Our Story

That Shop is an Australian, family owned, small business offering vintage inspired clothing and accessories sourced from across the world and brought together to create a unique store concept that we are very proud of.

Ours is truly a family business. While you will at times find me in the store, the majority of my time is spent choosing the stock and doing all the behind-the-scenes work required to run our business. I have my office and store room at my home. I work on displays, I love to chat to customers and I am most often the one you will talk to if you call to purchase, use the online chat or send a facebook message. My husband is a retired carpenter and the reason we have been able to fit out and maintain our  many stores over the years. All five of our children have been or still are, actively involved with the business on a daily basis, sometimes paid but most often for the love of the family! My daughter Kristy handles the social media, pays the wages and keeps me sane all while juggling her nursing career and family life with her hubby and three gorgeous children. Timothy and his wife Lisa are my go to IT and graphic design gurus (you can thank them for initially pushing me to finally get this website off the ground), Nicholas and Dominic have both had their time at the sales counter as well as handling back of house duties in the past, and are always there to help when Mum needs a hand, while my youngest, Jonathan is currently employed to manage and maintain the website. 

In store and online, we strive to offer exceptional customer service coupled with extensive product knowledge and individual styling advice.

At That Shop we believe in honesty. We won't tell you something looks good, just to make a sale. We want our customers to turn heads and receive compliments out in the real world. We want you to look great and feel confident. We want you to come back to us, because you love what we do and you love how it feels when you wear our clothing.  We dress women of all ages, and try our best to offer a broad range of sizes.

HISTORY

'From small beginnings come great things.'

During the 80's I had my own children's wear label that I sewed myself and sold at markets. It was very well received and quickly grew to be more than I could handle. As a mum of two little ones, I could not keep up with the demand and be the mum I wanted to be. So I packed away the sewing machines and told myself that one day I would return with something that I resold rather than made. Several years and another three children later, during a family trip to Sydney, I fell in love with what was on offer at their markets - so much unique stuff that we just didn't have on the Gold Coast!! I knew I needed to bring it back, and share it with everyone.

So together, my husband and I, with our five children in tow, started doing market stalls on the weekends. Yes! That Shop originated as a humble little no-name market stall, and grew from there. Fast forward eight years, and that little market stall had evolved into a much larger market stall. We had moved away from using distributors and were now successfully sourcing and importing our own unique stock, we were wholesaling to others and had a power seller eBay page and busy webstore well before it was the norm.

In 2004, it was time to make the leap into a real bricks-and-mortar store, and we found our home in James Street, Burleigh Heads. That Shop was officially born. Loving the face-to-face interaction with customers, we closed our webstore and concentrated on building our business in the real world instead.

Slowly we evolved opening stores at Byron Bay, Coolangatta and Woolloongabba in Brisbane, proudly employing fabulous staff that shared a passion for providing exceptional customer service along with personal styling and fit advice to our customers.

The world of retail was changing around us and we had to evolve with it. We closed some of our stores and opened an online store. We recognised that customers were time poor, they wanted to shop online or shop in a convenient location where they could get everything else done at the same time. Customers wanted us within major shopping centres but knowing that our business model did not afford us long term leases in major centres, That Shop Pop-Ups were born.

In 2014 we were approached by Robina Town Centre management to open a short term/pop-up store within the centre. We went in on a 6 month lease and left over five years later!  In the five years we were there we popped up six different times in five different locations throughout the centre, ironically the very first store we moved into we ended up back in five years later!

In 2017 we opened at Westfield Garden City and stayed within the centre for over 12 months. The updated business model was proving successful and it was time to say goodbye to our shopping strip stores in the suburbs to embrace and build on our online presence and shopping centre Pop-Ups.

September 2018 we opened a new Pop Up at Westfield Carindale.  We spent close on three years in the centre, moving out in late July 2021 having been in three different locations during that time.

September 2019 we opened a new Pop Up at Tweed City Shopping Centre, closing it at the end of January 2020 to take a break during the slower part of the retail year. 

Then COVID happened...... and the world of retail was turned on it's head again!  We were down to the one store, the Westfield Carindale Pop Up.  We soldiered on through several lockdowns and kept our head above water due to amazing staff and the fabulous support of our loyal customers both in store and online.

End of June 2021 we got notice that our store in Westfield Carindale had been permanently leased and no replacement store was available to move directly in to. A lot of soul searching had to be done, and quickly! My immediate reaction was to chase down other centres to see what they had to offer as a Pop Up location but nothing felt right. For the past 7 years, albeit with a lot of hard work, we had no issues seamlessly moving from one space to another. What was the universe trying to tell me!

I knew I was feeling burnt out.....although they served us very well, keeping my business viable through tough retail times, and I have absolutely no regrets, Pop Ups are physically and emotionally tough! The constant physical set up and pack downs, the heightened fight or flight anxiety that comes with never quite knowing when a phone call would come saying it is time to pack up was taking it's toll. I had to consider the obvious, was this a sign to close up and just go online? And then it hit me.....

No! It was time to return to strip shopping! A permanent home where we make our own rules and know we are there for as long as WE want to be! And so the search began.....I knew what I wanted and I just had to find it. I live in northern NSW but I knew the store had to be in Brisbane, that was a given. I would commit to continuing to travel back and forth. I knew the store and street had to have an abundance of character but most importantly, it just had to feel right. It's hard to explain but listening to and respecting that gut feeling is what has seen me survive in business for over 17 years. I did my research and inspected several stores, in several suburbs, and none of them felt quite right.

Until.......my manager Emmi and I literally stumbled across 289 Given Terrace, Paddington. It took me less than 20 seconds to know that this would be our new home!

We have come full circle and are absolutely loving being back in a suburban shopping strip surrounded by other fabulously unique small businesses. 

Karen x