Massive empty store in downtown SLO is about to get a new business. Here’s what’s coming

The giant former Beverly’s Fabric & Crafts store — which has sat vacant in downtown San Luis Obispo for four years — finally has a new tenant.

Thrifty Beaches, a vintage shop already selling curated clothing and furniture in a much smaller downtown SLO space, appears to be moving into the prominent 876 Higuera St. spot, according to an Instagram post by the business on Aug. 12.

“Wow, this is a really big space,” Thrifty Beaches owner Adam Kemp said in the video, which showed him looking over the vacant 26,350-square-foot retail spot. The post was captioned simply, “HQ.”

Kemp confirmed to The Tribune that Thrifty Beaches would be taking over the spot.

“Yes, I am moving in!” he said, in a reply to a question via Instagram on Saturday.

Beverly’s Fabric & Crafts closed its giant downtown store in 2020 as the business’ family ownership phased out its brick-and-mortar locations. The craft supplies business had operated in San Luis Obispo for nearly 50 years.

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Meanwhile, Thrifty Beaches is a new face in the downtown scene, opening at 1019 Broad St. less than half a year ago .

At the time, Kemp told The Tribune that he wanted to create a space that would “give people what they want.”

“When customers come into the store, they will find something they want,” he said.

And so far it’s been working.

The business opened with block-long lines in March and has consistently since seen customers lining up outside to get their hands on Kemp’s finds.

Beyond its more traditional clothing racks, one of Thrifty Beaches’ more unique features are the “curated bins” at the back of the store meant to evoke the feeling of searching through the giant containers at a Goodwill Bins (also where Kemp got the idea for the store’s tongue-in-cheek name).

“I wanted to make bins full of curated stuff like the Goodwill Bins,” Kemp said in April. “However, I wanted the bins to be curated with stuff that people would actually want. Everything in the bins is desirable.”

Those bins were visible inside the Higuera Street spot on Friday, lined up in front of neat piles of clothing laid across the floor.

An attendant at the Broad Street store on Friday told The Tribune that Kemp was in Los Angeles buying more for the new space.