Snapshot: Wacko Remains a Local Staple – Los Angeles Business Journal

Soap Plant/Wacko, an eclectic gift shop in Los Feliz, feels less like walking into a store and more like entering a wonderland of artistry.

Shelves overflow with novelty toys and trinkets, deliberately unsettling objects, and niche literature. A few steps deeper, past the sensory overload, La Luz de Jesus Gallery is in the back, anchoring the space in fine art even as the front of the store revels mostly in pop culture.

In a city where independent retailers disappear almost as quickly as they appear, Wacko has endured for more than five decades – turning eccentricity into a business.

“To be still going after 54 years is hard to comprehend,” said Billy Shire, owner of the shop, which he started as a soap plant in 1971 and evolved into a gift store by 1980. “People come in and thank me just for keeping it going – and that can be a chore. But what else am I going to do?”

Through the decades, Wacko shoppers have found just about everything from organic soaps and leather works to pop culture-inspired items. Shire emphasized the store’s commitment to non-commercial, provocative art, despite the challenges of commodification.

“Everything gets commodified,” Shire said. “I like to think of my store as the antithesis to commodification, but it all gets diluted.”

At 74, he’s quite candid about the physical and emotional toll of running an independent business for more than half a century. He highlighted the impact of higher U.S. tariffs on pricing, and the importance of community events and digital advertising. Wacko’s success is attributed to its unique, diverse product offerings and its role as a cultural hub in Los Angeles, he said.

It all began with soap.

“It was as close to organic, natural, recycle – bring your own bottles – as you could get at the time,” Shire said, adding that the early business of Soap Plant reflected the environmental and craft-based values of the early 1970s, but it was also deeply personal. Shire sold his own leatherwork, his brother contributed ceramics, and the store operated as a family endeavor.

By 1977, Shire began expanding beyond soap. He added gifts and other visual novelties, and the store slowly became a main attraction. In 1984, Shire officially opened Wacko as a separate store because “Soap Plant didn’t define it anymore. The name wasn’t sufficient.”

Wacko’s evolution also mirrors the geography of Los Angeles retail. Shire first opened his business in Silver Lake’s Sanborn Junction, which he describes as “the other end of Sunset” heading into the early ’70s. 

In the 1980s, Shire moved operations to Melrose Avenue just as it was emerging as a creative epicenter.

As the strip became increasingly commercialized in the 1990s, Shire made a calculated move back east, consolidating Wacko, the Soap Plant and the La Luz de Jesus Gallery into a single Los Feliz location.

At the core of Wacko’s longevity is Shire’s personal taste, shaped by a lifetime immersed in art and craft.

“My father was an artist. My brother is an artist. I grew up around art,” said Shire who grew up in Echo Park. “The store became my creative outlet … basically, it’s my
palette. It’s my canvas.”