On consignment

Proprietor dabbles in a bit of everything

By Raed Battah, rbattah@bgdailynews.com — 270-783-3246

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

If you see David Newman on Monday, you may catch him on his way to pick up his kids from hockey practice. Tuesday might be band, and Wednesday could be dance. You might stop in to see him Thursday about an apartment he has for rent, and Friday see him scrambling to save a familys history by putting out a house fire.

Newman wears many hats as a husband, father and businessman. He is simultaneously a laborer, manager, business owner and Bowling Green firefighter.

His latest venture is Off Broadway Antiques, Gifts and Home Decor, on Indianola behind Tops-N-Video in the former Hawkins Upholstery building. The array of historical and second-hand items only masquerades as a consignment shop. Consignment is a way of doing business where someone sells a product through another individual and collects a portion of the proceeds after the item sells.

My goal as far as the product goes is to have a wide variety, he said. Its not a true antiques store for antiques fans or a yard sale store for yard sale shoppers. We just have good deals and good products.

Off Broadway is neatly separated into dining areas, living and bedroom areas and hanging kiosks of traditional or craft jewelry.

Furnishings include antique chests, dressers, kitchen tables, contemporary dining sets, coffee tables and even a gun cabinet or two. Little treasures like a Kentucky geography book, copyright 1898, sit atop end tables. There are set after set of vintage dinnerware, China and silver collections and rustic cooking utensils to remind home chefs of the way cooking used to be. Old pop music fans can find racks of vintage vinyl from Perry Como to an Elvis Christmas.

Newman is also a big fan of sports memorabilia. He stocks an assortment of baseball cards that includes both brand new Topps cards and classics like 1950s Mickey Mantles.

The far back room of Newmans store is called the Rough Room, where items are more fit for restoration projects.

Its stuff for fixing up, Newman said. Bargain and 1/2 price items that maybe need re-upholstering. I sold a $15 chair to somebody that will spend $200 to restore it.

In consignment, a store owner deals mostly with vendors, not suppliers who try to sell products, Newman said.

The advantage of the consignment business is that you dont have to buy stock, he explained. People will bring in most of your inventory.

Newman said he has nearly 100 consignment vendors, a goal he had set for his first year of operation. Hes hoping to at least double that in the next year.

Newman has been on Indianola for about six weeks. He previously ran Hot Corner Consignment and Collectibles on U.S. 31-W By-Pass. The store was in space his family owned and was only about 1,400 square feet.

The new location in the former Hawkins Upholstery building has nearly 6,000 square feet on the ground floor, with an additional 8,000 feet split between basement and upstairs space. Its location near downtown and on the way out to Scottsville Road is ideal.

He rents space to vendors in his basement level for a monthly fee and they pay him a 10 percent commission for sales. He sets the price for the items and handles the sale after the consignor or vendor leaves him the merchandise. The upstairs will have booth spaces, as well.

The deal with consignment is we normally start around 50 percent off retail and, judging by the condition of the items, add any other reduction or value necessary, Newman said.

His consignors are often customers as well. Madrian Jenkins, a fan of consignment shopping, said its a profitable and enjoyable alternative to traditional shopping.

Its a neat way to shop and a neat way to sell, she said. I like the consignment stores better than the flea markets or yard sales. A lot of my friends do yard sales, but I can never find them. Its nice to go to a store thats cool in the summer and warm in the winter; its more convenient.

Jenkins was dropping off an antique walnut English dining room table Friday.

Its probably 60 years old, she said. My grandmother had it and it got passed to me. Then I passed it to my daughter. Now its looking for a new family.

Jenkins said Newmans business practice is the best fit for consignors and consignees.

I think what hes done is put his merchandise at a price that his consignors can be happy with and that his customers can be happy with, she said.

Pricing, she explained, can be very difficult if the owner is involved in the decision making.

Another consignor, Pete Johnson, met Newman while he still owned Hot Corner on the bypass. Johnson and his wife had consigned with other shops in the area.

My wife and I on different occasions have consigned items to different shops in town, he said. Our reason would be just to take old stuff out and bring new stuff in. They are things that are not really suitable for a yard sale.

Youre better off to try a good consignment store, he added. You couldnt sell it for what its worth and youd have to practically just give it away.

The Johnsons considered using Hot Corner as a new outlet. After they learned Newman had moved into the old Hawkins Upholstery building, they paid him a visit.

He had a lot of really good quality merchandise in there already so we decided to consign with him, Johnson said. He does seem to scan pretty well the stuff that comes in there so you know hes going to carry good stuff. People who know merchandise and antiques will look at his prices and say its fair market value and can bring the consignor a good return.

Basically he works as a broker, Johnson said. He has the building and he does the pricing and he handles the sale and customer traffic.

Half the fun of consigning is browsing through Newmans ever changing inventory, Johnson said.

We might bring something in and buy something the same day, he said.

Newman, who gets help from two employees, said many of his customers are like Johnson and Jenkins, repeat buyers and sellers who like their homes and living rooms and dining areas to evolve periodically.

When hes not at the store, Newman spends time with his wife, Teresa, who works full time at Bowling Green Municipal Utilities, and their children Erin, 19, Josh, 15, and Will, 13.

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