Mysteri Vintage opened its first store at 1115 Broad St. in November 2024.
As their lease ended, owner Juan Aguilar looked to relocate and learned that the old Cal Poly shop on Higuera Street was available.
“It was just definitely like, something that just kind of lined up for us. We were just browsing around, walking downtown, and then noticed this spot, and it [looked] like a prime corner spot, and we were like, maybe we could actually get this one,” said Aguilar.
Aguilar first began collecting clothes for himself six years ago.
“[I] slowly started collecting more, vintage stuff and noticing the difference. And that led to me doing markets like Rose Bowl or the Alameda Flea Market as well,” Aguilar said. “I think slowly, we had the idea of opening up a physical location.”
Aguilar, in addition to clothes, wants more antiques and accessories, since he thought the previous store had more clothes.
He continued, “It’s definitely going to have more antiques and home decor compared to the first location; we’re going to try to focus on having more accessories.”
Most of their clothes come from wholesale suppliers or other sellers in Los Angeles. He added, “So we’re always definitely trying to reach out to other people or other companies. And now they have what they call rag houses, so we try to be everywhere as much as we can.”
The relocation is already getting buzz. “We get a lot of people looking through the window because we’re working currently; we get a lot of people asking when are you guys going to open?” Aguilar said.
He plans to have both stores open at the same time, with the Higuera store staying open until January.
“So it’ll be open for November and December; we’re going to make that one into kind of a bargain clearance,” Aguilar continued. “I think the first one will be 25% off, then 50% off, and then 75% off.”
Mysteri Vintage had its soft launch on Nov. 7, Cal Poly second-year biomedical engineer Grace Levine says this is a great business opportunity.