Key Points

  • Shannon Lindgren Murtha founded Last Stop Antiques Shop last year, selling online and hosting private pop-ups at her home, sourcing from church rummage sales in the Bronx and Westchester.
  • On September 25, 2025, she held a pop-up at her Fieldston, Riverdale home, showcasing silk dresses, sequined tops, and vintage paintings.
  • Startup headwinds come from rising costs—she says many customers entered a "summer of saving" over the past few months, but she expects holiday-season sales to rebound.

In the Riverdale area of New York, secondhand shopping isn't exactly convenient, and that became Shannon Lindgren Murtha's entry point into the market. After 12 years in corporate consulting, she switched careers and founded Last Stop Antiques Shop last year, selling online day to day and using a spare room in her home to host private pop-ups. Her merchandise spans clothing, furniture, home goods, and accessories, sourced from church rummage sales in both the Bronx and Westchester. In June of this year, she also set up a booth at the Cravings and Crafts farmers market, and she plans to take part in more markets in the future.

On September 25, 2025, a few neighbors walked into her Fieldston home, touching silk dresses, sequined tops, and vintage paintings—a pop-up she was hosting for Last Stop Antiques Shop.

Her choice was directly tied to family considerations. As a mother of two young children, frequent business travel made her miss many of her kids' milestones. A few years ago she faced a choice: keep climbing the corporate ladder, or pour her energy into her children and community. She ultimately chose the latter, joining the P.S. 81 parent association and the Community Education Council for District 10.

The seeds of the secondhand business sprouted at home. In 2016, she and her husband moved into a townhouse in Riverdale; when they moved again in 2024, much of their furniture wouldn't fit in the new home. She started using Facebook's "Buy Nothing" groups—where neighbors give away items or services for free. Wanting to sell her furniture, she created the Last Stop Antique Shop website in September 2025, then began buying items she thought others would like for resale.

Riverdale was no stranger to her—her family has roots there going back three generations—though she grew up in a Boston suburb. Her parents were frugal and often shopped at yard sales. After earning her bachelor's degree and MBA, she moved to the Upper West Side, helping companies improve operations by introducing new technology or changing workplace culture, with her core work being tailoring strategy to each company's situation—something she says she was very good at. More than a decade later, she applied a similar approach to the secondhand business: staying closely attuned to community needs.

"The more we look for customers, the more we understand what they're looking for and what problems they run into, the better solutions we can offer," she said.

She describes her taste as "where whimsy meets practicality." Before leaving her job, she either wore business attire or leggings, with no middle ground; after leaving, she had to ask herself, "What is my style?" Now she's passionate about helping others answer that question, while also reaping the satisfaction of "conscious consumerism." "You can look good... and still be a great, capable mom."

Lindgren Murtha says she's appalled by the environmental damage, clothing waste, and labor exploitation caused by fast fashion production. She also points to the gap in quality between clothing from 25 years ago and today's garments—old clothes always feel better in fabric, look better, and hold up longer.

There are costs to entrepreneurship too, mainly rising expenses. She says that over the past few months Last Stop Antiques Shop could have held more pop-ups, but for many people it seemed to be a "summer of saving"; after talking with neighbors, she felt people had no appetite to shop, and she hopes that changes as the holiday season approaches.

She doesn't miss the corporate world. The shop and her role on the education council let her use the same skills she honed in corporate work without having to present a filtered version of herself, and they let her empower other women. "One of the benefits of doing your own thing is that you can be yourself without apology," she said.

For the secondhand clothing and resale industry, this case shows: community-oriented secondhand sellers are entering urban service gaps through online platforms plus private pop-ups, relying on church rummage sales and neighbor-to-neighbor circulation for sourcing, while consumer sentiment and holiday rhythms still directly determine their operating pace.

Source: From corporate consulting to vintage finds, Riverdale mom launches Last Stop Antiques Shop - The Riverdale Press · Originally published 2026-10-02