Ace of Trades: 'I found my happy place'
SOMERSET – After years in the corporate world, he found his “happy place.”
“My dad and my uncles were all cowboys,” noted Reid Curtis. “I think my dad was the only man in Seattle who wore a cowboy hat every day. We spent our summers camping in the mountains, fishing, boating, and hunting game and mushrooms. Country western music was constantly on the radio. But I never really knew what I wanted to do when I grew up.”
Today, Curtis owns and operates (Mid)Western Second Hand in Somerset.
“As the owner and only employee, I do it all,” he explained. “I resource the products and sell them via the store or on my website. Luckily, I have some very good friends who help me out when I need an extra hand or two, or when I need to bounce ideas off somebody.”
Curtis, 51, initially grew up near Seattle, then when he was 16 his father was transferred to Juneau, Alaska. He lived there until he graduated high school in 1990.
“While in Juneau I started working at a department store,” he recalled. “Then the evening I graduated high school, I got on a plane and moved back to Seattle. I began college while working part time, but I dropped out of college after a year for two reasons. The school was a waste of money, and I knew I could get ahead faster by working full time in a retail environment.”
He started working at a clothing store in a Seattle area mall. He soon rose to management so that company transferred him to Boston, then San Francisco to join the corporate realm.
“After about eight years of that,” he said, “I was recruited to Victoria’s Secret Corporate in Columbus. I made the big move to the Midwest. Had never been before. I continued working at Victoria’s Secret until 2019. When I departed VS, I was the senior vice president of visual merchandising and operations. A big job. A lot of responsibility. A lot of stress. A lot of employees. A lot of sleepless nights. After 31 years of working in retail for somebody else, I decided I wanted to try something on my own.”
He started (Mid)Western Second Hand in 2020.
“The desire to get out of the city, find some acreage, and enjoy the outdoors was strong,” he said. “As I’ve gotten older, I’m slowly becoming my father. So after about a year of looking around Ohio, I discovered Somerset. I moved to the village full time about 10 years ago. I found my happy place. Thus, the beginning of (Mid)Western Second Hand.
“I wanted it to have a theme,” he added. “Something that felt more like a boutique than a thrift store. So the last question was what type of theme did I want my shop to have? This one was really easy. It had to be Western.”
Customer Sylvia Thatcher likes it just the way it is.
“Shopping at (Mid)Western is an experience,” assessed Thatcher. “Every piece of merchandise is hand selected by Reid on his travels out west and perfectly displayed in the store. He not only has a great knowledge of Western wear, but he cares about his customers. The locals stop by just to say hello or drop off lunch or cookies. Reid is a gem in this community.”
“Owning your own shop has its share of stress,” Reid responded. “But from where I came from prior, this stress is nothing. I work more than ever but it doesn’t feel like it at all.”
(Mid)Western Second Hand is located at 105 W. Main Street in Somerset. For more information, call 740-324-7711 or log on www.mid-western.com.
Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs – whether they’re unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at trnews@zanesvilletimesrecorder.com.
This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: 'I found my happy place'
