About that Antique Mall...

In March, just shortly after we decided to sell our house, we rented a little 4X8' space at a place in Broken Arrow called World Treasures.  It is not in a very good location, and the managers/owners of the place are trying to do everything on the cheap, so they don't heat in the winter or cool in the summer, and 1/2 the time when there are no customers (which is almost every time I have ever been in there) the majority of the few lights they have bulbs in are turned off. They have advertised on Craigslist, which is where I found them in the first place, but other than that I can't tell that they have done a lot to encourage customers.

English is not their native tongue, and the parents or sister of the wife are sometimes present when I go in.  They do not speak ANY English, and all conversations must be done with the owner over the phone. It has been a bit of a hassle that way.  Additionally, they watch customers like they are going to steal things, following them around and in general making the customers feel very uncomfortable.  There are signs up that say, "Please do not handle merchandise before you buy" and that sort of thing.

The rent is sort of high for no more service than you get, but there is no commission and they do all the legal stuff like collect and pay sales tax so I don't have to.  The first and last month's rent on a six month lease was paid up-front, and since then I have paid three more months of rent, partially from the sales I made.  This last month I actually made a profit over the cost of the booth, but I figure by the end I will have just sold enough to pay the rent on the booth each month, if I am really lucky.

My main goal was to sell some of my Miller Manor Designs creations, but not one of those items has sold since I started there.  SO, considering that much of the stuff I have to sell would not like sitting in the heat and humidity of the building all summer, I plan to pay the last month of rent I have to pay to complete my obligations and get my stuff back out of there before the summer heat ruins it.

I will chalk it up as a learning experience. It still leaves me wondering what to do with all my stuff--so far I have used a lot of it as gifts, but I don't know what I should do with the rest.  I'll be thinking about that.