158 IN STORE
Like a Colourful Bird Moho/St. Gallen. In the swarm of the same old brands and department stores, the store of Sandra Schmitter in St. Gallen’s Old Town is a real eye-catcher. It’s cheerful, casual, and it has - by local standards - a truly exotic product range. Text: Dörte Welti. Photos: Dörte Welti, Tobi Siebrecht
Actually, the most complicated part was finding a name. “I had them all working on it friends, family, and colleagues”, the young store owner Sandra Schmitter remembers. “I only knew that I wanted it to be a bird name.” One of them was a natural fit. In the end it was her sister who came up with the Hawaiian moho. “A name is like a tattoo. It stays with you forever”, Sandra says. In contrast to the moho by the way, which became extinct because the residents of the dream hunted the birds down to use its beautiful plumage for the splendour robes of the rich. Perched on a Niche
Sandra Schmitter equipped her store with a cool lounge area that makes it a pleasure to linger a little longer.
In St. Gallen, in any event, the moho is still thriving. Just six months after opening Sandra had to ask her landlord if she could have more space, double the space if possible. The landlord, who runs the neighbouring furniture store, knows how persistent his tenant is. She had even badgered him for the initial space until he finally gave in. Why did it have to be exactly that space? “He is a customer of Freitag bags”, the 33 year old, who was a wholesaler at the Swiss bags label in Zurich for four years, explains. “I’ve always loved his store; it is in the perfect location at the end of the trendy St. Gallen shopping mile.” When Schmitter wants something, she is fully committed to getting it, especially when it has to do with her store concept. St. Gallen has a colourful retail environment, but customers can mostly only find mass-produced goods or high-end boutiques. However, the mid-price range for customers who are willing to spend a little (but not too much) money, who value something special, who purchase sensibly, and who don’t want to see the shirt they just bought on everyone roaming the bustling alleys of the university city is near to non-existent. Because She Can
Whoever visits Moho, knows 314 style in progress
there’s not much time to grab that special dream item. “I only purchase two or three pieces per size”, Sandra Schmitterer explains. This creates exclusivity and increases the number of regular customers. They are generally between 25 and 35 years of age, which is the dream target group of every store owner. St. Gallen may be a university city, but the students have money to spend, mainly because the living costs are so much lower than in Zurich. The urban people also know that Schmitter finds out as much as possible about the production conditions and social responsibility of the brands she stocks. However, those brands are still not too expensive. Shirts cost no more than 30, 40, or 50 Swiss Francs, while jeans start at
as little as 60 Swiss Francs. It’s always a challenge to find such brands, Schmitter mostly finds them at trade shows. As the sole owner of the store she cannot travel as much anymore, which is certainly difficult for someone who was initially trained in the tourism industry. However, she cannot (yet) afford another full-time employee to assist her. Schmitter is not a fan of seasonal fashion anyway. “For Moho I look for pieces that can be worn in both summer and winter”, the commercial studies graduate explains. “I see fashion as a circle where everything fits together perfectly.” During her time at Freitag, she also learned that the recycler of truck tarpaulins does not have particular summer or winter trends. Nevertheless the
