All in a Day's Work - Chapter 2

Today was Reconnaissance Day; a day for Jane and I to gather intelligence on our upcoming new frontier as retailers...the flea market.

Our Mission...
Determine the following parameters for our next event...

• Timing...how long does it take to get to Williamsburg Brooklyn from Montclair NJ
• Landscape...observe foot traffic
• Design parameters...survey the layout constraints of booth
• Competition...conduct an informal assessment and competitive analysis

Today we visited Artists and Fleas in Williamsburg Brooklyn (pictured here).


I'm often embarrassed by my total ignorance of Williamsburg. I'm a born and raised, die-hard, Brooklynite dammit but once I cross that Willie B bridge, I'm completely and utterly lost. How did we survive before GPS? Doesn't matter. Nigel (my iPhone navigator) led us there safe and sound without a hitch. Great day for a dry run although I'm still a bit nervous about the actual day. Jane knows. I'll want to leave NJ three hours ahead for a 50 minute trip. You can never be too careful ya know.

So we enter and I gotta tell ya...butterflies. Right off the bat. I'm not really sure why. Maybe it was the hum of active commerce. Maybe it was the eclectic decor which spoke to our kindred aesthetic. I'd like to think it was complete expectancy; the super anticipatory feeling to get in the game with the other vendors who seemed to fit together like a family somehow.

We were immediately drawn to the very first vendor left of the entrance called The Spooky Boutique. We loved his collection right away. Of course Jane tried on a few pieces. Everything looks great on her even if it doesn't fit (see pic below).


The owner Ricky was a sweetheart. Unfortunately this was one of his last days with A&F. He tells us that after 20+ years in the vintage business and 10 years with Artists and Fleas, that he would be closing up shop and heading to Wisconsin. That's a shame. I was really looking forward to making him my new friend. I could tell he has stories to tell.

Thanks to our surveillance, Jane now has what she needs to conceptualize our limited 6'x6' booth. It's gonna be tough but knowing her, it's gonna be great and inspired (no pressure girl).

And as far as fact finding missions go, I'd say this was a success. We spoke to a few vendors, everyone seemed friendly and we even walked away with a few goodies.

Mission accomplished! We completed all of our objectives. Not a bad day at the "office".

All in a Day's Work
Peace
TheKatalist

Come on out to BK and visit us at Artists and Fleas on January 10th and 17th from 10am to 7pm. 

All in a Day's Work - Chapter 1

Jane and the forbidden hat

Peeps are always asking us "What do you guys do all day?"  It's almost as if they don't believe there's work involved in building a vintage clothing business.  Well there IS a ton of work...but there's also a ton of fun.  And by fun, I mean high jinx, antics and the occasional mishap.

Today, Jane and I decided to visit a local vintage retailer I've heard great things about.  For some reason, we've never quite had a chance to visit; mainly due to the odd hours the guy keeps.  But we were lucky today!  The place is of course gorgeous; like walking into a time capsule.  There's Louis Armstrong playing on an old turntable.  He's got Miracle on 34th Street projected onto a wall.  It really is everything.

I yell across the store "Gurl! They've got hats over here!"  The word "hats" is a trigger word for Jane.  She can't resist them.  She has to put them on.  Some are outrageous and fun.  Some are bugged.  But we have fun taking pictures of her in the hats (maybe I'll post another time).  This day was no different, but wait stick a pin in it right here.  I'll come back to this...

You see, in this business; the vintage business,  there are a lot of...how can I say this without sounding mean.  There are a lot of...characters.  And if there's one thing Jane and I love, it's characters and you could tell the owner of this particular place took great care in creating a certain ambiance.  We totally get it.  In fact we honor and appreciate it. So the point I'm trying to make (not sure how successful I am at actually accomplishing that), is that we like to meet like-minded "characters" like ourselves.  But just when we thought we'd found a new friend...

Fast forward or backwards or wherever the pin was where I yelled across the store.

Jane comes running over to the hat section and starts doing her thang.  Tryin' on this one and that one.  We laugh and joke.  She makes her way over to one tucked away in the corner.  She tries it on.  We decide it's picture worthy and I snap the shot (seen above).  We giggle some more and then out of no where the shop owner appears and ever so gently (with a slight hint of panic), he removes the hat from her head.  "This is a museum piece", he says.  "OH!", Jane and I sing simultaneously. "Sooooowwwwyyyy!!".  "There was a sign", he smirks. We apologize again.  Hmmm.  I'm not sure we did.  We probably did.  Who knows, but from that point on the tension was thick,  So we pretended to browse some more and quickly got out of dodge.  He wanted nothing more to do with us.

Needless to say, this is now the 2nd (or is it the 3rd?) store to which we can't go back.  DAMN!  He had nice stuff!

All in a day's work...

Peace
TheKatalist

Shop Small

Follow my blog with Bloglovin