💣 Time Bomb Vintage turns 10

The biggest thing Ben Mena has learned from owning Time Bomb Vintage is that, ultimately, running a secondhand store is about managing piles of stuff. The stuff waiting to be bought, waiting to be sold, waiting to be returned to a rack. The stuff you just bought at an estate sale and the stuff somebody's setting on the counter wondering how much you'll pay for it.

Such is life for a peddler of nostalgia: Managing a nebulous supply chain you can only hope to keep somewhat track of, while constantly trying to make the fuzzy distinction between what’s old in a cool way versus what’s old in a junk way. Then finding a place to put it. 

But if the constant churn is a source of headaches, it’s also what has made Time Bomb a secondhand success story. The shop has weathered a move, an ownership change, and cultural tastes that change faster by the day, and is still growing after a decade in business, buoyed by the variety of its offerings and the depth of its bench of vendors. I caught up with the current team ahead of the shop’s anniversary sale on Saturday to learn more about what makes Time Bomb ...tick. (Sorry.)