Located at 504 South Main St., The Storm Cellar is at the heart of downtown Moscow and has been selling secondhand finds at an affordable price for over 10 years. As a secondhand store, Storm Cellar buys lightly used clothes from the community and resells them, promoting a greener way to shop for clothing.
Store manager Gunn Wilson explained that much of the store’s popularity is due to its central location downtown and the constantly shifting inventory that sets Storm Cellar apart.
Storm Cellar also prides itself on providing a more sustainable way to shop. Shopping secondhand helps reduce the negative environmental effects of fast fashion and gives previously owned clothes a new life.
“Working here, you see inside the belly of the beast, you know what the clothing industry puts out. It’s constantly cranking out new items to follow trends and a lot of it is fast fashion and cheaply made,” Wilson said. “Through our store, we can funnel things through to give them more of a lifespan. Not just a second chance, but maybe a third chance or beyond.”
Storm Cellar is also a crowd favorite due to the ever-changing selection of fashion finds.
“Customers can find clothes that all sort of have a one-of-a-kind, unique quality to them at a fraction of what they would be any other retail stores,” Wilson said. “We’re constantly providing good deals on things and I think that’s what people are enjoying the most.”
The store recently made the shift from a consignment store, which allows people to sell clothes in store and split the profit, to a buy outright system.
“When people bring their clothes in, they can get cash or store credit the same day, rather than waiting for their item to sell or running the risk of not even selling it at all,” Wilson said.
This buy-outright system allows the store to provide a constant stream of new clothes for shoppers to browse.
“We’re always putting new clothes out every day because we’re always buying clothes,” Wilson said. “The selection is always different.”
Shopping at Storm Cellar is an opportunity to find sustainable fashion and buy local.
“People’s desires are to follow trends, but other people are going to like your old clothes,” Wilson said. “Why not have someone else find it? Why not have them benefit from what you don’t want anymore? There’s just a great opportunity for sustainability here.”
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Grace Giger can be reached at [email protected]