Clothing store adds barber shop to bring in business

BARSTOW — Mondays are not busy at Shot Caller Clothing, but owner Michael Turner and barber Rodney Woods do not mind.

Sitting on two couches against the wall of the Main Street clothing store and barber shop, the two know that business will pick up, and they are not thinking in just a matter of days.

“In a year from now, we’ll be doing real good,” Turner said.

He said business has steadily increased since the shop opened up in September 2007. The store saw a big bump in business when Turner decided to enlist a few barbers and a hair stylist to set up shop in the front of the store and offer hair cuts, making one of the few clothing store, barber shop combinations Turner has ever seen.

“What makes it unique,” Turner said about his shop, “They can get their hair cut, buy some shoes, some clothes all in one place.”

Turner added the barber shop about three months ago, he said, and since has seen more and more people dropping in for both new threads and a trim. Woods, a barber at the shop, said the two other barbers and hair stylist specialize in shaving designs into customers’ heads. A basketball team on their way to a tournament stopped in one afternoon, Turner said, and the barbers shaved each player’s number into his head. Others have asked for more complicated designs.

“If somebody comes in and they want the sun in their head, the barber can put the sun in their head,” Turner said.

In the front of the store, a shoe rack full of Air Jordans and other designer shoes face out toward the street. Elsewhere in the store, men’s, women’s and children’s clothing hang on racks. Turner said the store caters to teenagers in Barstow who, he said, really do not have many options of places to shop.

Turner has had success in the clothing business before. Before moving to Victorville and opening his shop in Barstow, Turner owned a similar store in Pasadena. He said the store did 10 times the business of the Barstow store, and he is hoping the High Desert’s lack of options will mean big business for him.

Shot Caller Clothing and barber shop
304 Main Street
Open Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4121 or aaron_aupperlee@link.freedom.com