SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Jake and Rebecca Patterson own Happy Hour Vintage in Syracuse’s Eastwood neighborhood. The secondhand store, with low-cost clothing, books, and vinyl records, opened in March 2024.
“We source vintage clothing. We’re not just buying from one place. We source from all over,” Jake Patterson said. “We have to find stuff people want [and] get it at a price that’s affordable so people can buy it.”
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Eastwood vintage store owners balance ownership with the classroom
Joseph Duffey: Welcome back to NCC News at 4:30. Well, you may have heard of happy hour with food but not many have heard of happy hour for retail. I had the opportunity to visit a couple’s low-cost vintage store in Eastwood — the only neighborhood clothing store when it opened — and how it teaches aspiring business owners to chase their dreams.
Joseph Duffey: On the corner of James Street and Stafford Avenue, Happy Hour Vintage sells secondhand items. Co-owners and married couple Jake and Rebecca Patterson, opened the store in March 2024.
Jake Patterson: We want anybody that comes in this store to be able to find something that they like and walk out feeling, you know, excited and happy.
Duffey: The Pattersons’ story is unique. They have teaching backgrounds. Jake was formerly a teaching assistant at Salem Hyde Elementary and Rebecca, a Syracuse alumna, is in her 18th year as an art teacher at North Syracuse Central Junior High.
Rebecca Patterson: Just having an artistic background in general – aesthetics, and visual, you know, having things look nice visually – are things that come naturally to me, I think, I hope. We’re decorating, we’re curating clothing and all of that.
Duffey: The Pattersons were inspired to open the shop after visiting Portland, Maine’s walkable secondhand stores, but to launch their store, they had to work around their full-time teaching schedules. And running a retail store while educating wasn’t easy, but they were made for it.
Kara Abuhashem: They’re friendly, kind, all the things that would make a great small business owner.
Samantha Prossner: It’s really nice to actually walk into a vintage shop that isn’t trying to charge an arm and a leg for your basic for, you know, your basic t-shirts and what not.
Duffey: Fightime time was their biggest challenge in ownership, but putting their dreams to action has made them…happy. Joseph Duffey, NCC News.
Duffey: Jake and Rebecca, now boasting 3000 store followers on social media, plan to launch a retail website so that customers can have affordable items shipped to their homes. Now, let’s ship it to Matt Davison for sports.
The couple met 18 years ago after Jake’s band played at the original Funk ‘n Waffles spot on Marshall Street. Their shared love of music led to their next chapter.
In October 2023, on a three-day road trip following Portland, Maine band Weekend Friends, the Pattersons toured Portland’s secondhand stores.
“In Syracuse, it’s kind of hard to find somewhere that’s like a walkable shopping area where you can just park your car and….go into different things like a record store, book store, or clothing store,” Rebecca Patterson said. “The vintage clothing store, in particular, is just something we’ve always been very interested in.”
However, there was a challenge in fulfilling this idea — time management. They were teachers. Jake was a teaching assistant at Salem Hyde Elementary School in Syracuse while Rebecca was teaching art at North Syracuse Central Junior High School.
Nonetheless, they bet on themselves. Once their current building was up for lease in February 2024, the store opened in March 2024. The store’s name comes from those select hours in their busy schedules.
“Work-life balance was pretty tricky. When we first got started, we were both working full-time,” Rebecca Patterson said. “We were trying to basically work around those hours so that’s how we got the hours that we did.”
They still find the time to teach the next generation. Jake attributes his inclusive attitude as his best attribute that he has carried from the classroom, and Rebecca’s art background is apparent throughout the store’s layout and decoration.
“Just having an artistic background in general — aesthetics and visual, having things look nice visually — are things that come naturally to me,” she said. “We’re decorating, we’re curating clothing, and all of that.”
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, secondhand clothing store shopping accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially with Generation Z and millennials. More Americans spent time at home cleaning out their closets and buying used clothes because of economic strain and inflation.
Online resale stores have surged in the apparel market and select resale stores sell high-end goods with the usual finds at a traditional thrift store.
Samantha Prossner, a first-time shopper, admired how affordable the Eastwood store was.
“Fast fashion is not my jam. I like finding stuff that’s made with real materials and not just entirely made of plastic,” Prossner said. “It’s really nice to actually walk into a vintage shop that isn’t trying to charge an arm and a leg for your basic t-shirts and what not.”
The U.S. Census Bureau reported the Syracuse median household income as $47,819 in 2024. Affordability is crucial for the Pattersons, but their store’s demographics vary.
“There’s a lot of locals that walk in from young families to elderly people living on their own,” he said. “That’s why we made it a point to try to offer price points for everybody. We have dollar items, five-dollar items, ten-dollar items, and then we have really nice, expensive vintage, as well.”
The store’s social media following boasts 3,000 followers combined on Instagram and Facebook. The business has never run at an operating loss. However, the rewarding journey has been far from easy.
“Retail is tough. It may [be] in the same month you feel like you’re doing great, and then, you just have a week or two that slows down,” he said. “Also, with the economy being so unstable right now, it’s really hard to get people out with expendable income. You have to create a product that people want to spend with what little extra income they have.”
The next goal for Happy Hour Vintage’s co-owners is online retail that ships to Central New York and across the United States. They believe small business owners can move past their initial fear if they are willing to put in the work.
“There was always a fear of starting a business because it seems like there’s going to be a lot of red tape,” he said. “Understand that there is going to be a huge time sacrifice, especially in the beginning, but you don’t have to know how to do everything right away. You just have to be willing to do it.”