Vintage Style: District Vintage Shops Under Fire

Alright, style lovers, particularly those of you who are DC-based. Your favorite shops need your help.

Note: this is a crazy week for me at the #dayjob, so I’m just going to share the please Susie Saadian, owner of Black-Eyed Susie, sent to CapFABBers. She summarizes the issue clearly.

Image via Black-Eyed Susie

From Susie:

“I want to reach out to you all and let you know about some difficulties your local DC secondhand shops are experiencing. Last month DCRA and Metro Police raided a few Adams Morgan secondhand shops; Meeps, Idle Times Books, Smash, Treasury, and Goodwood. These stores are and have been operating under a General Business License. Some businesses have been operating with a General Business License for 20 or 30 years and are now being told they need a 'pawnbrokers' license to operate in the district. This change of license means that all secondhand shops will have to go through many hurdles to operate legally. Some hurdles include itemizing all inventory and sending the information to a detective in the pawn division to approve of the new inventory, wait times on when new merchandise can go out, and a lot more paperwork.

We are trying to get signatures to help us when we go to our council member to change the requirements. Please pass around this information to your followers. Worst case scenario is that your favorite secondhand shop will leave the district or close up all together. Best case scenario is that you will be helping out these secondhand businesses and help to ensure our place in the city.

Here is the link to the petition https://www.change.org/petitions/dc-city-council-stop-treating-record-stores-and-vintage-stores-like-pawn-shops

Here are some links to other articles about this subject


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/06/adams-morgan-business-licenses-secondhand-dealers_n_1406082.html?1333730965
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/17/adams-morgan-petition-vintage_n_1525373.html
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/general/2012/04/12/dcra-lightens-up-on-record-used-book-and-vintage-shops/  
 
Thank you for the support,
Susie Saadian
Owner, Black-Eyed Susie”
 
Now, my stylish friends, act.