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St. Paul Retro Loop featured in Saint Paul Illustrated • July 2007 By Lauren Elizondo • Photos by Tate Carlson & Silas Crew . . . . . . . . . . . . . When Maya Rudolph and Lindsay Lohan, star of A Prairie Home Companion, visited Up Six several years ago, owner Megan McGuire knew that what they were looking for could be found at Succotash, a neighboring vintage store. “I tried drawing a rough map and giving directions, but they never got there,” McGuire says. When Up Six opened in 2001 with a focus on 1950s–1980s furniture, clothing and accessories, Noreen Allbright, owner of Succotash, immediately paid the store a visit, sharing with McGuire her vision for a non-competitive community of similar stores in Saint Paul. After the Rudolph-Lohan incident, McGuire says, “It became obvious that we needed to come together.” And in 2006, the St. Paul Retro Loop was born. The Loop is an association of five stores specializing in furniture, art, pottery, clothing, jewelry, and other trifles and trinkets from the 1950s to the 1980s, give or take a decade. In addition to Up Six and Succotash, the stores include Classic Retro @ Pete’s, Swank and Lula. Located withing 3 miles of each other, the shops make up a vintage destination in the Midway / Mac-Groveland area of Saint Paul. “Being a small independent business owner, it’s hard to run, advertise and really get your name out there,” McGuire says, “so we pooled our resources to make fliers, ads and maps because it was more effective to advertise together than each individually.” Although all the Loop stores sell mid-century goods and collectibles, each is as different as its name. McGuire’s store started off as a tiny half-furniture, half-clothing store stocked with items she collected through the years, including her vintage jean and sweater collection. Today the store has grown and expanded into an adjacent retail space. Like Up Six, Succotash sells mod furniture, housewares, art glass and clothing along with pottery. Vintage clothing and accessories adorn the shelves and racks at Lula, while Swank Interiors specializes in Danish Modern furniture, art glass, lighting, pottery and housewares. Mid-century designer furniture can be found at Classic Retro @ Pete’s, as can housewares. Pete’s might sell higher-end furniture, but his prices along with the other Loop stores’, range drastically. “You can get something for $50 or $1 at each store. The more expensive items are usually the rare collectible furniture pieces,” McGuire says. The reasonable prices might be a reason why people from all walks of life shop the consortium. “I get a lot of [Macalester College] kids coming into my shop because of where I’m located, but basically customers are from across the board,” McGuire says, “because you can find a little bit of everything in each store. People can come in for a birthday looking for outfits and go store-to-store to find each part.” To acquire such an extensive collection of groovy goodies, McGuire says she and the four other retro dealers search endlessly at auctions, online, estate sales, out-of-town businesses and through items walk-ins bring to their stores. The five Loop stores hold two shindigs with treats and special pricing for customers in the spring and fall. Up Six also has an anniversary sale in September and a holiday sale around Christmastime. While antique malls and warehouses are a way to bring dealers together, McGuire says she and the other Loop dealers aren’t planning to combine their stores. “We enjoy our individuality, but we like the fact that we created this shopping destination,” she says. “We’re excited that a lot more people know we exist now. It’s neat to hear people say, ”You’re a part of that Retro Loop!” |