Jennifer Kaplan, owner of The Flower Truck, shows a student the variety of flowers at the Cal State Long Beach campus. Photos by Crystal Niebla.
Mobile truck companies turned Cal State Long Beach into a mini outdoor mall this week when five retail businesses pulled up to sell clothing, make-up, and flowers at a pre-Valentine’s Day event Tuesday.
The first in what is expected to be occassional events organized by the American Mobile Retail Association (AMRA), the five businesses included three clothing companies, one flower and one beauty products company.
The clothing companies varied from vintage to more modern styles. Monique Cruz, owner of Selvedge Dry Goods, said her company specializes in salvaging old vintage clothing in order to recycle and reconstruct new styles for today’s trends.
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“For example, the high-waisted shorts, these are all recycled denim pants that we all have cut, bleached, patched-up, studded—all these different techniques—to salvage it into a new type of item,” she said.
Cruz, who joined the AMRA last February, said that she specifically looks for vintage clothing because compared to modern fabric, older clothing have better quality.
“Garments were just made to last, and these days, [that’s] hard to find,” she said.
Monét Lamb, who owns the Fashion Driven Truck, the first black-owned retail truck in Los Angeles, said she joined the AMRA in April selling vintage, consignment and new fashion.
“My audience for my truck is a very eclectic, stylish audience that’s looking for something different,” Lamb said.
Lamb said she loves that students at Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) have different class schedules, which gave her a constant rate a customers throughout the day. “It’s not like a rush at the same time, it’s just [been] a steady flow all day,” she said.
Some of the student shoppers, like junior psychology and Chicano and Latino studies major Ganine Solano, said they were intrigued by the truck shops.
“The trucks look different than every other [vendor] that usually is here, so it’s kind of something different and new to come to campus,” she said. Among the other truck shop companies were Pekok Within Boutique, Beth’s Beauty Bus, and The Flower Truck.
Cruz said she has vended on campus before, but that this was the first time CSULB administrators allowed a group of retail truck shops to sell on campus. The biggest issue limiting mobile vendors, she said, was the idea of parking their trucks in a walkway.
“But after a few times [after] talking with a few administrators and showing them the truck, they were keen to the idea to test it out,” she said.
Lamb said that the administrators told her they were pleased and “impressed” with the truck shop event turnout and the AMRA is already scheduled to return in April during the Mondays of weeks one and two of Coachella.
“So, whoever is preparing to go to the concert can stock up on their outfits or whatever they need,” Cruz said.
Second photo: Beth’s Beauty Bus, the first mobile skin care boutique, sells products from make-up to facial scrub to spa services.
For more information on local AMRA members and to keep up with future CSULB events, visit americanmobileretailassociation.blogspot.com. The pre-Valentine’s Day sale event was from 10AM to around 6PM in front of the University Bookstore.
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