Carolyn Busa moves her thrift and vintage clothing resale store from Merchantville to Merchant Street ahead of a planned August opening.
By Matt Skoufalos | July 15, 2024
Carolyn Busa of Peak poses with a mannequin in her Audubon backyard. Credit: Matt Skoufalos.
When Carolyn Busa opened up Peak, her secondhand clothing store, in a small storefront in Merchantville in 2021, she was working to fill a niche that she saw in that borough’s downtown shopping district.
Three years later, she’s hoping to repeat the process again in downtown Audubon.
This spring, Busa purchased 114 West Merchant Street, formerly the site of Healing Stone, and is in the process of fitting the shop out while becoming an Audubon resident herself.
“I feel like I am truly in the center of downtown and that’s awesome and exciting,” she said.
“I feel like I’m a Gilmore girl.
“This was always the dream, to have the store and live above, and it just didn’t pan out at the time,” Busa said. “I’ve explored a few other locations; I knew I needed more space. This felt like it filled all the holes that I was hoping for.”
The inventory at Peak turns on bright colors and bold patterns. Busa sees herself as continuing a tradition of thrifting that she enjoyed in secondhand shops like the (now-shuttered) Frugal Thrift and Vintage in Collingswood and Philly AIDS Thrift, where shoppers seemed to pull out something that spoke to them at every visit.
She worked to carry on that spirit in her Merchantville storefront, which, even in its limited footprint there, had an outsized impact on the community with its Pride Week fashion shows and her own leadership in the local business association.
“A big part of it was creating someplace you could come and be yourself; find a new style, find an old style, chat with the owner,” Busa said. “I would get very excited when people would tell me it reminded them of a store in Philly or New York.”
“Peakabon,” which she informally has dubbed the new storefront, will have additional space for inventory, changing rooms, and hosting special events. The majority of items are women’s clothing, with some men’s selections mixed in.
The shop accepts donations, and Busa works to fill its racks with a variety of brands, both contemporary and vintage, that are interesting, dynamic, and rarer to encounter.
Carolyn Busa at Peak Secondhand in Merchantville. Credit: Carolyn Busa.
“Over the years, so many people have felt excited to give me their clothes that they really liked as opposed to the ones that went to Goodwill,” she said.
“I’m excited to sell brands that don’t exist anymore, colorful 70s and 80s shirts; things from back in the day.”
In Merchantville, the racks at Peak were offset by a few of secondhand books focused on sexuality, relationships, body positivity, and fashion.
In her expanded storefront in Audubon, Busa expects to be able to provide a small library, tucked away in a separate nook, that “will have a sort of separate identity from the rest of the store,” Busa said.
There aren’t many retail shops on West Merchant Street, but Busa said she believe Peak will meet the energy of the block with its offerings, whether that be the flow of traffic from its salons and barber shop, restaurants, or other service-based businesses.
“I think there is a need for retail in this downtown,” she said. “It’s almost triple Merchantville’s population but the downtown is much smaller.
“I won’t care if someone is just waiting the 15 minutes for their food to be done, and they need somewhere visually exciting to go to,” she said. “I want to see what happens if a person running in for their pizza sees a rack outside. That will provide a need for them that they didn’t have before.”
More than anything else, Busa said the move will help her “get back down to why I wanted to open Peak in the first place.
“It’s an outlet for creativity,” she said. “For someone who never saw where their life was going to end up, I was excited to create a space that is going to be a part of people’s history of where they lived and grew up.
“That’s the stuff I’m still talking about now: getting to create a space that’s going to be a cool spot.”
Peak Secondhand is located at 114 West Merchant Street in downtown Audubon. The shop is targeting a mid-August opening. For hours and more information, visit the business website or social media accounts.
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