Sitting behind the counter, Derek Lucero is a little surprised to see the woman walking through the door of his thrift store.
“You actually came in,” Lucero says casually.
Of course, she replies. She’s here for a Gucci vintage scarf she saw posted that day on the shop’s Instagram story. And of the handful of people who messaged saying they wanted the scarf, she’s the first to come and claim the detailed light-blue piece.
So it’s all hers.
Inside The Racks, Lucero’s days are full of surprises. Just like customers never quite know what treasure they’re going to find hanging on one of the racks.
You’ll find rows of long-sleeve shirts, but you’ll have to flip through to find a Burberry striped rugby shirt or one adorned with your favorite band or sports team. Also hiding in plain sight are Nike hats, Coach purses, Carhartt jackets, Marlboro bags and Harley-Davidson high heels. As a fun element, each price is written on an old baseball card.
Outside are dozens of pieces of clothes, each for $1. Inside, you might find a $200 Nascar jacket or a $5 shirt promoting New Mexico. And there’s a 1990s Chicago Bears T-shirt that keeps catching eyes. It’s priced for $80.
“That shirt is fire,” one customer comments.
Lucero, 37, opened the original location for The Racks on East Platte Avenue in 2018, after years of selling his thrift finds each weekend at the Mile High Flea Market in Denver. That came after a lifetime of thrifting, simply to find clothes he could afford.
“My family has been thrifting before it was cool,” he says.
It didn’t take long for him to start reselling his finds to turn a profit.
“Poverty,” Lucero answers, simply, when asked what attracted him to what he calls the “craft” of thrifting. “Not having enough money. … Thrifting is a way to help with that.”
With help from business partner Chelsea Drew, The Racks has quickly added locations at unlikely places: two shopping malls in town.
In between department stores and chains, passersby can find branches of the local thrift store at The Citadel mall and Chapel Hills Mall.
“I wanted to see a thrift store in the mall, because thrifting is part of the culture now,” he said.
While most of the stuff is found by Lucero and Drew, all three locations offer a collection of wares from different vendors around the Pikes Peak region.
He says there’s a difference between somewhere like The Racks and donation-based stores such as Goodwill or The Arc.
“This is all hand selected,” he says.
After doing this most of his life, Lucero still loves “the hunt.” And he has an eye for brands, such as Christian Dior and details that reveal value.
“I’m almost obsessed with it,” he said. “I can shop all day. You’re always looking for the next coolest thing you can find.”
And that’s on display at The Racks, where Lucero focuses on items of clothing that feel nostalgic in some way.
“Mostly, I just thrift whatever I like,” he says.
And people like his taste. Lucero has built the business since 2018, when he had just $40 to invest in it and turned that into $2,000, by thrifting, to pay the lease. He plans to keep The Racks growing.
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