Red Dirt Emporium opens in Bricktown
Red Dirt Emporium opens in Bricktown
October 4, 2007
OKLAHOMA CITY – An Oklahoma-themed gift shop opened in Oklahoma City’s Bricktown, but don’t come looking for kitschy souvenirs like rubber tomahawks or gaudy Oklahoma key rings.
What visitors to the store will find are food products made in Oklahoma, native pottery, Route 66 items and one corner of the store devoted to Oklahoma City-based rock band the Flaming Lips.
In late August Chad Huntington opened Oklahoma’s Red Dirt Emporium at 115 E. California Ave., in about 1,200 square feet in the Miller Jackson Building, on the canal level in Bricktown.
Huntington is also general manager of Water Taxi LLC, which operates water taxi rides along the Bricktown Canal. He said he saw the store as a way to complement the water taxi business and offer a specific Oklahoma-themed retail option in Bricktown.“
I knew that it would take a pretty good time commitment and it would be a major undertaking to do the store,” he said. “But I also saw how it might integrate with Water Taxi and the two could benefit one another.”
Water Taxi employees staff the store and sell tickets for taxi rides at the counter.
The store is open seven days per week from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. As the winter months approach and the taxi business slows, Huntington said the hours will probably change. The store had a soft opening, but now Huntington is hoping to get the word out and define the store as more than a souvenir shop.“
We’re very much Oklahoma-specific with this store,” he said. “We try to have a real varied, eclectic mix of products that appeal not just to visitors but to locals and really tell Oklahoma’s story.”
Oklahoma brands such as Prairie Gypsy’s food items and Frankoma pottery are available in addition to Route 66 merchandise, T-shirts and coffee mugs specific to Oklahoma.
One area unique to the store is the corner devoted to the Flaming Lips.
Huntington keeps a loop of Flaming Lips videos playing in the store, and said the band, in many ways, was the motivation to open the store.
After backers for a project to get an alley in Bricktown named for the band jumped through several hoops, the City Council approved the measure in December.
As a member of the Bricktown Association board of directors, Huntington was called upon to make a case to the association and to the city that the alley should be renamed. When the measure was approved, Huntington said he considered opening up an exclusive Flaming Lips store. After discussions with the band’s management, the idea shifted to an Oklahoma music store, and finally to the idea of the gift shop with a focus on local items and music. Huntington said he hopes to eventually stock the catalogs of significant Oklahoma recording artists. The store offers a replica of the Flaming Lips Alley sign for $25. The sign was produced by the band’s label, Warner Bros., and is available exclusively at his store and at the band’s Web site.
Another motivation to offer gift items was the lack of shopping options in Bricktown. Huntington said the water taxi staff sees people from out of state, and from other countries, on a daily basis who want to take home a memento from their trip.“The number one complaint people have with Bricktown is ‘where’s the retail?’” he said. “People are down here ready to buy things and they specifically are interested in buying something that represents their trip to Oklahoma.”
The Journal Record
Originally Posted by metro
I spoke with the clerk for a while and recommended they add a local artists section for music lovers. 
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