Mini-Sode: The Community Shop – A Thrift Store For YAS Work

This is a mini-sode about how The Bar Studio and Bee’s Knees created a Community Shop that turns donated dance and workwear into affordable finds, with proceeds supporting YAS Work. The idea is simple, but the ripple effects are bigger: it helps students, supports sex workers, and gives the studio a tangible way to live its mission. Looch and Sara Bee share how the shop works in person and online, why the model fits their community, and how it inspired adjacent projects like a quarterly newspaper and community-driven wrapping paper.

Looch, owner of The Bar Studio in Bellingham, Massachusetts, explains how the studio became the in-person home for the Community Shop. All proceeds go to YAS Work, making the shop a direct fundraising channel for sex worker stories and support.

The shop started as a way to solve the problem of donated clothes piling up on the studio floor and to create a better, more intentional shopping experience.

00:00 – Introducing The Community Shop and why it matters
01:44 – Looch introduces The Bar Studio and the in-person shop
01:59 – Sara Bee explains her role curating the shop and online collection
02:25 – How the Community Shop started as a solution to donated clothes piling up
03:24 – Sorting, steaming, tagging, and restocking donated items
03:51 – YAS Work as the nonprofit beneficiary
04:10 – What shoppers are saying: audition outfits and baby strippers finding value
04:39 – Monday restocks and the shop’s growing weekly following
05:13 – Online and in-person inventory are intentionally different
05:40 – Price points that make the shop accessible
06:08 – Why people love it: cute, cheap, and mission-driven
06:52 – Full-circle impact for community, sex workers, and YAS Work
08:13 – Living the mission through a shop that reflects the studio’s values
09:41 – Donations and interest spreading beyond the local studio
10:38 – Imagining Community Shops at more studios nationwide
11:21 – The quarterly newspaper and community-written articles
12:19 – Using old newspaper issues as wrapping paper for online orders
12:42 – The consignment model they chose not to use
13:04 – How the donation-bin idea came together fast
13:51 – Their nonstop idea-sharing workflow
14:20 – Where to find Looch and The Bar Studio
14:43 – Where to find Bee’s Knees and what’s next for the brand
15:14 – Closing thoughts and sign-off

Read the full transcript