Story by Karen Parr-Moody
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Piddling: It’s a word that perfectly describes the hours people spend in antique malls such as the Shoppes of Sango, which recently opened at 3470 Highway 41-A South. There, visitors sift through secondhand items, antiques and handmade goods, seeking that one-of-a-kind find.
Various finds can be discovered at the 10,000-square-foot Shoppes of Sango, from the rare, carved Victorian bed selling for $2,400 to the less rare, but still collectible, chalkware Kewpie doll marked at $11. It’s a place where shoppers must patiently sift through 60 booths to unveil a treasure.
Piddling through these large antique malls has become a national pastime in the last five years. While mom-and-pop antique shops have virtually become antiques themselves, antique malls have been on the upswing since the economic downturn, according to the New York Times.
The downturn is what inspired Kent Stevenson, the owner of Shoppes of Sango, to go into the secondhand and antiques business. An electrical engineer by trade, he also owns JFB Manufacturing, which occupies 12,000 square feet of the Shoppes of Sango building. The decline in that business meant that he had more room available in his building, yet he couldn’t find one tenant to occupy it.
Stevenson, who doesn’t even own an antique, said, “I thought, ‘If we can’t lease it out to someone, maybe we can subdivide it into little bitty spots for an antique mall.”
After three weeks of advertising the store’s opening, Shoppes of Sango was filled with 60 booths. Stevenson said almost as many vendors are on a waiting list to join.
Stevenson charges $135 a month for an eight-by-twelve-foot booth and $145 for an eight-by-sixteen-foot booth. Unlike many antique malls, there is no commission taken from vendors’ sales.
The store is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays. It is closed Monday. The store will host an Annual Holiday Bazaar from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 23. Call 931-801-7019 for more information or visit www.shoppesatsango.com.
Kent Stevenson, the owner of Shoppes of Sango, stands before a booth filled with Victorian antiques.
A plate covered in moriage gilding along with some portrait plates.
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.