Goodies LA - Curated goods under $25
Image Credit - UncoverLA.com
Affordable, minimalist, marble, leather, and wooden goods,: some of my favorite words all in one and sentence and now, TWO shops in Los Angeles. Goodies LA, the sunny yellow shop brightening everyone’s day with not just the color scheme, but the price tags of EVERY SINGLE ITEM under $25. (Ok they do have a chair or two pricing over $300 but EVERYTHING else is under $25, promise.)
What started in April of 2019 in Atwater Village, has successfully grown into an additional location on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica. A mostly upscale and expensive road, Goodies gives the innocent bystander a break from the large price tags and a respite inside with the most aesthetically pleasing display of quality goods.
What will you find under $25 here? Practically everything your kitchen and home decor dreams could ask for. Marble coasters, wooden pizza board, ceramic jewelry dish, leather keychains to name a few. What’s more inspiring than the chic, minimalist vibe of the store? Founder Rhea Carlisle’s story.
Born in a small province in the Philippines, Rhea moved with her mother in the first grade without knowing a word of English. Having landed in one of the poorest cities in America in Texas, Rhea accomplished the age old rags to riches story. Interior designer to the wealthy 1% in Los Angeles, her American dream story started to deteriorate through drug abuse and mental health problems. Having enough wherewithal to see she needed to change, Rhea booked a 10 day party trip to Thailand that quickly extended itself 27 days at buddhist temple.
There she went through the buddhist journey of practicing noble silence, sans electronics, the clothes she came in with, any pens or paper or anything else that would distract her from this almost 3 week journey into silence. It was in this place she unlearned the thinking taught to her by her immigrant parents to just land a stable job and not expect more from live, given where she came from. It was there she overcame her drug problem and gained a new mindset of possibility that ultimately led to the concept store, Goodies. And why the yellow color for her brick and mortar locations? A nod to the buddhists’ marigold colored robes in the temple. A little taste of her 27 day transformation here in Los Angeles.