Our Daily Show Interview! Summer Fun and Shopping at Mom Said No!
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ALTON - Local stores Mississippi Hippie and Mom Said No are Alton staples for the “weirdos.”
Or so says owner Fred Pollard, who means it affectionately. Pollard opened Mom Said No, a gift shop that specializes in toys and horror collectibles, in 2019, then purchased Mississippi Hippie and its boho clothing inventory in 2020. Located at 300 East Broadway in Alton, the stores have grown in the past year, and Pollard is pleased to see how the local business community has welcomed him.
“Our block is — I always say that it’s where the weirdos like to hang out. And I mean that in the best possible way, because that’s our counterculture strip,” Pollard said. “The guideline that I go by when I’m shopping with a supplier for inventory for the shop, whether it’s clothing or toys or collectibles or gifts or whatever, I just kind of keep in mind, ‘Okay, is this something that I’m going to see at Target or Walmart?’ If it is, then I’m like, eh. But if it’s something really weird that I’m like, ‘Why did they even make this?’ — that’s for my shop.”
Pollard shared that he recently “went a little nuts with tariff panic buying,” so his shelves are currently bursting with new inventory. As a result, he hasn’t raised any prices for his shoppers.
It’s important to Pollard that his shops remain an affordable option for gifts, toys and clothing. He wants new and loyal customers to come by and enjoy what he has to offer.
“I really just wanted to keep our prices as affordable as I could. We have a lot of young shoppers. They don’t have $80 to spend on a pullover hoodie. So if I’m going to be able to get a good deal, they’re going to get a good deal,” he said. “That’s how I’ve operated the business, and it seems to work because I think I have a lot of loyal shoppers who know that I might not be able to charge what Five Below is charging because we’re a small business and we’re locally owned and we don’t get the breaks that they do. But we keep them as low as we can, and it pays off.”
Pollard noted that this loyalty goes a long way in a tightknit community like Alton. He makes a point to refer his customers to other local businesses, and he has been pleased to see many business owners return the favor.
This friendliness and respect between local businesses is unique, Pollard added. He believes not many other business communities have that same bond. He expressed his appreciation for the other entrepreneurs in Alton and his commitment to supporting them.
“I’ve talked to several business owners that have retail shops all across the country, and they can’t believe that we don’t have a lot of animosity, a lot of competition, a lot of backstabbing. We all work together really, really well. Everybody genuinely likes each other and genuinely supports each other,” he explained. “If you work together with your community and with your fellow business leaders, it benefits everybody. I don’t understand why, necessarily, that lesson isn’t more easily learned, but we’ve picked up on it.”
As summer continues, Pollard is looking forward to hosting his annual Grateful Dead Day and bringing a few live music acts to the stores over the next few months. He encourages people to check in with the official Mississippi Hippie Facebook page or the official Mom Said No Facebook page for updates on inventory, events and more.
In the meantime, he hopes to welcome more customers to his shops so he can share his passion for the nostalgic, the silly and the weird with the Alton community.
“My goal when somebody walks in the door is for them to either laugh out loud at something or look at something and say, ‘Oh, I haven’t seen those since I was a kid,’ Pollard added. “If they do both, that’s a bonus. But do either one or the other before you leave the store.”
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