Take Home a Piece of Palm Springs

By Barbara Beckley

Some ideas are simply brilliant. The light bulb. The cell phone. Destination PSP.

Meet Destination PSP Owner Jeffrey Bernstein

No kidding. Since Jeffrey Bernstein founded Destination PSP in 2012, the store has revolutionized souvenir shopping in Palm Springs and throughout the Coachella Valley.

“I wanted to send gifts home from Palm Springs that reflected the city’s mid-century lifestyle,” recalls Jeffrey, after he and his partner Oscar Chamudes, left their loft in Manhattan’s Chelsea district, with killer views including the Statue of Liberty, for a home in Palm Springs’ Oasis Del Sol neighborhood. “But there was nothing to buy!”

So Jeffrey decided to design his own!

They have a lifetime of successful marketing and entrepreneurship under his belt. This includes two decades in TV and movie marketing, first with the studios and then as a consultant.  They also owned a restaurant and nightclub in the Hamptons. That’s not all, they were also super successful dealers of movie memorabilia, antiques, fashions and lingerie on his own websites and in the early days of EBay. Jeffrey knew what to do.

Palm Springs First Mid-Century Product Line

With the help of his talented brother-in-law, Jeffrey designed and produced Destination PSP.  It’s the desert’s first Palm Springs mid-century focused product line. He launched Destination PSP as a pop-up inside the Raymond-Lawrence store in 2012. “We sold out in five weeks,” he recalls proudly.

Event Marketing

At the same time Destination PSP was sizzling inside Raymond-Lawrence, Jeffrey and Oscar attended the Palm Springs International Film Festival. They saw that while the festival’s branded souvenirs were tremendously popular, its pop-up shop was open for only the two weeks of the festival’s run. Jeffrey to the rescue. He added Palm Springs International Film Festival merchandise to Destination PSP.

Destination PSP remained inside Raymond-Lawrence for two years. By 2014, Jeffery says “we felt the need to create our own retail experience.” So he opened his own flagship shop in the historic Town & Country building on North Palm Canyon Drive.

Destination PSP Offers the Palm Springs Lifestyle

What inspired Jeffrey to create the company?  “To celebrate the Palm Springs lifestyle in merchandise. We’re creating tangible Palm Springs memories. When you walk into Destination PSP, you see it’s not a shop – it’s a Palm Springs retail experience. It ties in with the Palm Springs lifestyle.” While mid-century modern is synonymous with Palm Springs – which boasts the most mid-century architecture in the world – “Destination PSP is really for the whole valley. Our merchandise ties in with all the desert’s nine cities,” he says.

And with numerous of the desert’s annual events and organizations. In addition to the film festival, you’ll find fabulous mementos. To name a few — Modernism Week, Desert AIDS Project, Palm Springs Animal Shelter, Desert Arc, and Palm Springs Art Museum. He’s also spreading Palm Springs’ mid-century vibe across the country. Destination PSP items are sold in eight museums including in Chicago, Oakland and Pasadena and in the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles

Locally Owned and Loved

Visitors and locals are equally enamored, he says, purchasing his Palm Springs- inspired and branded items from home décor to handbags, swimwear to barware and everything in between, for friends, family and themselves. Jeffrey’s proud to say that Destination PSP is the only store in Palm Springs with swimwear for men, women and children. The very cool line is “designed with the Palm Springs pool lifestyle in mind” offering multiple brands including Esther Williams and Betty Page.

What sets Destination PSP apart from other shops? (Aside from its custom merchandise.) “We design most of our items in-house, and most everything is made in the U.S.A. and made locally.” The latest offering is a new “atomic” glassware collection, using their own mid-century influenced style and design.

What’s Jeffrey’s favorite item?  The “Twin Palms” tissue-box covers designed in the likeness of a classic mid-century modern home. It’s also one of the best-sellers, along with t-shirts. “T-shirts remain strong sellers because of our unique designs,” he says.

So why are Jeffrey and Oscar in Palm Springs?  “A combination of the sunny weather and the mid-century modern lifestyle,” he explains. They were smitten instantly. “We visited twice and on the third time we bought a house within the week! We moved very quickly and were living here within six weeks!”

What’s Jeffrey’s secret to success?  “I’m always doing something different. I sell things that I would want to buy.”

Destination PSP

170 North Palm Canyon Drive, 760-464-0480