Getting Ready For A New Era In Antique Retail and Cyber Space Marketing

ARE RETAIL SHOPS ON THE WAY OUT? WILL ONLINE SHOPPING TAKE OVER? COST EFFICIENCY? BETTER ONLINE THAN HOLDING FORT IN THE SHOP?

A SHOPPING REVOLUTION APPEARS TO BE ON THE WAY; TRADITIONS BEING RE-FASHIONED! IN THE ANTIQUE TRADE, WHAT SHALL HAPPEN TO US?

     I think antique shops will survive the quiet revolution in retail. I don't expect online sales increases will force mom and pop antique shops out of business. In vacation areas especially, antiques shops are heritage attractions, so I don't see that any gains in online antique shopping will seriously affect us, at least while we're in our so called tourist-season. As for larger venues, who really knows. But there are far more savvy shoppers these days, and I see them in our own shop, using their phones to research prices online for parallel items, from books to art work. Comparison pricing is happening every day, in an industry, not quite used to this kind of immediate research, on-site and in-the-moment. It should make those who over-price, a bit uncomfortable, that's for sure. As for others in more conventional retail, well, who really knows how bad it will get out there. I know, that to balance our own books, we had to begin selling on line twelve years ago, and I'm glad we did. We are ready for whatever happens in the future, in this regard.
     We have been thinking alot about efficiencies recently, as we are seriously pondering, what will happen should another damning recession hit Canada, like the one that hit the United States a few years back. There are experts who say it can't or won't happen, and for a family that went through the eye of the storm in the 1990's, I don't believe them. I'm pretty sure, that the way things are happening in this country, with the decline in oil prices, we're closer than ever to a made-in-Canada recession. The governing party doesn't want to admit this, in an election year, and seems to most, to be the reason we haven't seen the annual federal budget yet. This is worrying by itself. But seeing as we're keen economic watchers, because retailers are particularly vulnerable as the first casualties of a recession, our plan is to prepare in advance and adjust both our pricing and our inventory, to appeal to more people, beyond just the typical antique and collectable enthusiasts. If we don't get brushed by a downturn, it doesn't matter. We will be a little more durable none the less, because what we intend to sell most of, will be, well, pretty darn durable itself.  
     When we were broke, which seemed quite often back in the 1990's, we outfitted our kitchen by purchasing materials at yard sales and at thrift shops. We had needs but only a fraction of what would be considered an adequate household budget. We got great deals on exceptionally clean, lightly used pots, pans, glassware, bowls, and even utensils. All at a fraction of what it would have cost to buy the same goods at the local hardware emporium. Sorry to say this, but it's true regardless of complaint, that I'm leading consumers away from general retail to serve my own purposes. It's not a conflict of interest, just sensible marketing. All you need to do, is watch the yard sale traffic in our town on Saturday mornings, in season, and a majority of the wild-eyed herd isn't hunting and gathering antiques. They're looking for good deals on just about everything, from weed whackers to lawnmowers, armchairs, kitchen tables, and vacuums. They don't want to pay the asking price for new items. They like the idea of saving money on used wares of all descriptions. It represents the bulk of shoppers who visit thrift and charity shops. Some believe it is the parade of antique hunters but this is a misconception. Bargain hunters. And I dare say they find a goodly percentage of what they're looking for; clothing to footwear, hats to mittens.
     Our family survived hard times by buying what we needed, second and third hand. My mother Merle was horrified, about our frugal buying habits, which she called reckless endangerment; and we learned to never bring up this fact up, about our newlywed lives, at family dinners, for fear of starting an argument. For some reason, Merle always insisted on buying everything she needed, new and with a paper guarantee tucked inside the box. The only way we could have got her into a thrift shop, or out on yard sale Saturdays, would have been to duct-tape her to the roof racks of the van; and then put her on a trolley, and roll her into the sale or shop. We feared her head might blow right off, if she knew we purchased clothing from church sales, and these same thrift shops, at no disadvantage to ourselves whatsoever. Merle, who had a little Archie Bunker in her character, would have felt the contamination of former wearers, (germs which she called "merkles") would be passed on to anyone who wore the clothes second hand. "My God, don't you know you can get merkles that way? What about the children? You'll be exposing them to someone else's germs!" There was no point trying to reason with Merle, and it was just better to kill the conservation if it got around to this at the dinner table. Sometimes she would set Andrew or Robert up, by asking them where they got the nice sweater, or dress pants. "The Salvation Army, grandma," one of them would answer innocently. I could watch her neck get red from the shoulders up, and then would come the huff and puff of counterpoint, which Suzanne and I got pretty good at deflecting, truth be known. When Merle went into long term care, I had much greater success getting my father Ed to join us, on some of our second hand shop visits, and he actually started visiting these shops on his own, and making book purchases, as he was a voracious reader. I can satisfy most of my shopping needs in these stores, and the money we save from purchasing new, is quite substantial. As we have had to be frugal many times in our lives, it has most definitely imprinted on us in the contemporary sense. Old habits are hard to drop. But then why would we? We still like saving a dollar or two, even when hunting for antiques and collectables. We pass these on as cheaply as we can to our customers, most who knew we ferret through shops like these all over the region. They don't always have time to do it on their own, so they leave it up to us to find the bargains, and pass them on!
     This morning, I heard a news clip, on television, about the drastic changes occurring in the way the public prefers to shop. Apparently, online shopping is experiencing huge growth, and traditional retail is starting to show serious signs of weakness, and in some cases already, business failures. But we have seen it coming in growth spurts, over the past decade, and even further back. There were those critics, who I recall, being recklessly stalwart, that online shopping would never seriously hurt traditional, on-the-premises shopping in normal retail practice. I'm not clairvoyant, but I knew it was going to be a threat, and it's why, early in this new century, we began using ebay auctions, as a way to improve efficiencies in our antique business, and as a way of lowering operating costs. For well more than a decade, we were selling our antique and collectable inventory all over the world, and making a decent profit. It's not that there wasn't as much work as running a traditional shop, but it was in the relaxed atmosphere of our own home. There are millions of small business owners like us, in the antique field, doing the same thing, and enjoying the efficiency of an operation that one can run while wearing a bathrobe, slippers, and reclining on the sofa. Most of us, who have experimented with ebay, as an alternative to running a shop, have stuck with the plan. Many shop owners as well, supplement their income annually, by listing and selling on ebay, from their offices, or even their respective front counters. Others have abandoned their storefronts entirely, because ebay auctions work so well for them, and what they offer for sale, is obviously, what bidders are looking for in antiques and collectables.
     I would say, that in many ways of business operation and complexity, it has been somewhat easier to run the storefront, than listing and selling on ebay. Here's why! To be a successful seller on ebay, you must be a stickler for detail, in every way; from the accurate description of what you are selling, to the courtesies you extend to those who email questions, and wish to discuss shipping possibilities, and to the processing of items that have sold, packaging them safely, and shipping them off to Canada Post for delivery. Suzanne handles most of this processing, and has become an expert in safe delivery of auction purchases. We have almost reached 2,500 positive feedback credits, with zero negatives, and this takes a lot of due diligence and courtesy to keep this up. It's not that we don't experience problems, but does reflect positively, that we resolve conflicts with buyers immediately, and yes, one mistake could ruin a perfect score. Buyers and sellers do look at these feedback scores, and may decide not to buy off any vendor who possesses more than a few negative reviews. This means, plain and simply, that we do everything we can, to satisfy our customers, that we will do almost anything to make their shopping experience with us, convenient and even pleasurable. At times, we've had fifty or more items listed, and there have been morning trips to the post office, toting ten parcels for shipping. By far, online sales is tougher for us, than in-person shop keeping. But it is still efficient, in the way we get to the buyers quicker, than if we relied solely on exposure at our shop. We can target the best group of collectors on ebay, when at the shop, all we can do is hope someone will come in eventually, who has an interest in a niche collectable. Once again, in terms of business efficiency, it just makes sense to keep commerce flowing as much as possible. Suzanne is also selling more via her business facebook page, and with what we can sell from the store itself, six days each week, we can relax a tad about the cash flow issues that stress-out most retailers these days. In the vein of efficiency, and reliability, it's also the reason we have changed our antique and collecting interests quite a bit in the past three years, expecting the economy to become stressed itself, considering the time since the last major recession. We have already survived a number of financial downturns, as retailers and online-sellers, by changing our inventory to offer more durable, useable, nostalgic household wares, respective of those times in the past, when extra mileage was needed from every pot, pan and bowl, (and sewing machine), to maintain family economies. We halted buying what we considered frivolous collectables, unless they could be acquired cheaply, and concentrated instead, on bringing-in kitchen-ware for example, that has already served several generations with great efficiency and durability. We call it our "household economy phase" of business operation, and we plan to continue promoting the items of heritage, that are still perfectly acceptable for use in this modernist era, despite not necessarily being the perfect decorator pieces. If times get tough, you should have housewares that can stand up to excessive use, and never let the householder down. This covers a huge, huge territory of collectables, that are also incredibly functional when they're not jazzing-up your kitchen, dining room, bathroom, or bedrooms. Call it good value for your investment, but in many cases, some of these fifty year old-plus housewares, are priced well below what parallel new items cost today, and despite the fact they can't be used in a microwave oven, still have amazing resilience to cover cookery expectations. Like I wrote yesterday, if Suzanne had to get rid of all her vintage cookware, from her kitchen at Birch Hollow, there would be very little left except the built-in cupboards we got with the house. She'd even have to give up her Hoosier cupboard, where she keeps here home-only cookbook collection.
     Suzanne was trained as a Home Economics teacher, and it's the department she was employed by, when she joined the staff of Bracebridge and Muskoka Lakes Secondary School, in the early 1980's. The department was soon changed, and re-organized under the heading, Family Studies, which in essence, was pretty much the same thing, except for a few components. When we were married, I went from being a single jerk, who used to eat potato chip sandwiches, with oyster sauce, to a lucky fellow indeed, feasting on beautiful meals like lemon chicken, and roast beef, and Yorkshire Pudding with all the fixings. Suzanne is a Martha Stewart style efficiency expert, and she has managed me for all these years, into a semi-responsible adult male. I'm still a jerk, but I'm at the very least house-broken. As far as efficiency goes, Suzanne has always been a model of frugality and re-use, and nothing is thrown out at our house, if it can still provide a service for a little while longer. This includes clothing repairs and alterations, and this was a critical difference, in keeping us afloat during the recession of the 1990's, especially dressing the boys. I fixed their shoes with Goop, and she mended the seats of their trousers, ripped open by the rough-housing in the school yard. She made soup from the left overs of three or four meals, and she kept stock from boiled turkey and chicken bones, for months, so we would have tasty and nutritious meals on a tight budget.  She saved us so many times, when we were deficit financing, and she could stretch a tiny budget further than anyone I have ever known, including my own mother, who was a cheapskate personified. Well, she had to be, because we went through some lean years as well, when I was growing up. It has all left an impression on us, after all these years, and it has morphed very seriously into our contemporary take on antiques and collectables. It's almost impossible to equate "frugal" and "antique dealer" in the same description, but we have taken a shot at it regardless; because it's what we believe will be successful for us in the long term. We want our customers to be happy with their purchases, whether they buy them online, from our ebay auction site, or from the shop. We love when they come back to us, a few years later, and tell us how they are still using the casserole dishes they bought from the shop, or are still sewing on the vintage Singer machine they found here. These are the kind of credits we like to get, and it shows us, we're on the right track, especially when they tell us our prices are low, and quality of merchandise, high. It gives us something to strive for ongoing, because we like to know that what we select out on the hustings, is being used, and re-used for the efficiency of the modern homestead.
     Tomorrow, I want to share some furniture stories, along the same idea; buying old can be a great investment, of well crafted, durable, adaptable, home, condo, apartment and cottage furnishings. For me, hands down, I would invest in an original pine harvest table, or round oak pedestal table, of an approximate age of one hundred years, than any contemporary table to serve the same purpose. I know I will be able to sell the antique piece for the same money at least, or with a profit, when we grow tired of it for whatever reason. New tables on the rebound are sold at yard sales for a lot less than what they cost originally. At auctions, they fetch only moderate prices, where antique pieces usually generate much higher prices. Not always, but most of the time this holds true. I'll give you a few insider tips about the reasons to buy antiques for good investment value.