Clothing boutique reopens in Pahrump

The owner of a new business in town is pleased to have reopened after being forced to close down due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Charles Crespi, a former 17-year aerospace production manager in Massachusetts, opened his business, the Naked Burro, back in March.

Described as a resale clothing boutique, Crespi and his wife, Jen, specialize in a variety of gently-owned clothing.

“There are some newer tags mixed in and we do sell shoes too and a few accessories,” he said. “Basically, we wanted to give our community another place to source and buy gently-used clothes without having to make the ride to Las Vegas. We try to sell items that are a little step up from the big-box clothing stores. We have decent quality brands that are going to last, have some longevity and are still in style.”

Crespi noted that business was good for the first few days after opening.

“The place was brand new and we were trying to get word of mouth throughout the community, so we did a lot of advertising on social media,” he said. “We reopened on May 15th, and things are good and the business is holding its own. The pricing is also very good and we’ve had plenty of repeat customers as well, but we still have people who come in and say they did not know we were here.”

Regarding the closure, Crespi said it was a bit tough to handle for him and his wife.

“We put a lot of money up front to open the business with rent and security deposits, and then it came to a screeching halt,” he said. “We stayed home waiting, wondering when we could reopen the doors and if we could financially make it through this crisis. We were able to, which was very good. When they come in, I tell people there may not be something that catches their eye, but the inventory is constantly changing. Whatever we put out we try to replace, so the next time they come in there might be something that catches their eye. You can’t predict the sales day by day here because some days are a little quieter than others and some days are surprisingly much busier.”

Crespi also said he and his wife decided to move to Nevada roughly five years ago after spending many years in the northeast, where winters can be brutal.

“We landed in Vegas for two years and we have been living in Pahrump for about two-and-a-half years,” he said. “We didn’t like all the congestion and traffic in Las Vegas, so we landed here and we actually like it a lot. It was a little bit of an adjustment for the first few months because I was spoiled by the conveniences of Las Vegas. I like the people here a lot because in Las Vegas, I didn’t even know my neighbors that lived next to me. Out here, I know all of my neighbors and I’ve made a lot of friends. It’s a good community and it reminds me of how I grew up in a quiet suburb of Boston. I like Pahrump.”

Crespi also spoke about the unique name of his business.

“We always get asked about the name of our business,” he said. “We had four or five different names that we were looking at. We considered calling the business ‘clothes-minded’. We also had people open the door thinking it was a Mexican restaurant. We really like the location here. The foot traffic is great being in the Albertsons Plaza, and being between Port of Subs and the UPS Store, the foot traffic here is amazing.”

Aside from closing the business for roughly two months, Crespi said the COVID-19 outbreak didn’t particularly affect him and his wife.

“After the first few weeks, you kind of look for things to do, and there’s only so much Netflix that you can watch,” he said. “I did gain a few pounds. We didn’t know anyone personally who was affected with it. We stayed home and only went out when we really needed to go buy something, so we tried to keep that to a minimum as well. When we first reopened we had face masks on and we have hand sanitizer throughout the store and we followed the social distancing protocols.”

In light of the many social media platforms, Crespi said he preferred not to have a phone at his business, located at 150 South Highway 160, Suite 7.

“We stayed away from a land line here in the store, but we are very responsive,” said. “I’m on social media, and Facebook Messenger is pretty instant. We are open Tuesday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. We are closed Sundays and Mondays, but if the demand is there, we would probably open on a Monday. We also have an email, nakedburro@gmail.com.”

Contact reporter Selwyn Harris at sharris@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @pvtimes