This is not your average thrift store

Galvanize, a local vintage store located on The Avenue in Hampden, is owned by local cool-lady and savvy businesswoman, Joelle Kutsiukias. A native of Roland Park and a Hampden homeowner for 26 years, Joelle became involved in the vintage clothing business in1996 after a 24-year stint as a career-waitress. She began that first year with a small, rented corner in the storefront that she has since christened with the characteristically-edgy and funky name, "Galvanize." In 1998, she bought the whole store and today, has filled both its upstairs and downstairs levels chock-full of one-of-a-kind treasures. Her store is a hidden secret that many Hopkins students don't know about, a heaven for tag-sale junkies who enjoy the thrill of the hunt and a godsend for everyday customers who just need a show-stopping outfit for a theme party.

Amid the glittering racks of clothes and cases of costume jewelry, sits Joelle, who clearly loves her work. According to her, "It's the only job I've ever had where I can whistle all day and no one tells me to stop."

One look at her bustling store brimming with racks and racks of clothes, and it's obvious why she's whistling. Joelle brings in her haul from liquidated estates and local, charity thrift stores like Salvation Army. She is also known to go on buying trips up and down the East Coast, traveling as far as Atlantic City, N.J. for the catch-of-the-day, constantly rotating new merchandise onto the racks displayed on the main floor.

Galvanize's uniqueness comes from its eclectic collection of everyday wardrobe pieces, one-of-a-kind costume garments and accessories that are of only the highest quality, all sold by a friendly owner whose service to her clientele is above and beyond the everyday. This sets Galvanize aside from other thrift stores in that, as the sole buyer and employee, Joelle has personally inspected every item she has in stock and knows exactly where everything in the store is located. Her insistence on buying only top-quality and vast personal knowledge only comes as an immense advantage for her customers. Not only is every item in top shape, leaving the cigarette-burnt and pit-stained items to other less-prestigious stores, but in addition, Joelle is a veritable wealth of knowledge. While browsing the store, I overheard her expertly direct a customer looking for a costume "either disco or glam rock" to the proper racks and casually rattle off a litany of disco accessories scattered about the store, including a collection of Afro wigs. She explained that her busiest time comes at Halloween, but that, year-round, a large percentage of her clientele shops for costumes, often for retro-themed parties. In fact, she offers a discount to any customer shopping for a theme party costume, a feature both Galvanize customers and Hopkins students find especially appealing.

"You can feel uneasy about buying clothes for a theme party if you know you're only going to wear them once," said sophomore Liz Schlicher. "But the discount is great encouragement to not only buy crazy outfits, but to throw more retro parties, knowing people will be more likely to go all out."

Unlike a regular thrift store, but in true, small, local business fashion, Joelle makes her niche in catering to her customers by offering unique features such as the theme-party discount. However, a significant part of her business is also in serving people who enjoy an everyday wardrobe accented by vintage pieces.

"Students often come in to browse and end up buying accessories like a purse, a scarf or a hat and simply become hooked on the unique items and cheap prices," said Kutsiukias.

She keeps a Wish List behind her register where she records customers' requests for specific items that she then keeps an eye out for and puts aside for when they return. She will even reserve items without being asked, a special service which goes along with being one of her regulars that she knows by face and taste in style. She says 80 percent of the time, her picks are right on target and her regulars will snap them up. It is this demographic of regulars that Joelle happily reports has been increasingly made up of Hopkins students for the first time in the six years that she has been in business.

Just a short walk through campus and a cut through the BIA fields west onto 36th St., which becomes "The Avenue," at the intersection of Keswick Ave., and you are at your one-stop-shop for unique, hard to find items like Hawaiian shirts, Levi's Jeans and Cords in 501 and 517 style from $15.95 to $24 all in A-1 shape, men's derby hats, a great collection of men's polyester shirts and plaid pants, a basement full of ladies clothes for 50-percent off and even house wares and furniture. Sophomores Seema Kaura and Eleni Wolfe-Roubatis agree that Galvanize is very easy for Hopkins students to get to and each has found a certain facet of the store that they like best.

Kaura highly recommends Galvanize, touting it as "an amazing collection of one-of-a-kind, vintage '40s and '50s dresses made by couture dress makers that surprisingly lend themselves to being worn to any kind of formal."

Wolfe-Roubatis finds that Galvanize is also "perfect if you want a different winter coat, more distinctive than your average pea coat. It's always nice to be easily identifiable from across campus."

There is truly something for everyone at Galvanize, if not just a friendly chat with Joelle, who is a slice of local color cut right out of her tasty treat of a store.

Galvanize, located on 927 W. 36th St. in Hampden, can be reached by phone at 410-889-5237 and is open Friday from 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and Sunday noon-5 p.m.