Almost exactly a year after VTC Enterprises closed the doors of its beloved Santa Maria thrift shop in February 2018, it opened a bigger and better version of its Lompoc store in a new location. Now, with the store and its staff finally all in order, VTC Enterprises is ready to celebrate.
VTC Enterprises and the Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce are hosting a public ribbon cutting ceremony on July 25 at 1 p.m. in celebration of the reopening of the nonprofit’s Lompoc-based thrift shop, Hidden Treasures Thrift Store. Following that celebration, VTC is throwing another party for its official grand reopening on Aug. 3.
The store was located in a shop on Ocean Avenue for years, but Olga Requenez, program manager for VTC, said it was time for an upgrade.
“We needed more space,” Requenez told the Sun.
Business at the Lompoc location has always been booming, Requenez said, and with the closure of VTC’s shop in Santa Maria, Lompoc’s store is the only one left that VTC operates. All donations from both Santa Maria and Lompoc go to that store now, and its new spot—at 124 North I St.—is larger, in a prime part of town, and neighbors VTC’s day program and services center.
The store’s proximity to VTC’s services center is great for Hidden Treasures employees, who are mostly individuals with disabilities working at the thrift shop through VTC’s supported employment program. They can walk to and from Hidden Treasures and the day program, Requenez said, and the store’s downtown location makes it easy for employees to visit other businesses too.
“It gives them the ability to be out in the community,” she said. “... It’s like we’re in the center of everything.”
The thrift store is one of several new businesses opening in Old Town Lompoc, according to Marlee Bedford, communications and program director of the Lompoc Chamber of Commerce.
A number of cannabis businesses have been able to open their doors in Lompoc, and Bedford said that trend has been followed by a number of other businesses, many that have relocated to Old Town, and several that are just starting in the area.
The willingness to allow cannabis to become an industry in Lompoc has a lot to do with revitalization, as has excitement over SpaceX, Vandenberg Air Force Base, and the current state of the U.S. economy, Bedford said.
“In an age where most people shop online, many have to be forward-thinking in their business ventures,” Bedford wrote in an email to the Sun. “People still need to go out to get food, and people still want face-to-face interaction for important services in their lives… .”
For VTC, that’s what the move to Old Town is really all about—getting more customers in and more employees out in the shop.
So far, Program Manager Requenez said things are going well. The store is now open on Mondays for the first time, and people seem to love the new location.
“VTC has really great community support,” she said.
Highlights:
• The Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce is partnering with Chamber Discoveries, a company with overseas relationships with chambers and businesses, to offer a nine-day journey to Italy in March 2020. Because of the Chamber’s partnership with Chamber Discoveries, the tour is being offered at a discounted cost of $3,399 if booked by Aug. 31. Members of the community are invited to join as well. For more information, call (805) 925-2403.
• Santa Ynez Valley Union High School is looking for a junior varsity boys water polo coach for the fall season and a varsity girls water polo coach for the winter season. For more information, contact Ashley Coelho at [email protected].
Kasey Bubnash wrote this week’s Biz Spotlight. Information should be sent to the Sun via fax, mail, or email at [email protected].
