For Austin and Laura Storm, The Storm Cellar was an investment born out of a period of uncertainty.
Austin Storm said the motivation for his plunge into consignment came out of the 2008 financial crisis. After losing his job in 2009, he discussed with his wife and current co-owner of The Storm Cellar, Laura Storm, about the prospects of opening a business. Through their conversation, Austin realized just how long he had been wanting a store of his own.
For Austin, his layoff presented a small window of opportunity to pursue a dream he could not afford to pass up.
“If we do this and we totally flop that’s fine, but if we don’t do it then we will forever wonder what if we had tried that crazy thing?” Austin said.
After making the decision to open a business, the next question was what to pursue. For the Storm couple, the resolution to pursue consignment came from their own shared love of thrifting.
“We wondered what it would be like to have a store that captured some of the serendipity and discovery of the thrift shopping experience, but more curated,” Austin said. “Instead of hunting for the gems, the gems have already been hunted and you were just looking for things that worked for you.”
As a consignment store, The Storm Cellar functions as a business that is uniquely connected to the community it serves. Residents can use the store as a medium for selling their past clothes, allowing the business, as well as the customer, to profit from their items getting a new life. This model allows money to flow back into the local economy in a more direct way, said Caleb Warner, a 6-year employee of The Storm Cellar.
Beyond the economic setup of the store, the handling of a variety of personal items allows the store to function as a snapshot of the area’s diversity.
“It’s definitely a way to get into the central nervous system of a town,” Warner said. “You’re dealing with people’s items and then you see them on the street.”
After more than a decade of business, the couple has no regrets, though the business is not without its challenges.
“Even 12 years later you’re negotiating your roles; who’s in charge of what and do you enjoy doing this? … It is definitely still an ongoing negotiation of what works and what doesn’t,” Austin said.
For Warner, the ongoing question of what works has defined his experience at the store.
“There’s been a lot of experimentation here,” Warner said. “Personally, I like to experiment, and it’s been fun to see what has worked and what has kind of not stuck.”
While clothing remains the cornerstone of The Storm Cellar’s business model, the store has ventured into a variety of items, some of which have been an unexpected success. Over the past winter, for example, puzzles were among the store’s most popular commodities, Warner said.
As The Storm Cellar has continued to establish itself as a staple of downtown Moscow, the role students play in shaping the shop’s inventory has continued to develop with time, resulting in a selection that is uniquely varied for such a small town.
“People who come to WSU and U of I come from all over so they bring us clothes that you would not otherwise see on the Palouse,” Austin said.
According to Warner, several students have used The Storm Cellar as a convenient transition point between academic years.
“We get a lot of students at the end of the year who are looking to downsize or clear their closets,” Warner said. “We get another influx of students from consignment on the tail end of summer.”
Students are not the only variable shaping The Storm Cellar. The expanding retail scene has also played a factor in the store’s continued growth.
“Moscow has acquired a really great restaurant scene that it didn’t have when we started,” Austin Storm said. “And now retail is catching up with our friends at Revolver and Intrigue.”
While The Storm Cellar’s customer base has seen students playing an increased role in the store’s curation, the summer months bring a degree of liveliness as the students leave and the permanent residents flow into downtown.
“We love the mix and the tension that brings.” Austin said. “We’re not trying to just serve one demographic group; we’re trying to be as inclusive as we possibly can.”
Royce McCandless can be reached at argonaut@uidaho.edu or Twitter @roycemccandless