REGINA - In about a week, a new clothing store will open in Regina, which will be owned by a mother and her daughter.
Chantal Pasieka and her daughter Kylie Pasieka are opening up a new Plato’s Closet franchise in the city.
The pair had always dreamed about opening up a business. When she was younger, Kylie remembers playing with toys and dolls as a kid, enjoying running her Barbie toy store.
Despite knowing she wanted to run a business, Kylie was not sure about the type of store she would want to own and operate.
After finishing school, Kylie came back to Canada, where she started working as a manager of Plato’s Closet in Saskatoon.
Working there for years, Kylie felt like she wanted more. She described herself as a person who always had big dreams and wanted to push herself to obtain them.
Kylie and her mother, Chantal, always spoke about wanting to try to open up their own business. Chantal had been working for a credit union for over 30 years and was open to trying something new.
After the pair decided to start a business, they went through potential ideas. "We had thought about opening boutiques. We went like looking into opening other stores. We even went so far as to see like, oh, would Saskatoon use like a Zara or something like that," said Kylie.
One day, Chantal’s husband suggested to the pair to open up a Plato’s Closet in Regina because the city didn’t have a store.
The pair thought the idea would work out great, and they decided to submit a franchise forum to the company that owns Plato’s Closet.
While the process of obtaining a franchise did not take long, the pair were struggling to find a building to rent out the property.
Multiple leases they had signed fell through, leading to months of searching. Chantal described herself and Kylie as "being concerned and worried" that they would not find the right place.
The pair one day decided to grab a coffee, and Kylie saw a building across the street and thought it would be perfect.
The building at the time was not up for lease until one day, the realtor the pair was working with contacted them to say it was available. After looking inside the building one time, the pair knew it was the right fit and decided to take it.
Since getting the lease, the building has been undergoing a makeover for the past few months. Kylie called all the work "mentally exhausting," as both she and Chantal constantly work over 12 hours. The two split the workload and responsibilities. Kylie, for example, handles the training and marketing, while Chantal handles the finance, papers, and books.
Another key element Plato’s Closet Regina has been doing to get ready for its opening is accepting clothing from customers to prepare for its opening.
Because the store is taking in items that can be reused, the pair mentioned how over 13,000 items have already been brought by the store, saving thousands of items from ending up in a landfill as of Jan. 1.
Kylie mentioned how some people have told her they normally throw away their clothing once they're down using it, which bothered her a bit.
She mentioned how if a person is getting rid of their clothing, they can earn a few dollars by bringing it to the store.
The way Plato’s Closet works is they buy clothing from a person at a certain price, or a customer can trade in their clothing to purchase items in the store.
Clothing purchased from customers is then sold for up to 70 per cent off the normal retail price, according to Kylie. The store will also do clearance sales, up to 90 per cent off on clothes. The items that don’t get sold after a few months will be donated to the Salvation Army.
Seeing all the hard work they put in as a family is something Kylie said she loves, while Chantal pointed out, "how often do you get to work with your daughter 24-7."
Plato’s Closet Regina will officially open Jan. 16 at 10 a.m. The location of the store is 450 Albert Street North.
In terms of the opening, Chantal said, "we are anticipating it's going to be busy. I'm not really nervous at all. Mostly just excited. Yeah. Mostly just excited because we've been waiting for this moment for literally two years, and it's like, oh my gosh, it's actually finally here."
