From swap meets to Main Street

John Shehadeh, left, and his 20-year-old-brother Amjad in Subject Clothing and Footwear.

John Shehadeh’s parents came to America from Jordan, seeing it as the land of opportunity. Now he is fulfilling that promise.

Shehadeh, who grew up in Huntington Beach, and graduated from Fountain Valley High School, recently opened his second clothing boutique, Subject Clothing and Footwear at 322 Main St. in Seal Beach (next to the popular coffee shop/eatery Crema Café).

His first one he opened in June of 2009 on Second Street in Long Beach’s Belmont Shore.

The business is a family affair, with his dad and two brothers, Amjad, 20, and Ayman, 14, helping out in the retail business.

Shehadeh grew up working in retail since he was 12 years old. He said he helped his father who made a living for the family by selling clothing at swap meets around Southern California. He also worked for a teenage clothing chain.

By the time he was 16 years old he graduated to having his own stand at swap meets.

“I realized very early that I wanted to go into this type of business,” Shehadeh said. “I like working with clothing.”

“My whole idea was that someday I wanted to open my own store,” he said.

He described Subject Clothing and Footwear as a place where his customers can purchase quality, name brands and trendy clothing at a very reasonable price.

The store has more for men shoppers than most other shops on Main Street, and offers the locals in the surrounding Old Town neighborhood a chance to buy some men’s clothing without leaving the area.

The store also stocks a variety of women’s and teenage goods.

In addition to the demands of heading up the day-to-day aspects of the businesses, Shehadeh is also in his third year of taking business and marketing classes through Orange Coast College.

“I take classes online and I also attend one class for two hours a day every Wednesday at the college campus,” Shehadeh said.

Shehadeh said he hopes to open more stores in the future. “My focus is to open one at a time as each one would become successful,” he said.

He said he is not sure how long his brothers will remain part of his work crew. His brother Amjad is studying finance.  Youngest brother Ayman he describes as the family brain trust.

“He is very smart and gifted and wants to become a doctor,” Shehadeh said with a sense of pride. Shehadeh said he still looks back most fondly to the time spent with his dad at swap meets, when he first was inspired to become an entrepreneur.

“The swap meet lifestyle was good. You start very early but you also get off of work early so you have a night life.”

Running two businesses has proven to be different.  “It’s a year-round business and I’m working 12 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said.

“My dad sometimes like to give me advice, but we never really argue,” he said. “I think it’s very good to go into business when you are young. It is very time consuming. It is also a time of life when you can afford to take some risks.”

Shehadeh said he chose his first store location in Belmont Shore because of the obvious traffic that would lend itself to the store’s success. “I chose Seal Beach for my second store because of the community,” he said. “It is a very tight-knit and special place to have a business.”

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