What's This Place? Behind the Clicks and Mortar with Miranda Black

Antique Emporium

October 12, 2021 Miranda Black with Steve White and Tracey Acker Season 1 Episode 4
What's This Place? Behind the Clicks and Mortar with Miranda Black
Antique Emporium
Show Notes Transcript

Steve white and Tracy Acker were running an artists retreat...y'know, where you find your inner self.  One summer, they found an abandoned store at the end of a dead end road near the retreat and decided to follow their own "inner-calling" advice and open a cafe with cookies, pies, and a "what you sit on is for sale" concept.
Now they're upgrading to a single 13,000 square foot space in downtown Kingston. That's right: 13,000 square feet!  As a former retailer, this blows my mind. So who are Steve White and Tracy Acker and what is Antique Emporium?  Let's go inside and find out.

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Antique Emporium

Steve white and Tracy Acker were running. One of those artists retreats where you find your inner self in the summer of 2008, they found an abandoned store at the end of a dead end road near the retreat and decided to follow their own inner calling advice. I know, but a cafe with cookies, pies, and, uh, what you sit on is for sale.

A few months later, they opened two more stores in Brighton and port hope. And now after over a decade of opening and closing various locations, they're upgrading to a single 13,000 square foot space in downtown Kingston. That's right. 13,000 square feet as a former retailer. This blows my mind. So who are Steve white and Tracy Aker.

And what is antique Emporium?

What's this place. What's this place, this place let's go inside and find out.

Hi, you guys. What is this place?

Tracey track Antique: What is this place? We're still trying to figure it out. And it's funny because when Tracy told me what your podcast, what It's called. Honestly, we'd probably be retired if we had a dollar for every time someone walked in our place and said, What is this place?

I'm not kidding you. I'm not kidding you. 

Miranda track Antique: That's how I came for me because I would hear people outside being like, what's this place?

Tracey track Antique: If you open a retail store again, you should be calling it. What is this place? 

Miranda track Antique: Okay, so what is this place and who are you people?

Tracey track Antique: So we were End of the Thread. But then that was confusing. Like, cause people thought we were sewing. Yeah. It was end of the thread end of the thread/Antique Emporium, which is now evolving to simply antique Emporium. And the current place is about to become a new place, a whole lot bigger, a massive expansion. 

Miranda track Antique: So, okay. Yeah, let's back it up. What were you guys doing before you became retailers?

Tracey track Antique: Oh, my gosh. In a nutshell, Tracy has a background in fine art. I have a background in business and finance. We met in Toronto training for a marathon and the rest is kind of history. We've always had a love of design and old crapola. So we basically married all that stuff together. We were in Toronto, we were hitting all the antique places. 

Miranda track Antique: right.

Tracey track Antique: Vintage furniture, repurposed industrial. We're not a traditional antique store. Hardcore traditionalist would come in and be like, what is this place? No. And they'd be like, they might not even, there might be a hardcore traditionalist that might not even like our place, but those people are generally the 70 to 90 year old people that they've got a garage full of dusty, old stuff, where we really beautiful take things that are like even everyday vintage objects and make them beautiful.

And new, which is tough, bringing the two together to make it work. Cause you know, you've been in those antique stores and have showcases after showcase flows like old symbols and silver spoons and just a bunch of garage. That's not us candles, gifts, houseware kitchen stuff, bar. From small things to big things, everything we do, we want it to be unusual.

We want people to, when they buy a large piece from us, whether it be a retailer installing a huge new vintage counter in their store, or, you know, a residential customer that's redoing their dining room, they want, you know, a medical cabinet for a bar and a big gigantic cast iron dining table that when people visit their home, they're like, what kind of place did you get this at? 

Miranda track Antique: Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. So when did you open your first store?

Tracey track Antique: You want me to do this one? He wants this one quickly. We had this crazy little retreat in the middle of nowhere. This retreat was called red thread retreat, and I always wanted to open a little shop. And there was a little shack at the end of the road that we were going to open in a little cafe there, maybe sell some vintage stuff and it was at the end of the road.

So we thought maybe it was called end of the road, the smallest near Brighton. And we were, so we decided we're going to open up this little shop and we're going to. End of the road cafe. Cause it was right at the end of the road, but then we said, well, it sounds so positive. Sounds so great. Great end of the road cafe.

So we called it coffee. So we call it end of the thread. 

Miranda track Antique: And was, it was the cafe. There were no, there were no 

Tracey track Antique: no it was all, it was always the concept. What you sit on is for sale. So it was like coffee, antiques freshly made pies, baked goods. We didn't sell a whole lot of stuff down there It was, it was like the town had a population of 200. It

was fun. It was a catalyst for our evolution. And then we moved on to Brighton.

Well, we had both going at the same time. Yeah. There's an iconic antique store in Brighton that we love to go to. And we heard it was closing and I basically called the owner, said, I'm coming to see you. And I went down, 

Miranda track Antique: How did you get the owner's number or 

Tracey track Antique: well, we made them because we'd bought things from them. Right. And we heard like small town.

Right. And we're like, these people are closing, like what's going on. So we called them and just to like, again, a small town, it's the biggest store on main. 

Miranda track Antique: yeah.

Tracey track Antique: That store their store at the time, if that had to closed down, like you're looking and you're looking at giant tiger dollar store, it's like, it would have been a devastation for the towns.

So Steve went on down, brought an apple pie, went down there and you guys can't close. And they said, well, we're closing. Like it's done this year is done. So I said, I said, well, what if someone opened up something that drew people in there? What if we opened the cafe? Roommates is how we began in that brightened space, but then they moved on quickly. 

Miranda track Antique: then you became the full, you were the.

Tracey track Antique: They was just, wasn't working for them after maybe a year. The evolution from there is, is a long, I mean, little pop-up shops that were kind of trial in terms of an expansion I would say. And none of the places that we selected really took off like Wellington did well, but it was like before the.

Drake was there, they served their purpose.

I think those locations sort of help brand us. And there's nothing better than opening a store except one thing. And that's closing the store because then you have these massive sales and it's a bit of a. Of a process that works really well opening and closing stores can be, can be profitable. 

Miranda track Antique: I feel like you have 35 stores going at one time.

Tracey track Antique: We had three at our peak, but that's sort of contracted to, to our focus was Kingston and growing our business in the UK. 

So, what Steve's referring to is we go to these shows in the states, Brimfield antique show. It's huge. They say it's the biggest in the world. I don't know if that's still the case. And we used to just go down with a 26 foot truck and then you can just load and that's your inventory.

And I think it was a year that was maybe slow. And we were like, you know what, we're going down anyway, why don't we fill a truck and see if we can do this? 

Miranda track Antique: Oh, you took the state. You filled the truck in Canada and took it.

Tracey track Antique: Yes. So we now we're not only going to buy, but we're also a vendor showing at Brimfield Massachusetts. And we in a little company from Canada, I mean, really we're just small, but we actually have a fairly large space in Brimfield and it's a problem only because a good problem.

We barely have time to buy. Now Greenfield's been happening some 50 years and we're really proud of what we've done down there. Tracy merchandises, a 1500 square foot booth. It's not like a little 10 foot booth. It's like a big it's like full store store pop-up shops in the fields. 

Miranda track Antique: Oh, my God.

Tracey track Antique: We have people from New York city.

We've had designers, movie stars, Broadway productions, like it's cool. 

Extras track for Antique Emporium: I didn't know this part of Stephen Tracey's story, but I should have, because at one point back at my store, I was looking for a really specific couch for my mate to measure area. It was very particular because it had to fit in this tiny space and it had been impossible for me to find. But one morning I get a grainy phone call from Steve.

We addressed him for their wedding the summer before and at a fitting, I had briefly told him about my dream couch. So he's calling me from the middle of a field, which I now know is Broomfield. And he had found the couch. But I had to pull the trigger right there and then sight unseen because some fashion buyers were also interested in it.

I just had to trust him and you know, what it checked every single box. And then some more that couch became a talking piece. People wanted it from me. So Steven, Tracy, they definitely have a gift of connecting people with their dream furnishings. It's the kind of experience that leaves you enriched way more than just the monetary transaction.

Anyway, back to the story of broom.

Tracey track Antique: It's a place where a lot of large retailers come to buy, like Ralph Lauren, not himself, but like his people or Hilfiger as people, I think they come to buy quantity for retail stores. It's huge. You can't see the whole event in a week.

Miranda track Antique: Wow. in a week.

Tracey track Antique: well, it's just to put it into perspective with numbers are that a million people will visit the small town of Springfield mass three times a year.

It's big. 

Miranda track Antique: Okay. So that's your main buying area?

Tracey track Antique: Yes. And no, in the early days we used to do house calls, somebody's state sales auctions. We soon came to realize that you spent however many house calls and you land yourself a couple of pieces. Whereas like you can fill a truck and come back with your inventory. And we're at a stage where it's like finding enough inventory at prices that you can sell it at and having quality merchandise.

So doing a house call or having people drop by, oh, I got it. You might want to buy because it's not our thing. And more recently, I was just going to say, well, we had somebody here that we used to buy from that would go over to Europe and fill the container. He'd sell to wholesale to retailers. We're now filling our own containers in Europe and bringing them 

Miranda track Antique: Your.

Tracey track Antique: it's on the water.

It's on its way. It's on a ship right now. 

Miranda track Antique: How are you finding that? Because everyone's having shipping problems. Are you encountering that right 

Tracey track Antique: Yeah. well, to bring it 40 foot container from Eastern Europe to Canada, traditionally it's four or 5,000 American dollars shipping costs through this process. It's gone to about 8,000 American shipping costs. And I was like, what? But then within days of finding that out, it went to 10,000 and I was happy to pay it because it wasn't about the price anymore. It's it's 10,000, right? We don't know if we can find you a space on a ship, even at that price. So we actually ended up getting it on a ship. So, and this is what maybe customers do or don't understand. I mean, there's, there's cost involved, but you, as a former retailer knows shipping is a percentage of, so, you 

Miranda track Antique: It's gotta be you. Can't it. Doesn't it doesn't arrive for free. Yeah. Shipping is a huge problem.

Tracey track Antique: Yeah. And to wrap up the question of where do we get our stuff? The big challenge is you don't order vintage materials out of a catalog and say, I'll take three of those seven of those eight of those. So doing, having a business that has a volume of sales, it's a challenge because you have to find volume of unique, extraordinary things.

And that's kind of what we take pride in being able to. 

Miranda track Antique: It sounds like there were certain events outside of your control that happened that COVID, it helped you transition into the COVID era.

Tracey track Antique: Yeah.

we've been lucky in that. We're not holding two locations with, with real estate burning, burning, burning.

Miranda track Antique: Yeah.

Tracey track Antique: that's a good thing. We've been lucky that we deal with DEC like hosts, like people spending time at home. Right. So it's a good business to be in right now. I mean, sure. We're unlucky that we've been open five weeks in 2021.

We're unlucky that we had no online presence other than Tracy's ability to do Instagram, which is she's got a great flare with it, but we don't have an online store, but we've launched one a month ago and it's already taking off. So it took the third lockdown. For us to get online as a shopping online, but really it's only because the first two locked down, like we were just moving every lockdown.

We're like packing bags, packing boxes, like we've just been on. Yeah. And we had a landlord that raised our rent in Kingston, our Kingston. Location's a good size. It's about 2000 square feet. It's a good location. And we pay a fair rent. Like Kingston's not cheap. And they wanted to raise our rent 41 or 42%. 

Miranda track Antique: What during the pandemic.

Tracey track Antique: when our lease comes up yeah. Which comes up in the fall and we sort of shook her head and we are now moving from a 2000 square feet space to a 13,000 square foot space. As we said, if we're going to pay that kind of money, let's go bigger, go home and through expanding. One store to store three stores.

I think we've learned people want to deal with us. So we're going to do the expansion under one roof that people can deal with us and have way more cool stuff to see and send its iconic old building right in the, like the best block of downtown Kingston. So it's going to be good for 

Miranda track Antique: Princess street.

Tracey track Antique: closer to the water, closer to where the tourist hotels and everything are amazing. 

Miranda track Antique: How do you feel about that? That you're moving into a 13,000 square foot?

Tracey track Antique: Pretty good. Really good. We're not nervous. I mean, it's expensive and it's a huge undertaking, but it's honestly just so exciting to think about all our merchandise in one place. To be able to have five dining tables instead of one, some of our stuff, our tables are big. We have sometimes 10, 12 big dining tables at first, when people hear we're moving, they're like, oh no, but then they hear where and they're like, oh yeah, I had an anxiety attack when I heard this door was closed. 

Miranda track Antique: Um,

Tracey track Antique: If we could write down all the beautiful things that people have said, you know, there's always, you know, there's always the unhappy customer here and there. Right. But people generally super supportive, but some of the things that we're doing are going to be things that people have never seen before 

Miranda track Antique: Well, the thing that is really striking of this interview compared to a lot of other interviewing, a lot of other retailers is. Have an excitement. Uh it's uh, I feel like I'm going to tear up so many people are so scared and so worried. And you guys have an excitement about retail that I haven't seen in a long time.

Where are you getting? Where are you getting that excitement?

Tracey track Antique: There's two, it's coming from two places and your excitement?

is different than my excitement and the same. I can say my excitement that I'm going to say, because I know I know what it is for me. We sell things. I know when you come into our location, it's being able to showcase. Incredible items that you will.

I know you will not find anywhere else. I just know you won't, you know, you want an amazing jukebox. You're not gonna find it anywhere in this country. You want an amazing industrial piece. That's so unique. You're not going to find it anywhere else. So for me, that's exciting. And that's my excitement.

Being able to showcase our stuff in a massive space on a big. For me, it's just a blank canvas. I love the merchandising. It's the whole creative process of creating something new again. So many times too, we hear, oh, this has changed even from like last week when I was here. Yeah.

Because you want it to be fresh because you want people to be excited.

I don't want to see the same thing over and over. I want to have that visual experience. Somebody used the word ones visceral, and for me, that's a huge conflict. And maybe just to give you one example, a little tidbit, and I'm going to say it in the new space. One little item, which Tracy is super excited about is we've ripped out an entire apothecary from 150 years ago in Eastern Europe.

And that entire apothecary store is coming to Canada is going to be recreated within our space. And that's going to be part of the candle shop in a shop within the shop. And it's going to be 150 year old apothecary in the store. So people will want to come in. It wasn't a binding just to sort of, I got to see.

Miranda track Antique: Yeah.

Tracey track Antique: That's why we're excited. Yeah. 

Miranda track Antique: Do you guys consider yourselves retailers? Do you think of yourselves with retailers?

Tracey track Antique: Well, I think yes, but no, I mean, obviously we are that I'm a sales guy, so yes. I love retail, but it's, we're evolving there too. I mean, we're not designers. We don't have design degrees and stuff. No, I'm just saying. We're not interior designers. Okay. But that being said, we've had situations where people come to us say, you know, we do most of my retail store.

We do mine. I think people are looking for consulting. They're often coming with pictures of this is my current table. So we are looking at, in this new space having the lounge area so we can sit comfortably and hear what they're looking for and look at their photos.

Have it be a more one-on-one personal. So, yeah, I think we're developing that area in terms of, that's why I'm like, what are you talking about? Like maybe not on paper, interior design, but. Yeah. And that's something that we're pretty hard set on, not charging for that. So, I mean, really when you come in and you want this done, or this put together with that, it's not, we're going to charge a design fee now, and it's not our thing.

I mean, you're buying things from us. You need help putting it together. 

Miranda track Antique: But I think that that's what retail is now. It's you have to be so much more engaged with your client, that those days of just letting someone come into your store and let them wander around and make a decision by themselves. Those days are over.

Tracey track Antique: Yeah, we're coming from some of the dresses people, of course. And, and this is why we're expanding to a massive location because we can't spread ourselves so thin. Around our customers that are spending their hard earned money on a major purchase. They don't, they don't want to. And with all due respect, we've got some great staff, the young people that have helped us and continue to help us, you know, they may not have the experience and the knowledge to be able to sell someone, a dining table with the proper chairs and benching and whatever it's done.

People want to deal with us 

when they're making a major purchase. 

Miranda track Antique: Have you guys sort of the term, the retail apocalypse stores, closing malls, closing, blah, blah, blah. Is that on your radar 

Tracey track Antique: It's more work. I mean, it is, I'm looking at things beyond our store, beyond Kingston. Like I'm reading the, I read things all the time. I don't think that I don't know the answer is if I did I'd, you know, if we had all the, I don't think any of us are really going to know how the dust settles for a couple of years, that being said, I do think it's an evolution.

As much as the online, I just have a hard time believing and I might just be fooling myself that everyone's going to sit at home in their pajamas, buying everything for them. People still want to touch and feel things. So certain things. Yes. Will you buy your toilet paper on a store in the future? Maybe never.

But will you buy that authentic vintage medical cabinet from 1902? That's been refurbished online. Yeah,

Some people will, but people still want that. They want to feel it the experience, you know, the story we, we often say, , free admission because it's not a museum, but like if they don't buy anything today, maybe they do next time or maybe they never do, but they have a good energy because they're having fun in our store.

Right. Whether it's come to use the photo booth in our store because we have a vintage photo booth or to 

Miranda track Antique: Oh, no. 

Tracey track Antique: gifts. Oh yeah. We 

Miranda track Antique: never saw that. I never saw the vintage photo booth.

Tracey track Antique: Yeah, it's fun. People love it. And it's not like a digital modern one. It's like it's a 1960 black and white photo booth.

back to the whole apocalypse.

We see it. We felt it. I mean the first log down Kingston was like ghost town, but we're not seeing a lot of we're seeing, you know, believe it or not. We saw lots of for lease for lease, but we're seeing everything gets scooped up, but that's in 

Miranda track Antique: Is it all cannabis? Is it all cannabis 

Tracey track Antique: No, but this is Kingston. The water's there. The downtown is it's beautiful.

It's not too big. It's not too small. It's not a hick town, right? There's culture. There's eating. I mean, Kingston is beautiful. No, there's been a lot of closures. There's this organic growth weirdly during COVID. 

Miranda track Antique: Well, it could be a drain from bigger cities like Toronto, where people just they're gravitating away from Toronto right now. Cause I get, who knows why it could be a confluence of a bunch of different things.

Tracey track Antique: And we don't know who survived without having Christmas. They hit there's no Christmas. Our hearts were broken for retailers across Metro. 

Miranda track Antique: Yeah.

Tracey track Antique: Like we had, we had the best Christmas season we've ever had 

Miranda track Antique: Oh, 

Tracey track Antique: by 

Miranda track Antique: hard, 

Tracey track Antique: No, we did. Sorry. but we did, it was outstanding. It was a 

Miranda track Antique: Amazing for you 

Tracey track Antique: Well, we've had some challenges in 2021 because I mean, not being open, but to not have, we were talking, we had friends of retail in Toronto and we're like the clothes.

And if you weren't online, like you're done restaurant industry. It's, it's, it's all heartbreaking. And it is, and we've done whatever we can to support those that, that we can, I mean, you can't, you can't support everybody, but you do what you can, where you can. And so I've been very conscious of that during this year.

I mean Toronto big metropolises. I don't know because I'm there once in a while, but I'm not seeing queen west is like, I'm not 

Miranda track Antique: Queen west is not great.

Tracey track Antique: Yeah. I'm sure there's a lot. I mean, look at Toronto has been hit very badly. Not being. I think in the big picture over time businesses, retailers that were just getting by, and I don't mean this to be derogatory, but they're going to, it's going to wash out a lot of the strong ones.

If the fit ones will survive and flourish really well, and the weak ones will, will not. And if you're in, if you went into this pandemic positioned, well, I think you're probably okay. If you went into this panic. Struggling as it is and many were, it's unfortunate and that's where the problem is going to be.

And we're sharing our excitement, but there's been some scary moments for us too. And there's been discussions well, what if we don't survive? What will we do? And honestly, we're entrepreneurs at heart though. Maybe that's the answer. It's like, are we retailers? Are we, this we're entrepreneurs? If it meant no longer having a retail location, because really it was a reality.

We would just figure it out is, was where we were sort of at. We're like, we'll get a food truck, whatever. Well, or even just we've even talked about, like, we could probably make a living doing events in the states. So it's like, do we just do that? Do we make a living, just importing stuff and being wholesaler?

You know, we love the retail experience when we love. We love being, we do, we love being retailers. There's your excitement. That's where it is. We like being 

Miranda track Antique: It's the customers, 

Tracey track Antique: When someone, when someone left your retail establishment thrilled with their experience and their purchase, how did that make you. 

Miranda track Antique: Oh, it's the best feeling in the world.

Tracey track Antique: there you go.

That's it. It's just like a medical professional, helping someone feel better or a legal professional, getting someone out of a situation or whatever. That's what a good retailer does for their customers. And it makes you feel good because you're never going to become super rich being a retailer, unless your name is Sam Walton. 

Miranda track Antique: Is there something that gets you through that you repeat to yourself when the time is right.

Tracey track Antique: Yeah,

like pro progress, not perfection because when I'm merchandising and you have to tear down displays and you're up to your eyeballs in mass chaos, but it's, it's making order of the chaos, especially right now. And I think a lot of stores they're feeling the same way. You're not hurting the same volume of stuff.

So like, there's just so much stuff. And then you're getting deliveries cause who expected to be closed still. So I just try and focus on each little time.

Miranda track Antique: I love progress, not perfection. I need to remind myself that very quickly.

Tracey track Antique: And the other thing we say too, even with that is it will fit. We always say it's, I don't know if, what the monitor, you know, we'll figure it out.

We always figure it out. We always figure it out because life is, it is about balance. And trust me, there's been difficult times and whether we have we'll have arguments because we've worked together, we lived together, you know, what is this place? It's like, I know how you guys do it. It's 24 7 people say, how are you going to do it?

But you know what. Figure it out. Cause we also have to reinvent ourselves, not daily, but like we're constantly reinventing because if you make a place, special, people will come back. We don't sell something that people really need. And really you need groceries. Alcohol, apparently you don't need the things that we sell.

So you have to make it pretty special selling something that people have to have. That's that's an easy 

Miranda track Antique: Have you guys been in your relationship? You've also been retailers for the whole time,

Tracey track Antique: much ever since we left Toronto. Yeah. We've been on this business journey together. Yep. 

Miranda track Antique: so that's part of the relationship.

Tracey track Antique: Yeah. Which is actually in Mo more respects than not gotten better over time. I think. 

Miranda track Antique: So, if you had advice for someone who was wanting to open a store, when people come in and they're like, oh, it looks so easy. I want to open it and take stuff.

Tracey track Antique: Don't worry, you know what the most important thing for us offer something special that no one else offers. That's really What you have to do. We're offered in a, in a way that no one else is offering it, because if you do that, they will come and be prepared to sacrifice. You really do. 

Miranda track Antique: are some sacrifices that you might make? I know what they are. I know what they are, 

Tracey track Antique: I mean, you put everything in. 

Miranda track Antique: what don't people know.

Tracey track Antique: We have, uh, we have family, children. We have, we have an autistic four year old, which we were not prepared to sacrifice anything for. And that's why we sacrifice from our own time for the business and for our kids, which are that's first that's number one, which is why we need to simplify to, to make it more sensible for our family needs.

Income is sacrificing income. We often joke we could probably make more money working for someone else. We really, I know we could. And I don't know if you want to make that public. It's like. 

Miranda track Antique: No. I think that people, another reason behind doing this is that people will come into my store and they would think I was rolling in money 

Tracey track Antique: Yep. 

Miranda track Antique: I'm selling expensive stuff. 

Tracey track Antique: I get it. You know, people don't understand the overhead. 

Miranda track Antique: Do you think there was a time when retailers were making tons of it?

Tracey track Antique: More before the big boxes. Yep. Before big box. Yes. Spots. I think it's just, people don't understand the risk involved. I mean, there's everything involved, even with the risks. You have to love it to make it work, because if you don't love it, you're foolish to be doing it. And like you said, you sell expensive things and did it belong to you?

No, it belongs to your company. It's not yours. You can't take it home with you. You can't sell it?

and take the money and go buy yourself dinner with it. In your company, which has taxes to pay and employees to pay and WSID to pay and on and on and on and on. And if you're lucky there's two to 3% leftover.

If you take a paycheck once in a while, you know, unless you're Steve jobs or bill gates that figured out a way to turn your product into a billion dollar industry. Yeah. It's perception is people's perception that that's not accurate really. I mean, in terms of, yeah, you're rolling in it. It's like, well, not really. 

Miranda track Antique: But you guys get that?

Tracey track Antique: Oh, yeah. To explain how, how about this? Okay. Someone will come into our store and they'll go. that?

is beautiful. And you know what? The price isn't even terrible, but I wish it was something I could afford. They'll say, because maybe they're just not in their snack bracket. And sometimes I'll say to them, I wish it was something I could afford to.

And they look at me like, what do you mean? And I'm just like, just because I sell one of those in my store doesn't mean I can personally afford to put one in my house just because it's in our store. We don't, we don't own it. 

Miranda track Antique: Yeah. Yeah.

Tracey track Antique: you know, you have to buy things. You were his 

Extras track for Antique Emporium: I'm going to jump in here just for a second to clarify something, just in case for sounding like a bunch of whiny retailers who don't understand the value of inventory, the way inventory worked for my company is that I placed the order. The goods arrive. I have two months to pay it off it's credit. So sure.

I have a bunch of $3,000 suits hanging in there, but I'm in the red on them. Now, if the goods don't sell well, you got to put them on sale. So you might not even be covering the original cost of the item, retailers dip into their lines of credit to pay or frequently they take the profit from another line that did sell well.

If there goes that profit that might've given you a paycheck or an employee bonus, somehow the really huge retailers have built these sale prices into their plan. And I know this because I'll tell you a secret. One of my employees told me that when he worked at I'm not going to say which huge American store they would spend Christmas Eve marking up every item in the store, just so the customer felt they were getting an amazing deal on boxing day.

But in reality, They were only getting like 10, 20% off. I don't have any evidence of this. It was just a story that was told to me, but oof, it really chafed my hide mostly because it erodes the trust people have in all retailers. If you want to build a relationship of trust with the places where you buy your goods and you want to stop feeling ripped off and jaded by local and get to know the owner, because you sure as heck can't chat with the CEO of an investment group, living in Silicon valley.

Anyway, that's why a retailer might joke that they too wish they could afford the stuff that they sell.

Tracey track Antique: If we could buy all that to put in the store, we must be rolling in 

Miranda track Antique: Yeah. Yeah. Passion is, seems to be the refrain. The number one refrain from everybody that if you don't have the passion for it,

Tracey track Antique: Don't do it,

Don't get me wrong. There are benefits. I mean, other than my business partner and I, no one tells me what to do. Like there are benefits of having your own retail establishment, you know, there's the benefit of pride. There's the benefit of making your own hours? Although it's usually 10 times more than whatever, you know, there, there are some definite benefits, but you know, it's a sacrifice your weekend. 

Miranda track Antique: Yeah. Yeah. What is one retail super power that you couldn't live without? 

Tracey track Antique: I think they're different. Yeah.

They're different regions of us. It's like for me, it's I love selling people things. And is that what you mean? So I, I'm not really good. I say this all the time. I'm not really good at a lot of things, but I'm really good at selling people.

Yeah, and this is what I was going to say. He is an amazing salesperson because he can meet each person where they're at somehow have an understanding and guide them through and sell them what they need, what they want, but not what they don't need. Well, he's not going to sell you something. That's not going to be a fit. 

Miranda track Antique: think it's interesting that being good at sales is almost like a dirty word, because again, the perception is that if you're a good salesperson, you're, you're giving them a snack.

Tracey track Antique: You know what most people don't know what they want and that's okay because people have other skills, but when people don't know what they want, a good salesperson is going to help them find in their heart or in their mind what they want and what's going to make them happy. Okay. You don't know what kind of table you're looking for?

Let's talk about that. What do you, you know, so a good salesperson first and foremost is going to get the person exactly what they want because they have no idea. Some people can and go, I want this. It doesn't matter if it looks 

Miranda track Antique: that's a rare, that's a rare.

Tracey track Antique: very rare.

So getting somebody well, making someone happy, making someone a happy consumer is a good salesperson.

Just because someone buys from you, it doesn't mean that you've done a good job because people walk out the store without getting what they. You know, many times I'll catch people on their way out the door. Maybe cause a staff member hasn't really found what they wanted and they're back in the store, almost out the door happier than they could.

Why I never even saw that piece. There that's exactly what I was looking for. I never even thought of using that in that application. So it's sometimes just guiding people on how to, how to do it. It's not, it's not like you said a snow job. A story. People like history, but again, at the end of the day, having having a customer buy something from you is not the goal.

Having a customer become a longtime customer because every time they come to your establishment, they love the experience. And the piece that they bring into their house brings them joy and conversation at the dinner party or whatever else is happening for years. You know, that's what it's about. And for you, it's different.

It. 

Miranda track Antique: Tracy. What's your, what's your retail superpower.

Tracey track Antique: don't know how to put it into one word . But it's evoking a feeling, creating that space. It's my passion to create spaces that people can move through and feel something in many antique stores you'll walk into and you got to search through a whole bunch of crap.

Ola, define one cool thing. That's not what we strive for. We find wonderful things in junkyards sometimes, and you put it in a beautiful environment in the Right. setting and all of a sudden it's a gem, right. So that's, that's, Tracy's 

Miranda track Antique: So it's like an aesthetic. 

Tracey track Antique: the word? Yeah. 

Miranda track Antique: What's your favorite memory? You have a lot of different stores. There's been a lot of different iterations. What is your favorite memory of this place so far?

Tracey track Antique: That's a good question. Favorite? I, I I have one as a recent one. We have, we sell jukeboxes. We play them sometimes, especially when it's the energies, maybe a bit low, we'll put it on and plays old music. And I recently had, this is before lockdown, I guess, a family.

And I thought it was a boyfriend and girlfriend with their parents. And I thought it was one of their children, you know, late teens. Dancing with each other in the store to a fifties tune to teenagers. And I'm like, Oh, this is like, they were brother and sister. And I'm like, exactly right. Like that's a pretty favorite memory.

And also for me, memories of little children, like little ones loving our place, like three years old or people that are 85 years old, there's really no demographic in age. 

Miranda track Antique: Yeah.

Tracey track Antique: And I was just going to say the NIS. I think we're both nostalgic about just the evolution, but Brighton was a special spot when it was the cafe, the ice cream parlor in the back, we catered a wedding.

We catered a wedding. People used to, aside from that couple dancing that was in Kingston, Brighton people used to just dance in the aisles while they're eating their grilled cheese. And I'm getting goosebumps. Closing up that shop last April. It was a very weird thing for us because we were closing doors on an iconic place.

It was not what we envisioned in terms of our last days there. We wanted to have a party and we wind up dancing again. And So it's just ebb and flow and that's life. Everything has its time. And we've gotten that feedback from Brighton to a lot of people. We miss you. We,

Miranda track Antique: So you weren't, you weren't really overly emotional when you close the place,

Tracey track Antique: There were certain things. It was, it was, it was time. It just felt like 

Miranda track Antique: right?

Tracey track Antique: sad things. A lot of people were very sad. Some people were actually even angry. Like, why are you leaving? You know, why there was bitterness about like that we're not there anymore. 

Right. But that's the problem with retail too. Another thing to tell people, don't open retail, separating personal from business is hard sometimes because you have your business life, but your personal life has got to move in the direction.

It needs to go. Whether it's time for our family. 

Miranda track Antique: well then that makes the decision easier, right? When you're doing it for your, for your.

Tracey track Antique: I heard her decision to do it. And so just to add onto the whole thing of memory, it's in the creating, it's creating the memories. I'm already, my mind has built this scene at 77, which is what I like to call it. 77 princess is where we're going to be creating this space, but it's creating the memories.

I don't know. I can't even say it. 

Miranda track Antique: Well, you're, you're actually in the process of you're going to be building other people's memories because it's a public space. So.

Tracey track Antique: that's it. That's exactly it. It's not our store it's belongs. I mean, it's, it's where we pay our bills, but it's other people will be creating memories in this. Yeah. 

Miranda track Antique: Yeah. All you have all the building is the buildings, just four walls. Each retailer creates an environment in those four walls. That's the magic.

Tracey track Antique: we realized that when we closed Brighton, we had actually never seen that space totally empty, even when we never once. Have you seen that space, but just barefoot. I don't know, it was like walking off the set. It was fine. Like really? It was, it wasn't that lots of good memories, lots of growth, lots of success, like lots of success.

And I don't really just mean monetary success, really? Because as a retailer, most of your successes, otherwise, but It like, I was okay with it. Like I was really

Miranda track Antique: It was just four walls.

Tracey track Antique: totally not. The magic had been moved elsewhere. And that's really what the two things are about. Even COVID has made me realize things there's a central and there's nonessential.

And when you sell, essentially, it's just shelves and product. When you sell non-essentials yours, you have to sell the magic. And so now your new thing is what is it with the new, with that? One of the new tags we hope to incorporate is antique Emporium unlock the past. Embrace. 

Because we have old and new and you want to wrap it, I'll end it on a retailing or a business note.

There's a company that trades on the Dow Jones, industrial average, which is 30 major companies for people that don't know. And it has traded for over a hundred years. There's a company called 3m. Have you ever heard of 3m? 

Miranda track Antique: Yeah. 

Tracey track Antique: What did they 

sell to 

Miranda track Antique: post-it 

Tracey track Antique: wait, but do you know what 3m stands for? 

Miranda track Antique: No, this is going to be awful.

Tracey track Antique: Minnesota, mining and minerals.

Point being evolution in business. We'll keep you around for a hundred years. If you try to do the same thing over and over again for a hundred years with a changing world, especially at the pace that the world's changing now you're doomed. You know, you have to be changing all the time in 3m as an example, I always like to use because they didn't sell post-it notes a hundred years ago. 

Miranda track Antique: Okay guys. It's so great. You've just charged my day. You've made me feel like there is hope and retail and there are happy retailers out there.

Tracey track Antique: Most days, most days retail will be around forever, at least till Bitcoin takes over the world. And then I dunno when Bitcoin takes over, we're all doomed 

Miranda track Antique: look forward to seeing you at the antique Emporium in Kingston.

Tracey track Antique: invite you to our grand new opening in the 

Miranda track Antique: I'll be there. 

Tracey track Antique: Right.