Today we’d like to introduce you to Azucena Barrios
Hi Azucena, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My name is Azucena Barrios. I grew up in a small town in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico.
In the 1990s, I emigrated to the USA as a teenager and settled in Southern California.
I met the father of my three children, and we got married. We lived with very limited resources, and since my children were small, I couldn’t take on a conventional job.
So with $300, we decided to go to the Outdoor Swapmeet at the old Valley Drive In Movie Theater in Oceanside,CA in the early 2000’s to see if we could make some extra money.
We started off by selling toys and some other items every weekend. We experimented with what could sell. What caught my interest was my younger brother’s fashion style (Mexican American / Chicano Style). I then started to notice others dressing like him, so I decided to focus on selling clothing with that style in mind.
Customers started returning for more merchandise, and it eventually led us to getting a small space at the Mission Tianguis (Indoor Swapmeet) in Oceanside, CA.
We ran both locations for a while, before settling in and fully working from the Indoor Swapmeet.
As time went on, we made the decision to find a new location within Oceanside. We were fortunate enough to find our current location before the Indoor Swapmeet officially closed in 2019. This is where our business, California Style Clothing, now operates from.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Moving into the Indoor Swapmeet in 2006 was very intimidating. My family helped us set up our new space, and once we were up and running, we only made $20 on the first day we were open. Doubt started to settle in, thinking we had made a mistake taking on this new idea. But we continued on because there was nothing else to do but to move forward.
Another notable struggle was when the Indoor Swapmeet shut down in 2019. Our initial plan was to have our Indoor Swapmeet location remain open while we setup a new location outside of the Indoor. We eventually found the location we are located in today and started to plan out the space. But while we were planning, we got word from the managers that we only had a few weeks to move out of the Indoor.
It was a very stressful time for every business owner there. We all had to move everything on short notice, make plans for our futures, and say goodbye to a location that we had called home for so many years. The Indoor Swapmeet’s location is now a UEI College.
Once we were setup into our current space in October of 2019, we once again ran into the same doubt because our first day open was not successful.
But we continued forward. Our business eventually started to gain traction in the upcoming months. We started to feel more comfortable in the business continuing on, but the Covid-19 pandemic happened, and all nonessential businesses had to close down. We were tremendously worried because of the health risks to everyone, and for our own futures.
Masks became a necessity for day to day life at the beginning of the pandemic, and new social standards were set to maintain spaces clean and sanitized to prevent spreading diseases. Learning this we started to implement changes to maintaining our store clean, and we started focusing on selling masks.
At the time there was a huge demand for masks that hit society all at once, and there was a delay for big companies to start producing masks at a larger scale. Because of this, there weren’t many options for people to get masks. So we started making our own masks made from the materials of the garments we were selling. By selling masks, we were able to stay open.
We did have one complaint where someone had called the police on us because the person who called believed us to be a nonessential business. The Oceanside Police Officer came in to ask why we were open, but once we told him about the masks, he smiled, understood the situation, and told us to have a good day.
After the pandemic, the business started growing to a level we weren’t anticipating it to grow to. Our regular customers from the Indoor had found us, but we had an influx of new people who had never gone to the indoor start shopping with us. With the growth, comes a bigger responsibility in managing this business.
Managing day to day operations can be a struggle. There’s a lot of moving parts when it comes to a business like this (inventory, staff, production, operation costs, item pricing, etc), and it can be overwhelming.
I never learned how to run a business or intended to run a business like this, so it is all a learning process.
There have been instances where customer interactions were not great.
We learn from the interactions where we ourselves haven’t been the best at handling, but we move on from the instances where we get threatened, called demeaning things and called racial slurs. It’s not a great experience, but we can’t linger on those moments for too long. We just have to continue doing our best for the majority of the customers that enjoy shopping with us.
Other challenges that arise from this business is dealing with thieves. Thieves are unfortunately a part of the retail industry and it has been something that we’ve had to deal with since the Outdoor Swapmeet. It is not a great feeling knowing that we work day in and day out only for some one to come into our location and just take things. We don’t want any of the thieves we’ve encountered returning to our stores, but we do hope that they eventually make a change in their life for the better.
A recent business challenge we’ve encountered is the current state of the economy.
We’ve been doing our best since the days at the Outdoor Swapmeet to provide reasonable pricing for the products we sell, but the economy in the last few years has changed the way our brand partners price their items. Increased costs in production and shipping brought on by the pandemic, as well as inflation, has us navigating new waters in maintaining our business. These are factors that are not in our control so we hope this improves overtime. But for now, we will continue to do our best.
The process of having this business has also been difficult because, as a family, we’ve missed out on important moments trying to build and sustain this business. We’ve missed out on holidays, birthdays, family dinners, cultural traditions, and family traditions.
We can’t go back in the past to change how we handled our time, so we’re looking to improve how we operate to be able to some time for ourselves outside of the business in the future.
There have been a lot of challenges and lessons, but we do the best that we can.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about California Style Clothing LLC?
California Style Clothing is a minority (latin) owned, women owned, family owned and operated retail clothing store focused on casual wear, work wear, and street wear.
We are known for the style we offer, as well as offering custom t-shirt printing.
We are most proud of the representation we bring to this business and our customers. We’re proud to be a Latin-American business offering a California and Latin-American inspired style to our customers.
On top of providing brand names like Pro Club, Dickies, and Ben Davis, we also offer our own branded t-shirt line with designs under our California Style Clothing name, as well as our new brand called Stilow Originals.
Stilow Originals is the name of our clothing brand, as well as our second location within Oceanside, CA. We offer the same brands at Stilow Originals as in California Style Clothing. Stilow Originals also offers beauty accessories.
What matters most to you? Why?
Independence and control. This matters because it allows you to manage your own schedule and have control over your earnings, giving you the freedom to decide how much you want to make.
Something else that matters to me is our team.
Each and every one of our team has brought their own unique experiences and helped guide me to make changes that I may have not done on my own. They help me with our daily operations, and I am forever grateful for them and their help.
Another thing that matters and I’m fortunate to have are my children.
They have helped me and the business for the majority of their lives.
My eldest son, Jose Soto, has been helping us since we were selling at the Outdoor Swapmeet: he started by selling toys and helping out where he could (like setup our space, or take care of his infant sister).
My younger daughter, Daisy Soto, and youngest son, Benji Soto, were with me the years that we began growing our business at the Indoor Swapmeet. Daisy was a toddler when we moved in there, and Benji was born while were doing business there. Both of them basically grew up at the Indoor.
Jose is an artist who is now in charge of branding and overseeing our merchandise designs, and everything related to the professional side of the business.
Daisy has an entrepreneurial spirit who is now focused on our business’ customer experience and constantly looking for ways to improve our business. Both Daisy and Jose have both done photography work for our business and social media, and developed ideas for our designs together (example is our “After Laughter” Stilow Design). Jose has also worked as our in house t-shirt printer as well.
Benji is currently still in school, but he loves our business and we’re grateful to be able to provide for him.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://californiastyleclothing.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/californiastyleclothing?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/californiastyleclothing
- Other: https://www.instagram.com/stiloworiginals
Image Credits
Jose Soto
Daisy Soto
Azucena Barrios
283 Studios
