ROCK SPRINGS — A small thrifty spot opened in Rocks Springs called Home on the Range and Yvonne Melson is more than happy to greet everyone with a smile on her face.
Home on the Range is a newer clothing thrift store that has everything Western and Boho with touches of vintage treasure tucked away. It’s a homey thrift store with no large aspirations but a large heart for its community that now stands in the place of what used to be a Mexican market.
Melson spent her early professional career in the education field and spent some time conducting secretarial duties. She had an itch for shopping, however, and decided that owning her own store front was something she could do. At first, she had a consignment store where she payed customers who bought product in for half of what she sold their item for. It started to fall apart when Good Will came into the picture and, sadly, she had to close her doors due to a loss of profit.
Melson’s inspiration for starting her consignment store was another storefront she often frequented that had the same business model. She had asked the owner about how it was run and decided that she could do it, jumping into the fashion industry with no formal education.
I enjoy putting things together.
Melson to SweetwaterNOW
The kick she got out of seeing customer happily find something that spoke to them was a feeling she missed in her time without a storefront. Yvonne decided to put her nose to the grindstone once again, searching for the perfect spot to put her newest venture. It took a while of hard searching to get her spot in Rock Springs on Broadway but her friends supported her in creating the storefront and helped her move the product in.
“I was hoping to get started earlier,” Melson said, “The landlords redid everything so I was waiting for them to do that.”
Her choice in product was an idea. “Why don’t I try something Western,” she had thought. It expanded from there to her also selling Boho aesthetic products so she had more of a collection. Along with her collection of vintage clothing articles, she accumulated her collection of clothing. Many of her past customers that knew her consignment store came in and asked if they could at least donate more garments and she gladly accepted them. She also finds new items to sell, mixing old with new.
She also sells accessories and a few home good items but finds it difficult to keep the items within the western aesthetic.
When asked how she came to the Western style clothing, she said, “Well, we have rodeos and there’s people with ranches and things like that … And I just thought I would have real nice clothing at better prices. You know, a lot of people can’t afford ‘new thing’ pricing.” A lot of people have clothing that is still good to wear but they don’t wear them anymore.
When asked what Melson would tell other people who want to open their own storefront she said, “You have to have the interest and the desire to do it, then you can really put yourself into it … If you’re not afraid to hop in and go wherever it takes you, don’t have high aspirations of getting rich or something like that.”
Melson wants to continue to take part in community activities like she did with TRN Media’s scavenger hunt. She considers “enjoying people” as part of the job and the Sweetwater County community is part of that. Pay a visit to Home on the Range in Rock Springs between 12-4 pm at 516 Broadway Street.
