live off Adams Avenue and 36th.
Doug: So I asked him if he wanted to go. It’s free. It’s all ages. Lucy’s Fur Coat’s playing. Nope. Okay. All right. Listen to your rap in your truck. Drive to school.
Maggie: This is our only chance, like our last few, you know, years to really sink in those, you know, classics. Now I gotta listen to, There Is a Light That Never Goes Out. You know, there are some great ones. I mean, just some absolute greatness out there, and our kids are really finding it, and I guess we should be grateful for TikTok that they’ve revised some of these things and made these kids think that they’re new.
Doug: Yeah, that is, that’s definitely a thing. Rediscovering stuff on TikTok.
Maggie: Doug, I love listening to your, you know, The Albums That Saved Us.
Doug: Thank you very much.
Maggie: Oh, it’s a joy. Especially if you listen on Spotify so that you can hear the music. It’s literally a joy. It brings you back to all those beautiful things. And I guess it is my, my brother is so much older than me, he shared a lot of those, you know, really great things with me at a really young age, teaching me to drive and all that.
I actually have a Dolly story. I went to see her for my 40th birthday. It’s been five years now or six years. I saw her at Red Rocks and if you haven’t seen a show at Red Rocks it’s a religious experience. I made my family go. My mother could barely walk. You know, I made my whole family attend this show and I brought posters with the two songs that I wanted to hear. And I have a girlfriend who was sitting several rows in front of me ’cause she has tons more money than me.
She took a picture of me every year on my birthday, which is next week, you’ll see it. She always shares it on my Instagram page or my Facebook page. But it’s me alone standing in the middle of Red Rocks holding up this sign, and it’s one of my favorite things. She sang the song too.
Trish: What was it?
Maggie: The Seeker. The Seeker. It’s called. It’s a great, great song. It’s one of her older ones and it’s just, it has a great message. It’s something my grandmother used to sing. My grandmother used to sing all the Dolly stuff. One of the first times I really figured out who Dolly was, my dad let my sister and I watch The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Best Dolly movie of all time.
Trish: I love that.
Maggie: I know people love Steel Magnolias, they love nine to Five, but the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas is the most underrated movie of our time, the most epic music. It’s phenomenal. The first time I saw it was on regular primetime TV so it was totally edited for, you know, TV, and I bought it years ago to give to my dad. I watched it with him and I went, wow, this is really inappropriate. How is it on TV?
Doug: The TV version is the Best Little Warehouse in Texas.
Trish: So I was obsessed with James Bond as a child. I mean, I still am obsessed with James Bond movies, but as a child, we had a beta max and I recorded off the television Diamonds Are Forever, which of course was edited for television. I watched that so much on that beta max. In my head I’m like, oh, that part wasn’t in it. Oops. That’s a commercial.
Maggie: Our kids have no idea. They watch all this stuff on streaming. They just don’t understand the struggles that we went through.
Trish: But they also will never understand how everyone has the same experience. They’ll never understand how we all watched certain things on TV at a certain time. Yes. They’ll never get that.
Maggie: And recorded music on our boomboxes and called into the radio station right?
Trish: Waiting, waiting for that song to come and didn’t play. And you’d be so excited that you got it.
Doug: I remember way back I had to be 12 or 13. I would call the radio station every afternoon and they got to know me. I would either request Styx Mr. Roboto or David Bowie’s Let’s Dance.
Maggie: Oh my God.
Doug: I would like to hear Let’s Dance, please. And it was a small desert town, so it was like, you know…
Maggie: They’re like, hi Doug, how are you? How was school?
Doug: I’m fine. Thank you. I would really like to hear Let’s Dance by David Bowie.
Maggie: And the joy we got from that moment, you know, and then it’s gone. Now they just scream at Alexa to play the song that they want, and I roll my eyes.
Trish: It’s true. Maggie, do you have anything else you would like to add to this lovely conversation?
Maggie: I mean, you guys are an absolute delight. It doesn’t even feel like we’ve been chatting for this long. I hope I didn’t go too long. I’m sorry. No, we get off on a tangent, but this is always so fun and you guys get what I do and live what I do, so it’s even more fun to chat with you. So thank you.
Trish: Thank you. And, for my second podcast ever, Maggie. I appreciate it. It was a joy. I really had fun. Douglas, thank you for putting up with me as usual.
Doug: Of course. And also to you Trish. And yeah, Maggie, thanks for coming on. It was a ton of fun. And we will also see you at BOSS Reseller Remix.
Maggie: Can’t wait to meet you guys in person. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.