Shop Local and Visit Vinyl Cuts

By Natasha LeNeave

Published in

The Herald

4 min readFeb 22, 2024

Living in a small town opens the opportunity to be surrounded by a lot of small, local businesses. Just a few doors down from The BeeVe, is a cute little shop called Vinyl Cuts that is a shopping and retail store. They specialize in custom cut vinyl monograms, logos, and lettering that can be implemented on shirts, banners, home and wedding signs, and store fronts.

They sell everything from fun earrings, cute planters, wax melts, and seasonal decor.

Vinyl Cuts was originally Vinyl Creates and only sold vinyl. The current owner, Ruthie Lawhorne, bought the business in August of 2016 and changed the name and added the gift shop portion to the business. Before buying the business, she was a stay at home mom but started looking for a job once her children were all in school. One day she stumbled into the store and began to help the previous owner with projects here and there. The previous owner decided that they were going to sell the business so Ruthie decided to buy it. Her favorite parts of the business are the customers, the amazing support that she has, and her product sourcing.

Vinyl Cuts sells mostly vinyl and jewelry. They has a wide variety of customers including businesses, race car drivers, parents, and churches. A lot of her customers are regulars. She has noticed that she has been getting more business from college students and their families in the last couple of years. She even has a section of her shop specific to SVU. At one point, she didn’t have sidewalks for 2 months due to the Buena Vista sidewalk program. Her customers would still come even if they had to come in the back door. Vinyl cuts did very well during covid, especially with selling yard signs and custom masks. Another source of business is that there are always new businesses opening in the area and needing signs. Something that she has struggled with lately is that the business has become a little harder right now due to inflation of prices.

Within a small community, supporting local small businesses is a great way to help your community thrive. There are many ways that you can support them. You can shop locally and make a conscious effort to visit local businesses like Vinyl Cuts whenever possible and buy items from them that you would normally buy from larger chains. You can spread the word. Tell your friends and family about the local businesses in your community and share information about them on social media. In conjunction with this, you can leave a glowing review! If you have a positive experience with a local business, consider leaving them a positive review. Doing so can help attract new customers and increase their visibility. You can also consider volunteering your time to lend a helping hand. Vinyl Cuts is open during part of the Buena Vista Farmers Market. Consider attending the event and supporting them and also visiting other stands at the market. The last way that you can support a small business is to engage with their social media. Follow them on facebook and instagram and engage with their posts. This can increase their visibility and attract new customers. Remember, supporting local small businesses is a great way to help your community thrive. By doing these things, you are not only helping the business owners, but also the people who work for them and the community as a whole.