You never know what you might find at Loot Vintage & Supply

Lori Kaye Lodes

Contributor

February 5, 2024

WAUPACA – Tucked inside a 113-year-old historic building at 219 Jefferson St. in Waupaca, Loot Vintage & Supply boasts a highly-curated collection of vintage and antique home essentials – one that Todd Jones, founder and partner, said is likely to pique anyone’s interest.

“We tend to offer rare and unique items, and our vibe is always changing,” he said.

How it all started

The business got its start in 2016 and established its first brick-and-mortar location in Wisconsin Rapids in 2017.

It moved to the Jefferson Street location in Waupaca in 2019, which Jones said is the epitome of the definition of vintage.

Loot’s 6,500-plus square feet of space, he said, offers a unique retail experience featuring vintage, gathered and found goods and supplies – a warm, welcoming environment that is always changing.

“We are a lifestyle store and not an antique store, as it’s a lifestyle to reclaim, reuse and recycle the past,” he said. “You’ll experience loads of home furnishings, textiles and a beverage (more on this later). It’s unlike anything you have seen in Central Wisconsin, let alone the Midwest.”

Jones said that is partly due to the shop’s ever-changing inventory – which offers an intentional variety of styles.

“It’s not just farmhouse or industrial or mid-century modern,” he said. “Whatever your style is, come on in, and we can serve it.”

The shop is flipped every season, with fall and winter being among the partners’ favorites.

“We love the buildup from fall to January with the Christmas season and a lot of rich textures and neutral colors leading up to Christmas,” he said. “Christmas (at the shop) is like ‘A Wonderful Life’ coming to life – festive and with lots of holiday spirit.”

Jones said the shop’s vast selection of items are also carefully staged in the roomy retail setting, which he said is like walking into a living room.

Patrons, he said, are handed a free cup of Home Grown coffee and encouraged to meander the store. 

“We receive a lot of compliments on it, and in two areas: ‘wow, I love how you market and stage,’ and the other is, ‘I never thought of doing that with that item,’” he said. “Our ideas are free. We like showing people how to use items that may be laying around in a barn, basement or attic differently. We travel a lot and are all over, and we haven’t seen anything like what we offer in those travels.”

In addition, the shop has home decor, home essentials, apparel and several of the store’s own product lines in its Home Grown collection – including natural cleaning products, a 100% organic soy candle line, organic and fair trade coffee, textile and linen line, as well as furniture design using old items and materials a new life.

“We offer the (products) we use in our own homes,” he said. “For example, the cleaning line was formulated in-house. A common theme for Loot is we are environmentally conscious – we don’t want to impact the landfills any more than they already use.”

Lifelong passion

That mindset, Jones said, harkens back to the beginning of his journey with Loot, even as far back as his childhood growing up in Kansas.

Describing himself as a lifelong collector and curator, Jones said he was often found pulling his little red wagon down the train tracks and filling it up with found treasures.

Jones said he eventually graduated to a bicycle, yet the passion remained as a side hustle entailing driving back roads and knocking on doors to do what some people have witnessed on TV shows as “picking.”

As he grew older, Jones said he entered the corporate world, running Silicon Valley technology companies.

He had contemplated moving to South Carolina to pursue a different path but said a work trip to Madison changed that.

“I walked off the plane in Madison and said, ‘I’m home,’” he said. “I never went back. I canceled my (South) Carolina plans, sold my house, wrapped up that Madison project and began the transition to Loot full-time.”

A few years in, in 2018, Jones said a chance meeting with a customer and her husband led to them joining the business as partners – Ryan Zwicke and Heidi Zwicke.

Jones said he credits social media and the shop’s website for its recent growth and evolution – now shipping items to 30 states.

“We have to be intentional about traffic to continue to grow, especially since I want to expand to multiple locations in the future in other parts of the country,” he said.

Complementary venture

In addition, Jones said he has been working with several partners on a new and complementary venture called REVOLVS – a business focused on deconstructing historic homes and commercial properties board by board, brick by brick, with the intent of reclaiming, reselling or recycling 95% of the materials.

“It’s an early startup, but there is a lot of cross pollination with Loot since the materials we are handling include vintage and antique materials – (such as) antique wood flooring, trim, moldings, fixtures, windows and even appliances,” he said.

Jones said the venture will serve as a source of items for the store in the process – something he said bodes well both for that retail setting, as well as Loot’s wholesale side of the business.

Through that arm of the business, Jones said he sells to designers, interior decorators, etc., and also offers some of the store’s Home Grown line for wholesale with private labeling.

As the owner balances the two, he said he’s invigorated by the opportunities in front of him.

“I’m blessed to live my dream life and to do what I do every day (with my partners),” he said. “This is what I dreamt of as a child. I live off Main Street in the historic district with the lake on one side and the downtown on the other, and I get to soak it all in. Loot is aligned with our vision for what we always thought it could be, and we still have a lot of growing to do.”

For more on Loot Vintage & Supply, visit lootvintageandsupply.com.