Whisked away behind the Kabob It and the D.P. Dough building sits a single white door. From the outside, it appears ordinary, but when you walk inside, there are dozens of treasures waiting to be found.
Andy Thomas is the owner of Buffs, a vintage and thrift store set to open on Aug. 12. He said every single item inside the store has been hand-selected and curated by him.
“A lot of bigger cities have thrift stores that have curated vintage, and I want to bring that to the college students,” said Thomas. “They have a place where they feel like they can find a rare piece, and they can come here and get a shirt that nobody else has.”
Thomas said the goal is that anybody can walk in with just a few dollars, but walk out with a lot of rare, vintage pieces.
However, he said money isn’t necessarily his only objective.
“I’m also negotiable on all the prices, too — the way I grew up is I would go to garage sales, buy, sell, trade different items, and whenever we were there, my mom taught me that I could haggle with people, and that’s just carried along with my business model as well. So, if people come in here and want to haggle with me, that’s great. I’m all for it,” Thomas said. “That’s how this business works.”
The store has a wide variety of merchandise. Items ranging from Harley Davidson to NASCAR, to sports, music and pop culture.
“If anybody is wondering if there’s something for them, there definitely is,” Thomas said.
Thomas doesn’t only sell vintage items; he purchases them, too.
“If you have a pile of old clothes that you’re trying to get rid of, I’ll buy it from you. If you find something that you like on the shelves that you might not like the price on, and you want to trade it, I can always do better on trade as well. I’ll trade for those clothes,” he said.
Buffs, located at 140 E. Wooster St. Suite 4, used to be an actual garage. Thomas said he found the spot by simply calling the phone number on the side of the wall.
“This is really cool, and I see that if I do a little bit of work here, it’ll really come alive and it’ll have a lot of character,” he said.
Thomas also said his store is different than other thrift stores in Bowling Green, such as Vintillage, Fringe Thrift Store or Goodwill.
He said he knows the pain of having to sort through numerous racks of clothing before you find something you like.
“My idea is that I’ve basically done that treasure hunt for you,” said Thomas. “I’ve found pieces that I think are especially cool and other people think are cool and put them all together to make a collection.”
Now, one question- how does the name Buffs correlate to thrift and vintage?
Thomas said there are a few reasons, with the main one being, it’s based on the idea of the Cartier Buffalo sunglasses.
He said it’s always been his goal to sell different accessories such as chains, hats and sunglasses.
Another reason for choosing Buffs as the store’s name is the practicality of it all.
“It’s super simple, and it’s always the question someone asks me, ‘Why’d you pick Buffs?’ Well, you’re thinking about it. It sticks in your mind,” said Thomas.
For more information about the store, visit Buffs’ Facebook page.
