Box Lunch pop culture store opens in SLO County. Take a look inside
Twenty years ago, finding merchandise for pop culture phenomena such as anime and comic books used to be difficult.
Valerie Morse, a customer of the newly opened pop culture merchandise store Box Lunch in Pismo Beach, said she’s grateful to have a store in town to fill those needs.
“(My children) were into Naruto and all of this stuff, but it was so hard to find — there was nowhere locally, so you had to go online or go to comic bookstores or the fair,” Morse said. “It’s really cool to be able to go to a store and be able to buy all of that stuff that I knew they wanted when they were kids.”
The store, which specializes in merchandise, apparel and art from popular anime, superhero and pop culture franchises, hosted its grand opening on Saturday.
Manager Victoria Raygada, who previously worked at the neighboring Hot Topic, said that when the space at the Pismo Beach Premium Outlets opened, the company that owns Box Lunch saw an opportunity to open a Central Coast location near Hot Topic, a sister store of Box Lunch.
“I always just like thought it was a cool brand — it’s kind of like the Disney Store, but it’s got more,” Raygada said. “It’s not just one note. It’s got anime, Marvel — all of people’s favorite things. So I just thought that was pretty cool.”
Pop culture fans contribute to food bank
Raygada said Box Lunch’s charitable efforts are a big reason why customers get so excited to shop with the company.
For every $10 spent on purchases at Box Lunch, Raygada said, the company donates a meal to Feeding America on behalf of a local food bank — in this case, the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County, which set up a booth outside the new store during its opening.
Customers can also contribute directly to the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County by rounding up their purchases, Raygada said.
Donations to the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County will continue “year-round,” Raygada said, “but then we’ll have different charities throughout the year. During Pride (Month) we’ll have a different one — they’ve (donated to the) Trevor Project in the past.”
The store will also contribute to the Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective during Black History Month, Raygada said.
Store launches with line out the door
To celebrate the grand opening of the new store, Box Lunch employees handed out mystery gift cards valued between $10 and $100 to the first 50 customers to enter the store Saturday and Sunday morning.
Raygada said the store ran out of cards within minutes each day.
“Pretty much everyone spends their gift card right away,” Raygada said. “Yesterday, we had a line about maybe like 80 people (waiting to get in).”
Kamren Brown, a customer who attended the first grand opening, said he was so excited about the store’s arrival that he intended to visit the next day to try to get on one of the gift cards, which he missed the first day.
“I just really liked the company,” Brown said. “I’ve literally been shopping here for at least two years.”
Two of the first customers to enter the store, Sam Morris and Collin Scott, said they were excited to get a Box Lunch location nearby.
Previously, the two would go as far as Fresno to visit the Box Lunch store there when they were looking for collectibles of their favorite anime series, Morris said.
“(Box Lunch is) a specialty anime store, and we don’t really have many of those in this end of California,” Morris said. “It’s one of those places where, as you can see, many people love anime.”
Morris and Scott came to Box Lunch seeking collectibles for anime shows such as “Demon Slayer,” “JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure,” “Soul Eater” and “Sword Art Online.”
Scott came away with a $180 scale replica of a pair of katanas belonging to the character Inosuke Hashibira from “Demon Slayer.”
Chaz Garza, who came to the opening looking for anime merchandise, said he prefers shopping in-person.
“Shipping and handling is expensive, so might as well buy in person if it’s available,” Garcia said. “I’ve only shopped online, so I like that I can actually be in person, because this was far away.”
Garza’s favorite franchises, such as “Sailor Moon,” “Naruto” and “Demon Slayer,” were all represented in the merchandise, he said, which makes him want to be a repeat customer.
Some exclusive items — such as Funko Pop! figures of Demon Slayer’s Nezuko Kamado, Jujutsu Kaisen’s Satoru Gojo and Dragon Ball Super’s Goku and unique Squishmallow plushies — Raygada said, usually sell out so fast that the store often caps the number a customer can buy at two or three.
Raygada said her personal favorite items at Box Lunch come from their Disney collection, specifically the 1920s era of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Steamboat Willie.
“I mean, Disney raised a generation — every generation was raised by Disney,” Raygada said. “There’s different types of eras of Disney, but they’re all good.”
Morse and her daughter, Helicaa Garcia, said they’d be back for more visits to the store going forward.
“It’s just nice to see that it’s a lot easier to be able to get your hands on some of this stuff, and see what’s going on when back in the day, that wasn’t really a possibility,” Garcia said.
This story was originally published February 22, 2023 at 5:30 AM.
