It is funny, but a couple of years ago Estate Sales by Vivian added the tag line to their ads, "The Professionals".  The ads also used the word 'professional' to describe their services.  Since that time, almost every estate sale service in the area has started using "professional" in their ads and on the few that have web sites, they have it the there, too.

As always, since Vivian is so successful, the others rushed to copy what she is doing.  The only problem with the others doing so, is that claiming to be a professional doesn't make you one.

I guess you could get in a semantical discussion about the meaning of the word "professional" much like Bill Clinton did with "It depends on what your definition of "is" is."  If you use it to mean something that is your job or profession then that is one thing, but that is not what normal people think of when they hear that word nor is it the implication that is given when used to describe a business.

To most people, being a professional means adhering to a standard far above the norm; to doing things in an exceptional manner; and to having high standards.  Anyone who visits an estate sale by Vivian, visits her web site, sees her brochure or business card, or deals with her in any way cannot help but be struck by the professionalism in every aspect of dealing with her or her company.  She understands and demonstrates professionalism every day.  That is why her services stand out and why her services are so sought after.  It is also the reason that most of the people who use "professional" in their ads pray that no one really looks closely at their services.  They know that most people know professionalism when they see it.  They really don't want people to look too closely.

Just like when other estate sale services have ads encouraging people to visit other sales before making their decision on which service to use. Few, if any of them really want anyone to do that and none of them would want potential customers to visit any estate sale by Vivian first.  They know what would happen.

That is not to say that there is no one else out there that can provide decent estate sale services or that might even be considered to be professionals.  There are indeed at least one or two who do an adequate job and who are honest.  There are some who are well equipped to handle smaller sales. But few, very few, come close to being professional.  Having rented a booth in an antique mall for years and playing with that on the side, no matter how many years, does not make you qualified handle estate sales, let alone offer a professional service.  It takes a lot more than that.

There are many others who have business practices that I believe cross an ethical line.  For example, some services:

1. Shop the sale first and buy things for themselves or to resell in another venue
2. Allow friends and others to shop before the sale begins
3. Bring in items of their own and add them to the sale
4. Have contracts that allow them to buy the left overs of the sale at a very low price (then they put prices extremely high at the sale so they will be left over).

From my view, there is absolutely no one one who maintains such a high level of professionalism or has such successful sales as Estate Sales by Vivian.  Want to see the difference?  Check out the estate sales in the area and you will quickly see how rare it is to find a professional service despite the frequency the word is used in advertising.

2009 is almost over and in looking back on the year, it was very different from the previous one.  In conversations with other antique shop owners in the area and everyone agrees that this year has not been near as good as 2008.  One well known shop is talking about closing before long, but for most of us it is just a little slower.  Whether it is the econony or other factors, sales have not been as strong.

Of course, we also had Hurricane Ike early last fall (2008) and while that threw things off for a while, the aftermath meant more sales for the shops as people came in to replace things they lost.  Then, too, there was insurance money to spend.  We actually had a great December last year and then January was even better.

The main thing that seemed to be off this season was furniture sales.  The less expensive items, say under $200 are selling at close to normal but higher priced items are a little slower.  I say that with the knowledge that I just sold a painting for $12,500 at the shop as well as a sculpture for $3,000.  Still overall, the higher priced items have moved a little slower this season.

It is hard to complain.  Business is still good and traffic has been heavy.  We have had so many positive changes this year, especially the last half of the year.

We are really poised to have a terrific upcoming year.  Never have we had such a great selection of merchandise nor have we ever had a better group of dealers. The improvements are obvious.  Many of our regular customers have commented about how great the shop is looking.

Thanks to all for making 2009 such a great year.

Wow! Have there ever been some major changes at the AMOB-West.

Since I took over the Mall over two years ago, I have been trying to upgrade the overall appearance and merchandise offered.  That has meant slowly weeding out some dealers and only allowing the best of the best to join us.

When I took over the mall was not doing well at all. There was a small core group of dealers with great merchandise, but about half of the booths were nearly empty.  There were several dealers whose merchandise was closer to being flea market booths than belonging in an antique store.  Some changes over the past few weeks have resulted in a major change for the better.  Two booths which were always lacking in many ways have been upgraded with new dealers who have great items for sale.  What a difference it made in the overall appearance of the Mall.

It is not a minor change.  It is very noticable as several of our customers have commented over the past couple of days.  The last of the flea market booths are gone.

There is no question about the quality of dealers that we have.  Without a doubt, we have the best group of antique dealers in all southeast Texas.  One glance inside our doors will quickly prove that.

In order to understand this note, you will need to stop here and go down to the previous Blog about the Tattered Suitcase Newspaper Article.  If you read it first, this one will make more sense.

Tonight came another call from a dealer at another local shop.  This dealer just wanted to let me know what the dealers at that particular shop were saying.  Apparently I was quite a topic of conversation today - all day long.  They were mad because I referred my customer to the estate sales to find picture frames instead of sending them to another antique shop. They said I should have sent them to another antique shop instead of estate sales because encouraging people to shop estate sales hurts antique shop's business.

Isn't that an interesting reaction?  I was really amazed at that information at first, but then after thinking about it for a while, I wasn't so surprised.

In our small antique community in the area, we have some great shops and great dealers but there is a small vocal group that is outside the main.  These dealers can be blind to opportunities and narrow minded in their outlook.  There is sometimes more jealousy and silly bitterness over other's success than there is cooperation.  That is really a shame because even though we are competitors, we can do a lot to help one another and promote antiques in this area which would benefit every dealer.

In this case, such a bizarre reaction may be more a matter of jealousy of what my shops have been able to do or it may be due to the fact that Estate Sales by Vivian was mentioned.

I referred my customer to estate sales because that was the best place for her to find what she was looking for. She wasn't looking for antique frames or antiques of any kind.  If she had been, I would have sent her to the antique shops down the street or around the corner to Jan's and to our College street store because we do have antique frames there.  Had she not found what she wanted on College we would have sent her on to the malls in Lumberton.  That is what we do all of the time.

The antique community in the area is rather small and most of us all know one another.  There is a good level of cooperation among a few shops but with other shops and some dealers in particular, there is a lot of jealousy and some bitterness.  It is sad in a way, silly in others.  Most of the shop owners are more cooperative, but individual dealers can be their own (and the shops where they rent booths) worse enemies.  Some dealers are just jealous of success; some are mad for reasons as silly as being turned down for booths at my shops; and there are some who are just absolutely jealous of the fabulous success of Vivian in this marketplace.  Again, that is silly and sad.

Vivian is a whole different story.  Well, not different actually.  She is the same story on a much higher level.

Since she popped up on the antique scene in the Beaumont area seven or eight years ago, no one has promoted antiques, collecting, and antique shops more than Vivian.  No one.  Her rise to prominence in the antique community for this area so quickly has always been a point of jealousy for some of the "old time" dealers. She opened her first antique mall (the Antique Mall of Lumberton, which she sold a few years ago) and tried to not only promote her mall, but to promote interest in antiques and spread the word about antique shops in the area.  She was rebuffed in her efforts by some of the very people who stood the most to gain from her efforts. Efforts that they did not have the initative and ability to perform themselves.

Despite that, she probably still does more for the antique community than anyone else in the area.  Hundreds of people go to her estate sales every week where they have a wonderful time.  Estate sales spread the joy and love for antiques.  They encourage collectors.  They are sources of knowledge for antiquers and collectors.  Because Vivian has made her sales such a fun and, even social event, her loyal customers absolutely love her sales.  She takes time to not just visit with them but to answer their questions about antiques and collectibles.  She encourages them in their search for more fine items to add to their collections.  In doing so she is a great source of information to her customers about the different antique shops in the area.  This helps everyone in the antique community.

Does encouraging people to go to estate sales hurt antique shops?  Of course not. How short-sighted and silly is that?  Actually, I am being polite since this is a public blog.  It goes far beyond silly. . .

One closing note.

As mentioned, our shops regularly send customers to the other shops in the area - particularly Jan's, Antik House, Calder House, the Antique Mall of Lumberton, and Country Lane Antique Mall.  We will continue to do so because we believe it is the best thing to do for our customers and what all of the shops and dealers should be doing.  We do it daily and we always tell the customer, "Tell them we sent you" because we want the other shops and dealers to know what we are doing.

So how often do we hear a customer walk through the door and say they were sent to us by "such and such"?  Often from one shop down the street, occasionally from a couple of others and from the rest never, or so rarely as to feel like never. Those are shops where we send people almost every day.

So how much are those dealers helping customers meet their needs and assisting them to find what they are searching for? How much are they helping promote collecting and antique shopping in our area?

Isn't it time to put the silliness behind and see what we can do to make things better?  This is a fairly good antique community with some great shops but it could be a GREAT ANTIQUE COMMUNITY if we could work together and promote it.

People who come to my shops know how we treat customers and how helpful we try to be. They know if they come in our shop they will get great service and when they leave they will be encouraged to visit other antique shops in the area. We work hard to let them let them know that we care about them and look out for their interest and try to help them every way that we can even if that means sending them to other antique shops or, heaven forbid, an estate sale. That is the kind of dealers I want in my shops and how I want my shops known. That is the message we want to send to our customers.

If you have a shop, what kind of message is your shop and are your dealers sending?

On Friday, I worked my other shop, the Tattered Suitcase on Calder and 10th St.  We had a nice day there, as usual.  One of my customers was a nice woman who seemed to really love the shop (as almost everyone does).  She bought a cute purse and we chatted about some other things she liked there.  She also mentioned that she was looking for some picture frames.  I suggested that the best place to find picture frames was at estate sales since almost all estate sales have them and they are usually cheap there.  I gave her one of Vivian's cards, Estate Sales by Vivian, and suggested that she get on the mailing list and check out the sales.

This morning, I worked the Tattered Suitcase again (Wow! 2 days in a row).  I got a call just after I opened and was told to get a paper, there was an article about the Tattered Suitcase.

I went over the Rao's and got a Beaumont Enterprise out of the newstand.

It turns out the woman mentioned above was a reporter from the Enterprise and she did a wonderful story on the shop.  (I will scan it and put it on the Tattered Suitcase web site tomorrow).  The story talked about how terrific the shop is (and it is) and what bargains we have there.  She also talked about estate sales.  Apparently, she went to Vivian's web site, too.  http://estatesalesbyvivian.com.  She mentioned Vivian's sales and the estate sale mailing list.

Like I said it was a great story.

So how did it affect sales today? It was crazy all day with LOTS of traffic and people talking about both seeing the article and how they loved the shop.

There are two important aspects of this story.

First, we are proud of how we treat our customers at all of our shops.  We always greet people when they come through the door and we try to be as helpful as we can.  We want our customers to not just buy something.  We want them to enjoy our shops and to spend time there as well as to tell their friends about us.  When they are looking for something we don't have, we send them to the other shops in the area - our own, of course, but we also regularly send them to other shops in Beaumont including Jan's Antiques, the Antik House, and Calder House.  We also regularly send them to the Antique Mall of Lumberton and Country Lane Antique Mall in Lumberton. In doing so, we are serving our customers by helping them find what they are looking for.  We are also serving the antique shops in the area by helping promote antiques in general and by sending them customers.

Secondly, we treat customers like that because it is the right thing to do and, as I have pointed out, we never know who is going to come into the shop and what impact their visit might have whether it is a big sale or, in this case, a wonderful article on our business that let's others know what a great shop we have. I had no idea that the shopper yesterday was a reporter.  I treated her just like I did every other customer who walked through the door.  I know that is why we have the sales that we do and why our customers keep coming back.  I also know that we also got a secondary reward - recognition for our customer service that resulted in even more sales. All from having good dealers with great merchandise at terrific prices along with superior customer service. Sounds like a good plan to me.