Iconic vintage clothing store Cheap Thrills changes hands after 22 years

Cheap Thrills

Staff photo

An iconic vintage clothing store known as the go-to place for costumes in Fayetteville is under new ownership.

Cheap Thrills changed hands last month after owner Harriet Wells, who opened the store 22 years ago in downtown Fayetteville, sold the business to Pennsylvania transplant Audri Thomason.

Wells, 61, recently told us she was considering either closing the shop or selling it to someone a little younger and “more computer savvy.”

“To do retail these days you have to be on Facebook, and you have to do Instagram,” she told us. “I’m not really a computer person.”

Beefing up the store’s online presence is on the top of Thomason’s to-do list, according to a recent article in the Arkansas Traveler.

“We’re going to kind of ‘new’ it up,” she said.

Thomason also plans to clean out the upstairs of the building to create a workshop for alterations and repairs to vintage items, and increase the store’s costume selection.

Thomason officially took over the store on April 25.