Thursday, September 10, 2009

Needs Improvement

For a while, I’m talking a while, now I’ve been meaning to post about the Antique Station. In the beginning days of our booth I spent time browsing and snapping photos (with the handy iPhone) of booths in the mall with the intention of highlighting this space to share with you, and for inspiration in my own endeavor. In the end I posted these images on Flickr, linked my Flickr account in the sidebar here and called it a day. I’ve failed you in this endeavor until today, today I post about the Station.

Regretfully I honestly say that we by far are the winners of the Ugliest Booth Contest. Of course there’s no such thing as a booth contest, there should be but there isn’t, but in my own mind there is and we LOSE. After all that’s what I do to facilitate improvement on my part. I compare my blog to yours, I compare my booth to yours, I see things I like in mine and in yours, and I improve, that’s my intention anyway. So in this non-contest in which I am the only judge, the winner of the coolest, what I aspire our booth to achieve is - da…dadada….



S/he conjures within me a longing to sit a while, a miniature of how one may desire their living room to appear, if said living room was say in NYC and a closet. In my opinion it’s possible that a person could walk into this booth and walk away with practically everything. They would most definitely need to reupholster those chairs, and it helps that I aim to collect just this style for my own home, but admit it they created a real good retail space in this little 10 x 10 square.

There are many people selling kitchen-wares, same as me which may contribute to slow booth sales of my stock (Scott’s stock lacks nothing, we’re killing it with the Star Wars toys and Baseball cards). But the Station is stocked through with Pyrex and kitschy 50’s thingys!





Though I aim to bring home mid-century furnishings I still lean toward loving the “Shabby Chic” look and I’m not the only one. Ever since I made a small, very small, not even close to a fortune, off of that blue Shabby Chic picture frame I’ve been on the hunt for more.

Shabby Chic can be modern and it can be cool, and I don’t think this booth pulls off either of those adjectives. But if you’re going to buy one of these pretty in pink items you’re probably going to buy a few, and that my friends is a great sales technique.



I’m going to follow that last paragraph up with an, I realize this is for a little girls room, but I don’t have kids and when I do I don’t plan to create a little princess.

Something else that we’ve recently come into way too much of is stuffed animals, and that something is something that does not sell. We’ve not sold one and it’s a little upsetting considering we have two HUGE garbage bags full at home. Cute too, real cute, charming and old, Disney, exactly what you may guess someone is looking for but nope, whatever it is it’s not enough. Others sell these as well, others sell baseball cards too but those sell, and in all of these other booths that sell stuffed animals I see a good set up. Which leads me to wonder what am I doing wrong? Why, oh why must we win the Ugliest Booth Contest?




With all this talk about how ugly our booth is you may be thinking, it can’t be THAT bad, but trust me, it is. And you may wonder, maybe you’d like to see a photo of the booth as of late, but I will leave you to imagine if you can, a booth overflowing with junk, lined with bookshelves, filled with junk. The Star Wars toys neatly fill half the back wall, and Scott is proud and they do look nice. No furniture fills the space, a suitcase full of tee’s sits on the floor beneath our “Shabby Chic” (there it is again) table, yes we have a table but it doesn’t help. The floor is lined with junk (there it is again), hanging from the Baker’s Rack is a dress, sitting in a pot there are many ties, and in a basket some belts. The only item in which I have to be proud is a white bookshelf that presents itself outward to passersby in the aisle, with my goodies and my goodies alone. There is a lot to be desired of this booth, and though I will be critical of myself no matter, I know it's bad when my buddies who work the station confirm it's truth. And so my friends that is what you have to imagine.

What I have to imagine is what it will be.

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