Shawn Beach started at USC as a business student, but found his passion through his current retail major. A third year student from Columbia, Shawn became interested in starting his own business during his freshman year. “I started feeling just bad about where my life was going… like I was just going through the motions. Winter break came around and I woke up one morning with a sick idea and kind of molded it all together over the next few months.” Shawn’s idea was to create his own online thrift store, Dope Junkyard. The Junkyard sells “unique and very limited thrift items and brand new items from designers” that are priced anywhere between $5 and $85, depending on the item.
Though the Junkyard is only a year old now, Shawn’s success has given him the opportunity to travel to places like Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York in order to promote and manage his business.
Shawn shares that his next big venture is what he calls “Lenny’s Junkyard”. Lenny is the tiger-man icon seen on dopejunkyard.com. Shawn explains that “Lenny’s Junkyard is basically a whole interactive world…Dope Junkyard is just one part of the world and there are other hidden buildings and ideas in Lenny’s Junkyard that will be unlocked as they are released.” The hidden buildings in Lenny’s Junkyard will be icons that take the viewer to another site. As to what types of sites these will be, Shawn plays coy and says we’ll have to wait until they’re released. We can expect to see Lenny’s Junkyard, as well as one or two of the hidden interactive sections of the website sometime this year.
Shawn has furthered his knowledge on the retail and business worlds by utilizing the USC retail department, in addition to his newfound connections. Shawn explains, “I always tell myself no advice is useless advice. My teachers and administrators in the retail school are extremely supportive and always tell me where to go to find anyone I’m looking for.”
Even with the retail school behind him with his business, Shawn finds that his other support systems include his friends and mom. “She has raised me by herself my entire life” he shares.
Whether Shawn is in class or working on Dope Junkyard, he makes sure his mom is taken care of.
With balancing school, family and a blossoming business, Shawn recognizes that he sometimes exhausts himself. But he finds that the foundation of his personality helps him thrive as a young entrepreneur. Shawn says, “That ‘big kid’ imagination along with the perfectionist mentality and the faith I have in God and myself are…why stuff like this all comes together and happens.”
