Help us open up our retail store!

Hey! For those of you reading this who don’t know. We’re Toby and Maggie and we run a vintage business exclusively online. Toby started it close to a decade ago living out of his car; and built it into a very successful online store. We’ve dreamed of opening a store front for years now and due to unforeseen circumstances, it’s stunted our development as a brand. A few years ago, Toby was kicked off of Etsy for false copyright claims (flagged by corporate bots- it’s a long story- but it was total BS) . His entire catalogue of listings, pictures, measurements, inventory etc. vanished overnight after working daily for over 7 years. After relentlessly trying to contact the website, we still were never able to get that back. We had to spend our entire savings and go into credit card debt in order to pay bills. After I (maggie) picked up extra shifts bartending, and Toby began working 7 days a week from the moment he woke up and into the night, we’ve been able to slowly build the business back up. We’ve reached a point where we can afford necessities and bills, but haven’t been able to have any savings yet. We just signed off on what we would consider the opportunity of our lifetime (it sounds corny but it’s true). And we’re fortunate enough through friends of ours to connect with someone in our community for a totally ideal property two blocks away from our house. We are closely connected to the neighborhood, so to be afforded this chance feels sort of fateful. We have a son, Bug that will be turning a year old in the next few weeks and would love to open up our store before September to secure a better consistent and financial future for him. We need a head start with money in order for us to focus on opening in a few months. We asked for 9,000 in order to be able to pay for tedious and unexpected costs in the building, and spend less time running the online business until the store is open. It will also help us cover the bills for our home and the shop. The store would not only help us, but also our small south side community. We understand a lot of our friends reading this are also pretty broke but even 5 dollars would be SO appreciated. Please consider donating to a local business. If any strangers are reading this we are good people who really just want to provide for our family and give our kid a cool neighborhood to grow up in. We love all of you

Maggie, Toby, Bug