About

Hey! We’re Maddie and Christi, the proud owners of Slowpoke Exchange! Here’s the short story: We’re both lifelong lovers of thrifting, and when we were looking for a change in lifestyle we thought…hey, maybe we should try and open a shop! After living in central Vermont for years and complaining that there was no buy-sell-trade shop nearby, we decided to open one ourselves.

Feel like reading a lil bit mo’? Here we go!

Maddie was a public school teacher and Christi was a practicing therapist throughout the pandemic, so obviously we got burnt the-eff-out. We decided to sell everything we owned and take a six-month sabbatical to figure out how to make sure we live the life we want. One part of selling everything was bringing multiple Ikea bags of our thrifted clothing to spots nearby and lo and behold, they bought almost everything! We thought hey, we might have an eye for this. But screw it all, we’re going on a road trip around the Southwest and then heading to South America for four months.

Well, on our road trip, we did what we’ve always loved to do: stopped by every antique/vintage/thrift/charity shop we found! Despite not really being able to buy anything, we found ourselves chatting with the owners and getting to know the business side of these types of places. But whatever! We still had to go to South America and ride our bikes through the Andes.

While pedaling up neverending mountains and bumbling around in Spanish, we couldn’t help but dream about a little store of our own. When we lived in central Vermont, we were always complaining that we didn’t have the type of clothing shop that we wanted within an hour drive.  One with fun unique stuff, quality but affordable, queer and a little fuck-the-establishment-we-can-do-whatever-we-want.

You get the gist.

Well, as the old saying goes, if you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. So upon our return, Maddie enrolled in “Maddie Business School,” taking online business classes and doing all the research one can possibly do while bartending at night. Christi restarted her therapy practice and learned bookkeeping so someone would know what the heck was going on with our new business’ finances.

And whaddya know! Slowpoke Exchange in Barre, Vermont was born! What a joy it’s been.  Come say hi!