Have you ever heard of a flower frog, salt cellar, bone dish, or hair receiver. Have you ever used a spooner or served dinner on a set of Cherry Blossom Pink Depression Glass Dishes? Me neither, until two years ago.
I’ve always wanted to run my own business and when the opportunity came up to open an antique mall I jumped at the chance. It only took a little convincing to get my husband, Scot on board and now two years later we couldn’t be happier. The funny thing is that when we started we knew very little about antiques. We hoped that good friendly service, a clean organized mall and free cookies would buy us some time to learn a few things. What we didn’t realize was that our customers would be our best teachers.
You would be amazed by all the things you can learn hanging around an antique mall. Our customers are like living encyclopedias. They are experts in the things they enjoy collecting and are always willing to share their expertise. The first year of business my conversations with customers usually went something like this, “Hi, welcome to our store.” Customer, “Do you have any Bakelite?”, Me, Probably, what is it?” and off we would go in search of the item and while going up and down the aisles I would get my lesson on Bakelite. I’ve had the opportunity to meet some really interesting people and have enjoyed every minute of it. We get collectors from all over the United States and even Japan.
We have customers who collect oil cans, butter pats, can openers, rick rack, tin typewriter ribbon boxes, bottle openers, and snuff bottles. One of our customers has a collection of over 1000 hats! Toys, books, clocks, marbles, trains, dolls, pins, buttons, toasters, clothes, tools, egg baskets, silver, Pyrex and perfume bottles, all of which are collections of at least one of our customers.
It has been a wonderful two years of learning new things and meeting new people. I cannot imagine a better job! Thank you Customers and friends.
Customer Appreciation Sale – April 9th, 2011 10am – 6pm
Everything in the store at least 10% off – no exceptions! Many Dealers will offer even bigger discounts!
We hope to see you there.
