There’s a party in store for guests who visit Blue Pebbles, and the lively vibe is by design.
“People come in and dance to our music, shop away and have a great time,” says Andy Selders, who owns the South Lake Tahoe store in The Shops of Heavenly Village with his wife, Cassi.
Often, Selders cues up reggae tunes, though he is no control freak. “I want employees to equally have fun, because if they are enjoying their time working here, it rubs off on everyone around them,” he says. The team is very much a family.
“When someone is out sick or has a family emergency, everyone steps up to the plate,” says Selders, crediting the retailer’s cohesive culture to a hybrid Golden Rule and lead-by-example philosophy. “Treat your employees well and they’ll take care of you back.”
Despite perennial labor challenges that many retailers and business owners face, Blue Pebbles maintains a solid team. It’s a business full of families, really. “We have couples who work here, cousins, sisters and brothers in law,” he relates.
Selders says even the Blue Pebbles name is centered on family.
When the Selders’ children Haven and Avalon were young, they called their son Blue for his eyes and their daughter Pebbles after the Flintstones cartoon character with spunky red hair. All four Selders work in the shop, which is a passion project and one of five stores. Three are in Heavenly Village, there are two on the California coast in Morro Bay, along with a wholesale company called Andy Cassi LLC that produces the house brand, Base Level.
“We keep it local, keep it fresh, target every age group and are always creating the next thing,” says Selders of the evolving stock of Lake Tahoe gear.
Made in Lake Tahoe
The Heavenly Village location is an especially sweet spot for Blue Pebbles because of attractions that bring in visitors year-round, from ski season to boating and lake time. “This is where the ski resort meets the party and the beach, and there is a casino district and world-class music across the street from us,” says Selders.
Traffic at Blue Pebbles is steady and bumping all the time.
The Selders neatly stock hoodies on racks in the store, making them easy to find, and mugs lined up on shelves.
This and the incredible naturescape are what drew the Selders to Lake Tahoe to invest in Blue Pebbles, which was formerly a licensed Del Sol shop that sold color-changing apparel.
Selders reports increasing sales by tenfold within a year of ownership. “I was excited to bring in some young blood,” he says, relating that customer service is the key. “We treat our customers like they’re longtime friends, give them recommendations on where to eat and enjoy their time, and we have fun learning about their hometowns,” he says.
Everyone at Blue Pebbles truly enjoys the time they spend with customers, Selders adds.
Aside from its location in the ski-beach-party sweet spot, Blue Pebbles is also a soft spot. A cozy feel is the litmus test for introducing T-shirts, crewnecks, hoodies and sweatshirts — all unisex — into the expansive Lake Tahoe-themed inventory.
Ballcaps along with mugs, keychains and giftware are top sellers aside from the racks of T-shirts that populate Blue Pebbles. All apparel is displayed on hangers. “Hangers are huge to me,” says Selders.
“Folding requires more staffing, and by keeping everything on hangers with clear size markers, our store stays clean and customers don’t have to rattle through 30 shirts to find their XXL,” Selders says.
Selders prefers to arrange displays by product type, grouping together T-shirts, mugs, hats and so on rather than creating groupings of varying items. The departmental approach allows customers to easily find what they are looking for, he says. Most of the time, they enter the store with a buying mission: To find a T-shirt, keychain or sticker.
T-shirts and apparel are top-selling gifts and souvenirs at Blue Pebbles.
The Lake Tahoe stickers by the local company Sticker Pack priced at about $3 fly out of Blue Pebbles by the dozens — and in bulk. “People literally will come in and buy 50 stickers,” says Selders. “They get them for their cars, coolers, laptops and young kids love them, too.”
Custom-designed products that are unique to Blue Pebbles set the shop apart from other tourist offerings.
“We do a lot of our designs in-house,” Selders says of Sticker Pack products and the house brand Base Level apparel.
The local angle is a heavy focus. Selders emphasizes, “We design our Lake Tahoe gear in Lake Tahoe.”
All in with innovation
“I’m always looking for the next opportunity in business,” Selders says, speaking to his stores’ inventory mix and at Blue Pebbles, how he’ll evolve when Target moves in across the street this year. “They are going to smash my swimwear section,” he figures.
Swimwear is big at his other stores but not so much at Blue Pebbles.
The big box entrance into his market isn’t a big deal to Selders. “They are going to stay in their own lane and I’m willing to diversify when the time comes,” he says. “I’ll adapt to whatever situation comes our way.”
The big box can sell paper towels. Selders will offer beach towels.
“If they sell Doritos, I’ll sell granola,” he says. “If they have Coca-Cola, I’ll stock kombucha.”
Selders is no retail novice, either.
Before opening Blue Pebbles, he and Cassi managed shops in Michigan and Colorado. They landed in Tahoe through a retail chain, then began investing in housing properties and renovating places to sell. “We got to know the landlord here and when a spot came up for sale, we acquired it,” he shares.
The Selders have since expanded to the Lake Tahoe-based Beanies & Bikinis and Beachside Gifts in South Lake Tahoe, and Blue Pebbles of Morro Bay and Beachside Gifts of Morro Bay in California.
Indeed, retail is an ever-growing party for the Selders and Blue Pebbles.
He says the shop’s offerings attract guests, but so does the festive atmosphere. “Your products matter a lot, but creating a vibe is equally important,” he says.
The Selders aren’t sure what’s in store for Blue Pebbles next. But whatever that next adventure is, Selders says he will be all in. “I’m willing to take big chances and we are willing to jump off the bridge and see how far we can swim.”
