Neat racks of colorful onesies, kids T-shirts, shorts, and baby shoes line the 350 square feet of retail space Kayla Perez purchased a year ago.
“I think if you came in and didn’t know it was a thrift shop, you wouldn’t know it was secondhand,” said Perez, the owner of Kayla’s Kidz—a secondhand store for children’s clothes, books, and shoes.
The longtime Santa Ynez Valley resident recently retired after working in gardening and landscaping for her entire career. Her small company with 10 employees grew to the point where she was able to sell it to a large company in Sacramento.
“I didn’t know what to do with myself because plants, gardening, and landscaping were my whole life,” she said after selling the company. “I’m not a very religious person, but this whole thing was a shot from God.”
One morning she was watching Good Morning America—something she usually never watches—and there was a special about children’s thrift shops in big cities, she said.
“I thought, ‘We don’t have anything like that in the valley,’” she said.
The Santa Ynez Valley saw an influx of young families move to the rural area during COVID—people who like to repurpose and be environmentally conscious, Perez said.
The next day during her hair appointment, the woman next to her said there was a small retail unit available in Buellton. Two months later Perez opened Kayla’s Kidz on Sept. 21, 2023.
“I bought everything used. I went to LA and bought used racks and hangers. I tried not to buy anything new, and stayed with repurposing and environmentally conscious things,” she said. “I bought bundles of clothes off Facebook in Santa Maria, Lompoc, Orcutt, and started collecting a bunch of clothes.”
Now, the shop owner is celebrating her one-year anniversary by moving into a bigger, 750-square-foot storefront where she will continue to sell gently used clothes, books, and shoes, and hopefully expand into select toys, cribs, playpens, and high chairs. She will be celebrating her grand opening on Oct. 25 and 26.
“We’ll have snacks and face painting and a photo booth, and there might be some discounts on some of our inventory,” she said.
Inventory arrives from customers bringing in bags of clothes, which Perez combs through—looking for popular brands and quality items, weeding out ones with stains and tears—and hand-selects every single item for the store.
“I’m really picky about what I put out. I take it home, I wash it and iron it. When people go to thrift shops they like to look through everything, so it’s not so packed where you can’t get through the whole rack,” she said.
After Perez selects what she likes, she will give the customer an amount of store credit. The discarded items can either be returned to the customer or Perez will put them in her free bin.
“The free bin in my store is a big hit; people absolutely love it. Some people come and they don’t buy things but they get stuff from the free bin, or they buy things and they find more in the free bin,” she said. “It’s a nice extra thing we do. … It’s a good way to recycle the things we don’t need or were donated and they still need to find their way to a home.”
Perez will donate items that don’t make it out of the free bin to a local church to make sure they still get repurposed “in a charitable way.”
“I’m really enjoying the joy people get out of the shop. The flip side of doing something environmentally good, repurposing something, it’s just kind of a feel-good environment, and I’m really enjoying that,” Perez said.
Kayla’s Kidz will be moving to 65-B W. Highway 246 in Buellton. It’s currently at 90 W. Highway 246. Call (805) 245-0633 with questions about the move-in date and grand opening.
Highlight
• The Lompoc Public Library is offering a new free program for teens ages 13 to 18 who are interested in learning about babysitting. Babysitting 101 courses will take place on Oct. 8, 15, and 22 from 4:30 to 6 p.m. One class was planned to be held on Oct. 1. The course will go over the basics of starting a babysitting business, tips on interacting with clients, activity ideas, and more. Battalion Chief Kevin Shay from the Lompoc City Fire Department will also be coordinating basic first-aid training for participants. Call (805) 875-8775 to register.
Reach Staff Writer Taylor O’Connor at [email protected].
