Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
Bringing Together Local Businesses and Neighbors of Tuscaloosa and Northport!
Good Neighbor Podcast Northport
The Shirt Shop: Weaving Dreams into Legacy with Bethany Triplett
As I settle into the cozy atmosphere of downtown Tuscaloosa with the vivacious Bethany Triplett, I'm reminded of the unique tales of ambition and passion that thread through small-town America. Celebrating an impressive 45-year legacy, Bethany, the entrepreneurial dynamo at the helm of The Shirt Shop, takes us on her inspiring journey from a college student to the driving force behind the beloved local menswear institution.
Step inside The Shirt Shop with Bethany and me, Patricia Blondheim, and uncover the rich tapestry of challenges, community ties, and fashion that define this treasured cornerstone of Tuscaloosa. Bethany tells of her early days of skepticism and how she manifested her youthful exuberance into a thriving business. Her candid narratives on expanding the store's offerings to include women's collegiate wear and her tips for juggling the demands of entrepreneurship with sandy beach retreats are not just conversations but a reflection of the undying spirit that fuels the heart of cities like ours. #GNPNorthport #TheShirtShop #ShopLocal #Tuscaloosa #DowntownTuscaloosa #Menswear #GameDay #RollTide #GameDayFashion #menswear #mensfashion #fashion #menstyle #style #mensstyle
This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, patricia Blondheim.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor podcast. I'm your host, patricia Blondheim, and today we have Good Neighbor Bethany Triplett, and Bethany is the owner of the shirt shop in downtown Tuscaloosa. Bethany, how are you this morning? Hi, I'm good. How are you? I'm doing great. The shirt shop is a fixture downtown in downtown Tuscaloosa. Everyone knows it. But. But tell me, tell me about the shirt shop.
Speaker 3:Sure. So the shirt shop. This year we will actually celebrate our 45th year in business. So the original owner opened the shirt shop August 1st 1979. His name is Charles Berlin. He's still a part of our community today. I bought the shirt shop from him actually on Valentine's Day, so February 14th of 22, so I'm about to celebrate my second year of ownership Next week, I guess.
Speaker 3:So the shirt shop is Primarily a men's clothing store. We sell suits, sport coats, casual wear, game day gear. I like to say you know from from the boardroom to the beach, like we can sell, we can, we can close you and everything. We do all of our, all of our services in house. So we do all of our alteration in house, we do all of our embroidery in house, we do our marketing in house. We try to keep everything Very centrally located in the shirt shop. So we are in the heart of downtown Tuscaloosa, on the best corner, on the corner of Greensboro in sixth, which is a really fun spot to be. We get to see a lot of foot traffic. We are really involved with the university. So we're in a pretty good spot starting in our 45th year this year.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's a wonderful spot right down the street from the alamite. It is it it? I think you might not be overstating it. I think it might be the best corner in Tuscaloosa.
Speaker 3:In my opinion, how did you, how did?
Speaker 2:you get? How'd you, how'd you get so lucky, bethany? Tell our listeners about your journey.
Speaker 3:Sure, I like to say it is a lot of a mix of luck and Hard work and being in the right place at the right time. So I started working for mr Sperlin when I was a sophomore in college, and just as a part-time student, just the same way that I have, I think, 15 college kids on staff today. So I started working here just the same way as all those students do, and I was going to school at the University of Alabama and when I graduated undergrad, I finished my undergrad degree in three years and kind of Didn't want to quite be done with school yet but didn't quite know what I wanted to do. So I Decided to work full-time for a year, just while I was in the midst of. Do I want to go back to grad school? Do I? You know, what kind of career do I want? Owning the shirt shop was never on that list, was never anything that I was thinking about. So I just I knew I had a good job and I knew that you know, charles could use the help full-time. So I said, well, I'm gonna do this for one year.
Speaker 3:It was probably in my first Four to six months of that first year of ownership that I really realized Small business is very important. Small business is great for our community. I didn't necessarily I didn't necessarily think that I was going to do small business in the form of the shirt shop. I didn't know that was an opportunity, but I just thought small business in General was somewhere where I wanted to be so, opening my own store or doing something along the lines of that. I was kind of inspired by that.
Speaker 3:By working here, I and then, as I kept working for Charles, our relationship just grew and built and I started just learning from him and he was getting to a position where he was ready to sell the store or step away from the store, in a sense, and I was getting in a position where I was ready to make that step, to do something for myself. And so it really worked out really great for us. We have a great relationship and he really kind of trained me and groomed me for the role and I'm very appreciative of that and I still talk with him and go over day to day operations all the time, just because I appreciate his insight. So then I signed the paperwork on February 14th of 2022 and have been 100% in solo and ever since.
Speaker 2:Well, can you tell us, Bethany, about any misconceptions people have about either your industry or the shirt shop?
Speaker 3:Sure, I think probably for the shirt. The misconception of the shirt shop would be that that it's a little bit more casual, that we only we get that all the time, which I understand. The shirt shop. You kind of think like T-shirts or something like that, and that's definitely not what we are. We are menswear, so we sell suits, we sell sport coats, we sell dress slacks and dress shirts even into casual sportswear as well, which is where the industry is going.
Speaker 3:People are dressing a lot more casually than they are dressing. So that's a big misconception of the shirt shop. But then when they come in and they see all the great things that we have to offer, they buy into the full package and they come in. The other day we had a student who came in and walked out with a suit that fit him, because we have suits that are a little bit more not don't need as much tailoring, they're more geared to students. He walked in, didn't realize that was what we had and needed a suit to wear the next day, which students like to not really think that. Third, all the way, but we are there to be able to help them and so we walked out with it. So that word gets around like that and he tells his friends and tells his fraternity brothers, and it's kind of changing that misconception that we have.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and menswear is changing quite a lot actually, and it's nice to know that there's someone. The shirt shop is local. You've got your finger on the pulse of the needs in the community. But also you're young. Our listeners can't see you, but you're not an elderly person, you are quite young and you also have the pulse. You have your finger on the pulse of what is current right now. So it's not a stodgy, established shop that doesn't move with the times. You've even got your own sock line right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we do a lot of custom pieces that are for us, because I grew with you. I am young, so I do listen to what people need. I hear I'm an owner operator, so not only I mean, I work every day. If the doors are open, I'm here, and I think that's what makes me the best of my role is because I know what the people are asking for and if we don't have it, I try to figure out how to make it. So to me there's a need for women's wear in collegiate, and women's is not necessarily a business that I'm interested in being in, but I could see that there was this need for women's wear for, like, a nice top or a nice sweater that you could wear to a football game. That's collegiate, and so I created those and they have been some of our best sellers. So trying to listen to that pulse is important to me.
Speaker 2:So, bethany, what you've just described is like that's a whole life right there and a half. What do you? Do you ever have time to have fun? What do you do? What do you? What do you do?
Speaker 3:I do work a lot and I enjoy my work. So it's not it doesn't feel like a chore to me or anything like that. I enjoy coming down down every day and joy sing my customers and you know the vendors that I work with but I do definitely take the time for myself. It's If not, you'll go crazy. I enjoy going to the beach. That that's something that I like to do anytime that I can get away. Sometimes I can have my best clarity when I'm outside of the church shop. When I'm outside of Greensboro Avenue I can just think a little bit more clear, and so I enjoy going to the beach. I enjoy hanging out with my friends. I have, you know, a great group of friends and we love to go out to eat and support the local restaurant and downtown. That's always one of my favorite treats. I try to do that with a group of friends at least once a week to get out and support other local businesses.
Speaker 2:Well, what are some of your favorite restaurants to hang out at here down, here in downtown? I'm always curious to know.
Speaker 3:Yeah so my favorite restaurant in town is Chuck's. I think that Chuck's is a phenomenal restaurant. I love the upstairs sushi bar. That's gonna be my favorite Cap secret in Tuscaloosa that now everybody knows about, because you can just walk up there without a you know table or reservation and just be seated. So Chuck's is my favorite. I love five as well same company. So I think five is really great. Melon mushroom is a really great addition that I've been happy that's been added to town so I eat there a lot to Palmas River. I mean I could go on and on Love to eat. So those are all some of my favorite places. I have a list that I made and I give it out.
Speaker 2:You hit a lot of the great.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're my. They're my favorite. I have a list that I give out in the oh yeah, that's brilliant.
Speaker 3:Local places and really it's just my personal list. Like I think next year when I make the list I'm gonna put my favorite dish at each place because it's so personal to my favorites and I love to give that to students and parents who are new to town because you know I'm in local business and I understand how important it small businesses and these restaurants are the same way. So I like to support the local bars, the local restaurants, the other local shops that are in town, and so I made this list and give them out, but they're pretty much all just my favorite places to eat and drink.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I'm all about. All of our businesses here in Tuscaloosa. They are not. They're not competing with each other. It's really a beautiful place. We all want to see each other thrive, and so I think it's beautiful that we have things like lists and things that we share with Newcomers you know our favorite things and that there are so many things here that we can share. I just think it.
Speaker 3:It makes it a unique and beautiful little town and Really, I see that you're all like a line yeah well, it's such a small town with such a big university and so a lot of times you don't Feel like it's as small as it is. But when you take out that you know large university, it is a small town and that's what you feel. When you go to dinner and see customers and see you know Other people that you interact with business professionally, it it's the best town. I don't think I'm leaving anytime soon, ever.
Speaker 2:Well, it's not a hardship to live here, but there might have been a hardship that maybe you encountered in your life that has made you a Stronger person. Can you share that with us?
Speaker 3:um, professionally, I definitely would say that the first six months six months to a year of Buying and owning the shirt shop had a lot of hardships that came along with it, like you had mentioned earlier. No-transcript here. So that is a pretty young age to be owning such an established business. By no means do I think that I'm not equipped for that, and Charles Berlin obviously didn't think that either, because he sold me the store. But it does come with this perception that I'm a young female owning a longtime establishment store that sometimes people didn't care to trade with me. They didn't care to come in and do the business because they didn't think that I knew what I was talking about and I understand that's just a part of life and that's a part of people's opinion and no one has to do business with me.
Speaker 3:So the ones that did choose to stick around and shop with me, and then the new customers that I built I appreciate them so much and the ones that maybe just didn't quite want my help I learned from that and I think that it gave me the confidence that I needed to know that there is a reason why I own the shirt shop. There is a reason why the shirt shop is successful. There is a reason why the shirt shops had more growth since me owning the shirt shop. I think I'm skilled at what I do and I believe it and I'm very confident in that, and so it just kind of ignites me to keep going and to prove everybody wrong who thinks that maybe this was a bad idea. I think that maybe they don't think that anymore, because I'm very much proved to that. I am learning every day, but I do, in the base, understand what I'm doing and have a good head on my shoulders and I'm creating a business for myself and a name for myself.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, charles was and is held in really high esteem here in Tuscaloosa and he would not have chosen you had you not known exactly what it was that he wanted to put forward into. This is his love letter to Tuscaloosa. He's not going to give it to just anyone, but people have loyalty here and that's something that's special about Tuscaloosa and I'm sure that that was misplaced at the time, but it's going to be transferred on to you. People are going to understand who you are and I think they are understanding who you are and what you know, and it's really pretty formidable. It might be in a 30 year old body, but it's a great amount of knowledge and a great amount of skill. What's the one thing you wish our listeners could take away about the shirt shop before we sign on?
Speaker 3:I think that you know Charles opened the shirt shop with the intent of giving really great customer service and really great products at really great prices, and I still, to this day, follow that same mindset and same business plan business model. We have really great products that I work really hard to find and create. We have great conservative prices. You know, we I try to keep my costs low for my customer's sake and then I myself and my entire team of employees at the shirt shop work extremely hard for every customer that walks through that door. We understand the importance that it in a world where you can shop online on e-commerce, we understand the importance of getting up and walking through those doors and shopping in person. We want to serve you for that and appreciate you for that, and we don't take it slight at all.
Speaker 2:Right. I think of the shirt shop as a perfectly curated shop for whatever it is that you need, and I think that has tremendous value and has always had tremendous value here in Tuscaloosa. How can listeners learn more? How can they get a hold of the shirt shop? Beth, beth.
Speaker 3:So you can come see us in our storefront, which is at 525 Greensboro Avenue. We're open Monday through Friday from 8 am to 6 pm. We're open on Saturdays from 9 to 5 and we're open on Sundays from 10 to 2, so we're open seven days a week. We have a social media presence on Instagram, on Facebook, on TikTok, so we're around on social media, so we'd love to be able to help in any way, right?
Speaker 2:Wonderful Bethany. Thank you so much for coming by and sharing the shirt shop with us today. Yes, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast Northport. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gmpnorthportcom. That's gmpnorthportcom, or call 205-809-4910.