New things have never interested Marsha Rish.
Rish, the owner of the vintage department store Honeymoon Bungalow Collection for more than 16 years, sells items dating from the ’20s to the ’70s, specializing in the ’50s and ’60s.
Rish said she liked older things as a child, and the Bungalow is the perfect place to showcase her love for vintage finds. Customers won’t be able to find the items the store sells at any mall or in mass production.
“I’ve always been attracted to old stuff,” Rish said. “The whole thing about something that’s old is that someone else cared enough about it to keep it, even though it may be a little bit chipped or dented.”
The shop is arranged into departments, with the items filling the space as if it were a house and they are part of a set. There are areas arranged to look like a living room, den and study.
Despite being a vintage store, the Bungalow attracts patrons of all ages, including LSU and Southern University students.
“Our customer base runs from blue-haired high school kids to blue-haired grannies,” Rish said. “We offer something different that will fit their needs at a price they can afford.”
Rish said sometimes younger customers don’t understand the vintage store, and they’ll ask her if they can get an item in another color or size. She then explains that the item is special and one of a kind.
Besides catering to customers, Rish said giving back to the community and supporting local businesses are her most important tasks.
The Bungalow has spawned two local businesses — both Time Warp Boutique and Atomic Pop Shop are owned by former Bungalow employees.
“Part of my mission is to encourage small business ownership, and I am proud of the accomplishments of these former staff members,” Rish said.
She said community members are drawn to the store, including her own employees.
Bungalow assistant manager and library and information science graduate student Sara Harrington came to the store to pick up a Mother’s Day gift and asked Rish if she was hiring. Rish said yes, and Harrington has been there ever since.
“It’s unlike anything else you’re going to find in Baton Rouge,” Harrington said. “We get a little bit of everybody in here.”
To help out customers and community members, Rish uses the Bungalow’s Facebook page like a website, providing information about flash sales.
For Rish, giving back to the community doesn’t stop at people.
The Bungalow encourages customers who own cats to get coupons for pet spaying or neutering from Spay Baton Rouge to be used at any vet in town. If the cat owner brings Bungalow the bill, they will be reimbursed up to $45.
Rish even took in the store cat Ruby, a black tabby with green eyes who has since become a hit with the customers.
The Bungalow also receives attention from locally shot movies and TV shows. Rish said once set designers see what the store has, they pounce, purchasing mass amounts of items for set pieces.
“The first movie we ever worked with was a Billy Bob Thornton movie, and he bought something from us for Angelina Jolie,” Rish said.
The item he bought Jolie was a strange doll, Rish said.
The show “The Astronaut Wives Club” was one of the most recent to purchase set dressing from the Bungalow.
Even though the movie industry pays a high price for set pieces, Rish said she chooses to focus on the customers because they ultimately fuel the store, and Harrington echoed these thoughts.
Harrington said no matter a person’s age, sex, race, sexuality or political affiliation, the Bungalow has something for them.
“We think of this kind of like foster care for stuff,” Harrington said. “Because this is all stuff that people loved, and it was special to them at one point or another and it’s made it this far.”
Harrington said she hopes to take care of the items, give them new life and then let them go home with special people who will continue to care for them.