o tell you how Scout started, I have to take you back to the beginning-the very beginning.
My mom was one of 14 kids and my dad was one of 9 kids. They grew up in frugal, penny-pinching houses where they drank powdered milk mixed with water and split a waffle 14 ways.
My mom would always look first at how something could be reused before recycling it. Once all the options for reuse were exhausted, only then would we recycle it.
She was ‘green’ decades before it was cool to be ‘green”. She did, and still does recycle and reuse everything-sandwich bags, twisty ties, the lids to pop bottles- everything.
My mom taught myself and my sisters to think about how to reuse things to help save money and to save the environment but it also accidentally taught us to be really creative.
Scout had to be environmentally friendly. So, I decided first off that Scout was going to be a B.Y.O.B. store, as in bring your own bag. (We do have paper bags that are free and available if you forget your bag.) All tags and signs are printed on expired posters and we do tons of other earth-loving things.
In the spring of 2009, Scout was nominated for the “Omaha Friend of the Environment Award” because of Scout’s continued earth-friendly practices. (We ended up losing out to a high school science club).
Growing up, we rarely had the money to get the clothes I really wanted and even if we would have had the money, I didn’t want clothes that everyone else had anyway. Our budget for clothes each school year was one hundred dollars each. Me and my sisters got really creative with how to spend that money. One year, I tried to make new clothes out of old clothes and old towels and sheets. It was so frustrating and didn’t result in anything that could barely pass for clothes-off to the thrift store for me. If there had only been a Scout back then!
My dad traveled all over the world with the military and when he’d come home he’d bring with him gifts for us from exotic places. Perfume from Egypt, tapestries from Venezuela, necklaces from Italy. All the talk about the world made me want to travel.
That’s what I love about Scout; it’s like getting to travel all around the world to great little boutiques without leaving town. There are clothes at Scout that started out in New York City, California, Amsterdam, Vancouver, everywhere.
A few years ago, I nominated my identical twin sister, Anna and her then-boyfriend for TLC’s show, “What Not to Wear”, and they got on! It was really fun and trust me-they really needed it too. Through them doing the show, it brought home the points of how important clothes are to how other people perceive us and how we feel about ourselves.
I created Scout because I wanted to shop at a store like Scout; a place where I could get nice Banana Republic pants, interesting vintage pieces along-side great fitting jeans, soft t-shirts and cool shoes and still be able to save money for my next trip.
Scout’s doors opened on January 3, 2008, with the primary goal for Scout to be environmentally responsible and to provide a lively environment for you to buy, sell and trade your cool clothes.
Stop by and tell us about your journey, and while you’re here I hope you find something that you really love.
xoxo,
Kelly
