Good Antique Mall...Bad Antique Mall...

Today was the first day of the annual spring sale at Livingston Antique Outlet (the mall where I have my booth). It was packed! Lots of shoppers, and lots of dealers. I was very pleased to see the place so full and even more pleased to see people buying lots of stuff!

When you walk in at LAO, you are greeted by one of the workers at the check-out counter whether they are assisting someone one or not. The staff is all very friendly and eager to help. I spent a good couple of hours there wandering through all of the booths and ended up with some great deals. I was surprised that not all of the booths participated in the sale. I wonder if other shoppers did what I did, and skipped those booths that didn't have sale signs...

When I left, I headed down the road a little bit to another antique mall and was so disgusted-I probably won't go back for a mighty long time-if ever.  The owners are all older guys with long hair and scraggly long beards. There is nothing wrong with that in itself, but they do not greet you when you enter, (even when you have to walk past them smoking on the sidewalk to enter the building) they don't have staff walking around assisting, they aren't friendly, and they are intimidating because they look like they are scowling at you when they look at you.

The check-out room has a squalking parrot sitting out on a perch, the whole room looks like something you'd see on Pickers-it's a HUGE mess! Worst of all...the music! AC/DC is not soothing music to shop by---especially when it is blasting so loud, you cannot even concentrate on what you are looking at and only want to get the heck out of there!!!

I carried a pitcher around for a long time walking past one of the owners several times before he finally offered to carry it up for me. Then he disappeared so I had to go up to ask the guy at the counter for someone to unlock a locked cabinet for me to see something. He said, "Of course it's locked!" What's that supposed to mean? Then the other guy walked in and he told him I wanted to look at the Hall stuff. The one coming in rolled his eyes, lets out a big sigh and got the key.

I lead him back to the cabinet and he pulled out the two pitchers for me to look at-one had a huge manufacturing flaw. I asked how much because, oh...by the way...none of the pieces were marked (my biggest pet peeve). He said a ridiculously high price and I quickly stepped back and said no thanks. He countered $20 less and as I said no thanks and kept walking, he kept shouting out, what do you want to offer? I politely said nothing near that price-thanks anyway, and kept walking.

I am soo glad that we chose LAO to rent our booth space! I was wondering about the other place and how their sales were. I noticed only one other couple in the second mall, while I couldn't even count the people in LAO! Overall, the shopping experiences were night and day different. 

Here is what I bought today...all but one thing is for me... (eye) candy for my Easter basket? =)

I've had my eye on the big orange Fiesta chop plate for at least 3 years, and today it was 20% off-so I snatched it up! The fired on bowls were ridiculously cheap-couldn't leave them behind either. I got the white pitcher, blue pitcher and baby A & W mug at the second mall. I plan to sell the mug and keep the rest.

I went to lunch with Eric today. We ate at Red Robin and used his coupon for a free burger for his birthday. Do you have a Red Robin by you? You should go to their website and register your birthday-they will send you a coupon via email for a free burger for your birthday. We all are registered and we go every time.

Adam is house sitting for a friend of mine and Eric is staying with him. They have a HUGE house and a HUGE dog! He's a great dane who thinks he's a lap dog. When I dropped Eric off, Zukey came out to greet me, and I snapped a few pics to show you how huge he is...

Did you get to any sales today? I'm heading over to your blog next to check out your treasures! Hope you had a great day! Happy Weekend and Happy Easter!