A 'Thank You' letter from the owner - COVID 19.

Hi Friends, 

I wanted to take a moment to write a thank you letter, to all of you, because the only way we survive this situation, pandemic, time period (…nightmare?) is with your help. 

The amount of support we have felt and received over the past week has been heart-warming, to say the least. Heck, it got to the point where I started crying on my personal Instagram stories because I truly cannot believe the amount of people that have rallied around me, us, and the shop. I am 25 years old and my friends are of similar ages. I make mention of this because a lot of them don’t have large dispensable incomes, but here they are spending their hard-earned money on the shop’s website. Then there are the insta-story reposts, emailer campaigns, person-to-person conversations, and more ways (I’m sure) that they’re using to support us & spread the word that we need help now more than ever. Small businesses will only survive this with the help of their customers. Honestly, we may only survive by the creation of new customers. We know that this virus has affected everyone - some harder than others - so we know that some of our customers can’t support us right now, and we completely understand that. We don’t want to see anyone struggle, but here we are… struggling with you. 

I’m not sure if this statement has ever been more true: the struggle is real. If you notice the only other blog post that I have on here (“Why we waited to sell online in an online world.”) talks about selling online and why we waited to do so. I have never wanted to hug my past self more than I do right now. I want to hug her because we had this site waiting for us when all of this happened. We have a way to operate our business in a world where you are being told to stay at home & indoors. We have a way to make money. We have a way to try and weather this storm. This doesn’t mean the last week hasn’t felt BANANAS. Every day it was, “get as much on the site as you can - go go go!” Then it turned into, “don’t bombard the people… do it in batches!” AKA do as much as you can, but not too much. Long story short, I’ve kinda felt like there was no winning all week long, but then on Thursday there was this moment where I got multiple orders (each one w/ a note from the customer, saying thank you or “I love you” or “you’re doing great!”) and again I wanted to cry. I wanted to cry because it gave me hope. It gave me hope that we will get through this and that we will be stronger for it. If this situation has taught me anything, it has taught me that adverse moments promote strength. Challenges promote creativity. Struggle promotes comradery. This community, Riviera Village in particular, has come together in a way I never thought imaginable. We are all struggling, but we are all doing it together - and in that tragically unfortunate circumstance, we see the most beautiful forms of kindness. 

So, thank you. Thank you to our customers. Thank you to our supporters. Thank you to our community. We are going to survive this. Our business is going to survive this. But, we really can’t do it without you. Unfortunately, we don’t really know how long this is going to last, and I think that might be one of the scariest parts. We don’t know when business will go back to “business as usual”. We don’t even know when “life” will be business as usual. These are unmatched times. We’ve watched sports be cancelled, entire seasons post-poned, schools go to online, colleges sending their students home, huge events re-scheduled, and business after business shut their doors. I can’t help but say that my heart goes out to everyone because this virus and this situation has affected every person in some way. But I do ask this: consider your situation. Consider that some people may need more help than others. You’ve seen the tweets that have gone viral, the memes that warm you heart, and the videos of pure acts of kindness. We need more of that. If anything, may this crazy time remind us how much we are capable of, how easy it is to be nice, and how fortunate we really are. May it allow us to appreciate more. I know that when this is all over I will not be the same person, and for the better. Trying times make for better humans, and I believe that. 
We will never stop saying thank you to our customers. We will never stop working hard and doing whatever we can to be here to serve you. I know that may sound silly because we sell clothes, swimwear and apparel for a living, but we sell so much more than that. Believe me or not, but we do. We have built a community of women - women who are honest, hard-working, and down-to-earth. We have tried to foster acceptance in being comfortable - who said fashion has to be uncomfortable? Who said finding a swimsuit to feel confident in has to be near impossible? Who said shopping has to intimidating? Who said women have to keep pretending that they aren’t TERRIFIED to go into a dressing room with a bikini? We are here because we get all of that. We are here to sell a lot more than clothes, and I hope that if you’ve shopped with us than you know that. We have met more amazing women in the last 2.5 years than I ever could have imagined. I consider myself so incredibly lucky, and I know my mom does too. Our lives are forever changed because of this 1,097 sq ft rectangle and the community it’s in. So on that note, thank you Riviera Village and thank you to the South Bay. Our little slice of heaven has never felt as heavenly as it does right now. The sun is shining and the support is over-flowing. If we keep it up, we will all get through this. 

Stronger united. Better together. 

We love you all, and we will be forever grateful. 

All the love, health & sanity, 
​Claire