TikTok helps drive retail recovery in SoHo

Post-pandemic stores selling vintage clothes are replacing luxury stores

Written by Elizabeth Brewer and Chantal Vaca

Two months after the launch of the COVID-19 vaccines, Abby Price is gearing up to launch Abbode, her own antique home décor store in SoHo. It officially opened the day after her graduation from Parsons School of Design in May 2021.

“The only reason I was able to do this is because of COVID,” she said.

Aside from illness and death, the pandemic has hit Soho hard financially, according to Jonathan Apple, a commercial real estate agent in a Midtown Manhattan neighborhood. Tourist spending, which once supported the area, has faded. Signs of “for rent” appeared frequently, and rents for retail premises fell. Average rental demand on Broadway between Houston and Broome streets fell nearly 40 percent from 2020 to 2021, according to The Real Estate Council’s New York Spring 2021 Retail Market Report.

“It was almost the price I chose during COVID,” Apple said. “Rents are negotiated at 50% of the previous market.”

Sensing an opportunity, Price signed a three-month lease for a storefront on Mott Street. The shop had space for two silver bookcases, but it was enough to keep her going. From mugs of smiling faces, to vases and even fruit-shaped smoking pipes, Abode’s vintage home decor reflects the colorful and eclectic style that has appeared on Instagram feeds during the pandemic lockdown days.

When people were vaccinated, foot traffic spread, however, and TikTokers began documenting new places to check out in New York.

This past November, Abode moved to Elizabeth Street in a space twice the size of its original location and the business continued to thrive.

“People come up almost every day and say they saw us on TikTok,” Price said.

Influencers weren’t the only ones posting about Ubud. Local customers have posted videos of themselves visiting the store, offering the store as a destination for anyone looking to decorate their home with Price’s uniquely curated vintage finds.

Turns out, her timing couldn’t have been better. When New Yorkers returned to the city they had fled at the start of the pandemic, they needed decorations for their new apartments. The residents who remained were tired of staring at their old furniture and were now ready to replace it.

For Bowery gallery owner Matthew Chun, the love for fashion began at a young age. Chun, a Native New Yorker, said he started his career as a vintage distributor on the eBay and Facebook Marketplace.

“From that experience, I realized that I wanted to be an entrepreneur,” he said. “Even if I enjoyed my job, I just wanted to do something myself.”

At the start of the pandemic, Chun said his pop-up clothing company had to turn to Instagram ads, as in-person events were closed. Over the first six months of COVID-19, Chun said he invested half a million dollars in social media advertising. Chun said after that that he no longer necessarily needed the money after his social media success, but that he still had some clothes left to sell in his wardrobe.

He said he reconnected with a Lower East Side vintage dealer he worked with when he was younger and started buying clothes from him and posting them on TikTok. The next day, Chun said a group of young men lined up on Hester Street, waiting for his last drop.

“They’re like, ‘Oh, we saw you on TikTok. “What?” said Chun, “I turned on my phone, got 100,000 views, and we had hundreds of kids queuing up at our booth.”

After seeing how popular his old finds are on TikTok, Chun said his followers started asking him for a brick-and-mortar store they could visit and buy his clothes. In December 2020, after amassing more than 250,000 followers and millions of views, in January 2021 he signed a lease for a space on Stanton Street. When the store opened in April, 3,000 customers lined up outside.

Chun credits TikTok’s word of mouth for the store’s success.

Low rents have also tempted Leah Gans, 24, to open Les Miss, located on Mott Street, selling handmade and recycled clothing and accessories. “I wouldn’t say it’s affordable, but it is possible for people of our time to do it and start their own businesses,” she said.

Since opening in December, the store has held a variety of events as a way to attract new customers and create a community with shoppers. On Galentine’s Day, February 13 to celebrate friendships between women, Les Miss hosted a tea party. The shop was decorated with red and pink balloons and three-tiered plates serving bite-sized cakes and cucumber sandwiches. For $35, customers can enjoy two hours of tea time, browse clothing racks, and get flash tattoos from a visiting artist.

“It’s not necessarily just about spending money and shopping, but about cultivating that creative experience for young people interested in the fashion industry and interested in crafts or DIY projects,” Price said.

Brandon Zwagerman, director of planning and community engagement for the SoHo Broadway Initiative, a business improvement district, said TikTok’s growth coincided with the end of the pandemic and the social media application attributed much of the recovery to neighborhood retail traffic. “Some of our stores are displaying the viral posts of TikTok creators, or they are publishing their own.”

For Price, owner of Abbode, the expected increase in foot traffic comes as good news as it prepares to launch another branch within its brand. This June, she plans to debut South Houston, her line of coordinated vintage clothing.

“If people like clothes, why not add another type of family or branch to the ABOD?” She said.