LLOYD LOOM SOFA

We have never seen an original loom sofa in all our years dealing...well, until now! We now have one in the shop, form 1938; it’s a really beautiful shape. We’ve painted it grey to give it a slightly more contemporary feel and it looks great...even just for displaying our cushions on!

SALESPERSON OF THE WEEK

An odd one, this. The phone rings –

“Hello, Nest”
“Hi. I had a load of stuff I was going to bring over to you to sell, but I sold it all to another dealer – sorry.”

“Right, good, well done! Err..bye”.
“Bye.”

We award this person salesperson of the week – if anyone else wants to phone us up to tell us they sold a lot of things to another dealer...well...perhaps don’t bother?!

CAR BOOT SALE

I was at a car boot, selling, the other Sunday (a general build up of domestic and workshop stuff). I hadn’t ‘done’ a car boot for about 10 years so it was great fun catching up with the experience. It did give me the chance to sharpen up my haggling skills. Normally I use them to buy, but I was on the other side of the fence, this time.

Trouble is, I don’t haggle in the shop so I think I may have offended a few buyers with my ‘robust’ style!
One guy asked “how much for the desk, mate?”
“Tenner” I said.
“Would you take 8?” he replied.
“No, a tenner’s fair”.
“Yeah, but I want a deal” he said.
So I replied “Right, I want 15 for the desk”.
He went quiet and then said “What about a tenner?”
“Done.”

This was my general philosophy the whole day. A rather irritated lady wanted to buy a child’s chair.
“How much?” she said.
“Tenner” I replied.
“What about 7?”
“No.”
“What about 8?”
“No.”
“Oh, come on, last offer – how about 9?”
“No.”
“You’re not very nice, are you?”
“10 quid is a bargain for that”, I said.
“Well, I’m going to think about it” she replied.
“You’re going to think about a quid?” I said.

She thought about it for five seconds and gave me the tenner. She broke the basic haggling rule. She kept her feet pointing at the chair the whole time, which means she wants it.... Still, she could have done a handstand and sung the national anthem – it was still going to cost her a tenner!

And, by the way, last offer should always be your last offer. If it isn’t – don’t say it!

SALESPERSON OF THE WEEK

I award myself ‘Salesperson of the Week’ for presiding over the worst Tuesday of the year so far. I immediately sacked myself at the end of the day. Unfortunately, I was re-employed the next day and made to sand things at the workshop all day as punishment.

Obviously this award is erring on the side of sarcastic....

STEALY STEALY

The results of the stocktake have come through. There will be a few close calls, recounts and a final judgement and then it’s all over for another year – yee ha!

One result of a complete stocktake, that we become painfully aware of, is the amount of stuff that gets stolen. And specifically what is being stolen.

We had to stop selling our lovely Italian marble coasters because too many were being lifted. The temptation is to try and make the shop more secure and put more things behind glass but it would spoil the look and atmosphere of Nest and we desperately don’t want a few s**ts to mess it up for everyone else.

The other thing we notice is the amount of damaged stock that needs either writing off or repairing. It’s those pesky kids – in fact child damage costs us nearly as much as theft. Now we’re not about to bar children (although there are days when we think about it!) but some of the stories we could tell of unruly children....

Anyway, that’s another rant for another day!

VINTAGE RANT

A reproduction sign saying ‘vintage store' just about sums up the way this word is now misused.. Grrr!!

ROAD TRIP

Our buying trips have been few and far between this year due to the weather. Lots of antique fairs have been cancelled so we’ve been relying on more local sellers to keep us stocked up. However, we did manage to get over to a big (ridiculously cold!) fair this week and picked up a few choice items.

Thankfully we’ve found lots of taxidermy for the shop – including an arctic fox in a case stalking a rabbit, some stoats and a magpie. Sadly, a Scottish dealer who was supposed to be keeping aside some ‘special’ items for us decided to sell them...Kathryn is relieved! Although we did pick up from him the most fantastic metre long ‘blue’ fish on a plaque – but it’s so nice I’m keeping it...along with the bust of Mary and baby Jesus (do not attempt to break into my house at night, it will freak you out! As would the stuff pictured here...strangely, we weren’t tempted).

What else did we get? Some lovely old milk urns – great planters, a large 30 drawer metal mechanics cabinet on wheels (very industrial chic!), lots of lovely chairs, blankets, boxes, toy cars, typewrites, bird boxes...and did I mention stuffed animals?!