Historic Communities and aging down towns offer the best opportunity to sell specialized products. While strip mall proliferation traps retailers into ever shrinking markets, historic communities are becoming super regional magnets, attracting customers from great distances. For the antique industry, such towns offer magnificent buildings, low costs, community support, and -- best of all -- marketing identity. A dot on the map that reads Snohomish or Centralia, WA, or Lafayette, OR, spells Antiques to collectors across the country... and the world.
1982 The first NW antique mall
opens,
27 dealers on the main floor of the near vacant 1926 Snohomish
Armory.
Today, the Star
Center Mall is a complete antique shopping center, 200 dealers,
a furniture display area,
largest antique reference bookstore in the Northwest, restaurant, and
owner
operated shops.
1983 The first Antique
Quarterly is published. 17 years later more than 60,000
collectors
regularly receive the
newspaper.
1986 A grand but neglected
Elk's Lodge
is transformed into a centerpiece for downtown Centralia's
revival.
Today,
Centralia
Square includes an 80 dealer antique mall, cafe, and owner
operated
shops.
1988 Idle 17 years,
Lafayette's stately
schoolhouse finds new life as Oregon's largest permanent antique
display.
Currently 100 dealers fill three levels of the Lafayette
Schoolhouse, offering a full city block of antique
shopping in Oregon's wine country.
1990 Centralia
Antique Market opens. Three floors and 50 dealers of
antiques,
including American Antique Furniture,
Keystone Antiques; and, now open, myAntiqueMall.com, a showcase mall
for
both Internet and real-world sales.
1991 Our malls
incorporate. We
choose the name "Shopping Destinations" because our customers
come
from
great distances, other states, even other countries. The name
reflects
our commitment to the historic communities
in which we operate and the selection and value of the goods we sell.
1999 Shopping Destinations
Inc. enters
cyberspace with MyAntiqueMall.com, a free service to our 500
dealers.
With an Internet office in each mall, we have made a serious commitment
to increasing our on-line identity.
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