“Eventually what I’d like to do is since we teach music and art and everything, we should also teach retail,” Cooper says.
“I have always been a thrift-store guy.”
Alice Cooper has just cut the ribbon on Alice’s Attic, a thrift store he recently opened in the same Phoenix building that houses his Rock Teen Center on the southeastern corner of Thunderbird Road and 32nd Street.
“I’m a flea market guy,” he says. “I love going to flea markets and thrift stores.”
So what does he look for when thrift-shopping?
Cooper smiles.
“You never know,” he says. “I wait until something jumps out at me. And usually, it’s something from your childhood. You’re going through and all the sudden, ‘Oh! I had that cap gun! I’ve gotta buy that.’ Or you’ll see a Fonzie T-shirt and go ‘Oh I’ve gotta have that.’ I think there are certain things that turn the corner and become cool again. Like, if you found a Spice Girls T-shirt, that would be cool to wear. But not just that. It’s things that you pick up and think about a friend of yours and think ‘Oh, that would be perfect.’ As a joke or something.”
A lot of the items in Alice’s Attic are from Cooper’s personal collection.
“I’m a shopaholic,” Cooper says. “When I’m on tour, I come home with 10 suitcases full of clothes. So I just go through and say, ‘OK, store, store, store, store.’ A lot of good labels.”
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