Every summer, thousands of college students flock to New York City. Many take classes, most get jobs, and some find internships.

But Beau Wollens, Drew Taggart and Jack Doyle, three Syracuse University juniors, didn’t follow those typical summer paths. Instead, the three friends opened C’est Beau, a month long pop-up store at 55 Delancey St.

‘I’ve been running an eBay store for a couple years, liquidating all the back stock for a bunch of different companies that I met through working at Nom de Guerre,’ said Wollens, a entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises and marketing major, who grew up in New York City and has been working at Nom de Guerre since he was 14. ‘Then this summer they essentially asked me to get rid of over $100,000 worth of clothing, so I said, you know, that sounds like a job for a sample sale, not an eBay store.’

The rented storefront, which the three found on Craigslist, is more of an ongoing sample sale rather than a pop-up store. C’est Beau carries men’s t-shirts, flannels, sweaters and blazers from NY brands Reason, PegLeg NYC, Absurd and Nom De Guerre. The store also features footwear from Nike, Converse, Adidas and Tricker’s London, and vintage sunglasses from Claw Money that include Ray-Ban, Versace and Persol, in addition to Claw Money frames.

Though the three were able to bypass an intern’s life of getting coffee and running errands, turning their idea into reality was far from simple.

‘When we moved down in the beginning of June, we weren’t entirely sure that this was going to happen,’ said Taggart, who is in the Bandier Program for Music and the Entertainment Industries. ‘It wasn’t until about two weeks until we opened that we knew – and then it was like boom, OK, get the insurance, get the spot. It kind of came together last minute.’

Even after finding a spot to rent, the students had to buy clothing racks, tables, computers, credit card systems and their entire inventory. If that weren’t enough, they had to find a way to keep track of their entire inventory and the money they made.

Despite the quantity of work invested in the shop, it has been difficult for the three to see a substantial amount of money brought in.

‘You know it is retail, so there’s only so much profit to make,’ said Doyle, a computer science major. ‘But given the prices and the designer nature of the clothing, a lot of foot traffic has been driven in, especially with the marketing scheme we’ve thought up.’

With their marketing strategy successful, the entrepreneurial trio and their store earned press from NBC, The New York Times and Time Out New York in just the short span it has been open.

‘It just kind of built up and snowballed, it’s been really effective,’ Doyle said.

But if the stress of running a business together isn’t enough, the three also live together – a mere five blocks away.

‘It’s difficult when you’re with the same people 24/7 for two months,’ Taggart said. ‘But it’s been pretty crazy to bond over a business.’

The store closes on July 31, but C’est Beau may not end there – the trio is talking of continuing their success at SU this fall. They will most likely start a sale of women’s clothing, Taggart said, because it will be more marketable than men’s clothing.

‘It was pretty successful so I’d definitely like to do it again,’ Wollens said. ‘I think I’m going to stay away from the online just because face-to-face just works a lot better for me. I hope to do another one of these next summer and continue with the idea of the pop-up shop.’

letousig@syr.edu

Published on July 28, 2010 at 12:00 pm