Today we’d like to introduce you to Maridee Dangcil.
Maridee, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
The Yarnover Truck has been in business for over four year – opening in March of 2013. We are your local yarn boutique on wheels. The Yarnover Truck is open most Wednesdays through Sundays and is in a different location every day. You will find us at craft fairs, street fairs, farmer’s markets and every major fiber festivals throughout Southern California. We partner with small businesses such as other yarn shops, wineries and breweries plus host some of our own events. Our focus is working with small indie business, in both the yarns we carry and with the businesses we partner with.
Our 107 square feet of space is small but mighty and loaded with yarns primarily in natural fibers including wool, cashmere, silk, linen, bamboo and cotton. Our specialty is hand-dyed yarns and we work with several local dyers who are based in So Cal plus dyers from Canada and across the United Sates. Since we move a lot, we reward those customers who find us with several products that are sold exclusively on the Yarnover Truck. We have specially dyed colors of yarn plus a full line of project bags in fabrics that are only available on the Yarnover Truck.
My business partner Barbra Pushies and I met through our weekly stitching group and in 2012 I was thinking of making a career change and was looking to open a yarn shop. Barbra was working with several of the local yarn shops helping them with their social media in Los Angeles so I ran my idea past her. She was chatting about this with a group of co-workers she was teaching to knit at her day job and one of them suggested we open a truck based business instead of a brick and mortar. Barbra did a bunch of research and sent me a super long email and at the end she suggested we becoming business partners. Through her research she had found an association of mobile retail businesses that was based on Los Angeles and the truck that had started the association was open that night. We went to check it out and the Yarnover Truck was born. We opened our shop 8 months later
Has it been a smooth road?
All new businesses have struggles. Our biggest one has been, and continues to be, where to bring the truck to best meet our audience. We are very lucky that there is a very strong knitting and crocheting community in Los Angeles who are also adventurous. Many people have become loyal customers and friends and are willing to follow us to all the new places we find to bring the truck to.
The other big struggle has been managing inventory in such a small space. When we first opened we tried to have a little bit of everything for everyone. That just didn’t work in our 107 square feet. It has taken some trial and error but we have found our grove in specializing in hand-dyed yarns and featuring the work of smaller independent dyers that you won’t see at most of the other yarn shops in the area.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Yarnover Truck story. Tell us more about the business.
I am most proud of the fact that we have remained in business for as long as we have while lots of other mobile retail business have come and gone. We have a very strong customer base all over Southern California. We also launched a Yarn Club in 2016 where people join in and pay a monthly fee and get packages sent to them with specially dyed colorways of yarns, new knit and crochet patterns plus fun little extras. We have almost 100 people currently in our club and will be opening up membership again in June 2017.
I think the biggest thing that sets us apart is that we bring products and independent dyers that other shops are not carrying. When you visit the Yarnover Truck you always see something new and different.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Our industry has been contracting recently which shops closing or changing ownership in the past couple of year. We have continued to be successful through this down turn because we are so different and carry unique things. The yarn club was a great addition for us and we will be continuing to offer this to our customers along with bringing on new dyers as we find them.
Pricing:
- Most of our hand dyed yarns range in price from $20 – 40 per skein
Contact Info:
- Address: We are mobile and always open in a different location so this is simply our mailing address:
Yarnover Truck
531A North Hollywood Way, #129
Burbank, CA 91505 - Website: http://yarnovertruck.com/
- Phone: 818-394-0551
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yarnovertruck/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YarnOverTruck/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/YarnoverTruck
Image Credit:
Yarnover Truck
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