by Dave Schwab / Times of San Diego / Sept. 29, 2026
It’s sunrise for a brand-new Ocean Beach business: Sunset Marketplace.
Sunset’s owner-operator Monique “Mo” Sapia, a San Diego native who operated businesses in Riverside County, is no longer retired. She’s moved to Ocean Beach and opened a new vintage resale and oddities business at 4979 Newport Ave.
The space previously housed Sunshine Daydreams, a hippie, tie-dye, and boho clothing boutique which operated there for many years.
The changeover is a perfect fit for both Sapia and the beach community, which she is already winning over. “We made our floors a tagging project,” noted Sapia while kneeling on her concrete floor flagrantly scrawled with numerous public well wishes. “We would love it if the community would come down and see our community art project.”
Of her avant-garde art project, Sapia noted, “everybody from little 6-year-olds to 80-year-olds from all parts of the world” left their marks on her floors. She pointed to her favorite message proclaiming, “Some heroes wear capes, mine wear vintage clothes.”
Sapia chose Ocean Beach because it was, as she describes it, “the most iconic beach, groovy hippie town in the United States. Where else do we have this type of eclectic ‘60s mindset still? We like our small businesses, and I’m one of them. We’re keeping the community working here, living here, and growing here generationally. We want to keep it small, quaint, and with the hippie vibe.”
The entrepreneur described the support she’s received from the locals so far as “amazing.” She previously had a store in Temecula for 24 years, starting her first business at age 30. “I grew with the community and knew what the community needed,” she said of her business.
Sapia sold her Temecula vintage-resale businesses after nearly a quarter-century and retired to San Diego. Or so she thought. “I came to Ocean Beach and was just going crazy without feeling like I had a purpose.”
Asked what makes Sunset Marketplace special, Sapia said it’s their ability to find “those brands that are hard to find, still in wearable condition. The whole store’s being built around that.”
Sapia’s in business now in Ocean Beach to “give people what they want. Being that I’m so brand new, I’m listening to what everybody is saying.”
And Sapia’s giving locals and visitors alike what they’re asking for, while adding she’s trying to find what people want in clothing using natural fabrics like cotton and leather. She defined her inventory as being “good wearable things that aren’t going to fall apart on you and make your body feel good while you’re wearing them.”
Describing herself as an artistic soul, Sapia noted there’s a lot more to being successful in business than just appreciating art. “You can’t just be artistic and own a business,” she confided. “You have to have the other side of it; all the clerical, all the permitting, all the organizing. The burden of all the numbers … you have to make it work.”
Sapia’s days and hours are long and often tiring. However, it’s all been worth it. “I feel alive,” she concluded. “I feel that the community wants me. I’ve been welcomed by most people. I’m getting good reception. And that is feeding me to keep going.”
