February 6, 2017

Meet Tamara Houghten of Shout and About in Echo Park

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tamara Houghten.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Tamara. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
After moving to Los Angeles a few years ago from San Diego and studying design, opening a retail shop the features quality, well-designed products became a dream of mine. When I settled in the neighborhood of Echo Park, while there was so much that I loved about it, I found that retail shops to pick up an affordable gift were few and far between. In early 2015 a perfect little space opened up and I seized the opportunity. In June 2015, Shout and About was open for business in a row of other small businesses that I feel perfectly encapsulate so many of the things that I love about the neighborhood & the people who live here.

Has it been a smooth road?
As any retail shop owner will attest, operating a brick and mortar boutique is not without its challenges. Some struggles that I have faced have included the high initial cost to open up a shop and the continued upkeep of the space itself. That being said, there are a plethora of things that have made owning & operating Shout and About so enjoyable, that they easily outweigh these struggles. This includes curating product from a wide range of different designers & brands, merchandising this product in a fun way and continually coming up with new ways to engage with our community.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Shout and About is a very small shop, but what it may lack in size, it more than makes up for in personality. I am incredibly proud of the array of designers that we represent and whose products we are able to feature in our displays. I am continuously searching for products that are exciting and new, fit within our aesthetic, and are within a reasonable price point. Social media has been a wonderful resource for discovering new designers and brands, as well as spending a great deal of time visiting trade shows, blogs, and Pinterest. This ongoing evolution in what we feature and how we present it is what I feel sets us apart from other shops.

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
Los Angeles is a large, vast city, which makes it ideal for businesses like Shout and About. There has been an ongoing trend towards neighborhoods creating their own identities to set them apart in the city and finding one that ties in with your same aesthetic & caters to a demographic similar to your own, leads to a perfect starting point for building a business. If someone is interested in starting out in Los Angeles, I recommend that they start by really honing in on who their customer is and then seeking out these customers to find an ideal jumping off point. As I’m sure any resident of our city would agree, I believe that improving public transportation will do a great deal to help us to improve so that businesses can become accessible to more people.

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