Michael was browsing Craigslist for some sort of retail storefront, Austin yielded results if you wanted to pay $10k+ a month. The antique mall model is very simple: find a big enough space, in a high traffic area, rent it, fill it with booths that will cover your own rent plus make a profit. We were able to find a 10,000 sq ft. old Sears store on a main highway in a small town called Taylor, which is about 35 miles northeast of bustling Austin. Without knowing a soul in Taylor, we moved our home and started to recruit vendors for the mall. “The big risk was finding vendors, there was a two week period that was intense for us, we just rented this huge store, paid all the money we had at the time, and it was all vacant. Fear did set in from time to time during that period.” After that two week mark and a successful open house we were able to sign up 35 booths in three weeks time! To this day there is a one page wait list.

On Jan 2, 2019 Vintique Mall was born. Our dreams came true, all the hard work, determination Luisa and I faced all came to fruition. 2019 was a blast, we extended the mall into our warehouse making up over fifty unique booths. We have second Saturday market days out front in our parking lot with live music and food trucks. Our first year couldn’t have been any better, we were ready to ring in 2020 or so we thought.

One year in and life was good but a few months later Covid-19 hit and impacted the world and our business. On March 19th we were forced to close our doors per the governor’s orders. This was a trying time for our business as we did not know what to do and if this meant an end to Vintique Mall. Luisa said, “We must adapt and change our business model” so we started selling online via an online auction site, which netted decent results. A month later on Michael’s birthday April 20th we created “Vintique Mall Curbside to go group” on Facebook. Everyday we posted photos of inventory, customers would comment and purchase via online invoices. We were offering free local delivery within Taylor and no contact curbside pickup.

Our community and customers from afar rallied with us and really supported us, the Facebook group

was a huge success. With over 950 members, it was a true blessing, in fact Michael still posts weekly in the online group as customers love to shop from home. There were times where online sales were better than anytime that we were open! We decided to stay closed even though we could have slowly reopened. The online sales were just too good to open back up and chance spreading the virus.

We finally reopened on July 2nd. Face coverings are mandatory to shop in the store now. We had some of our best single day sales days during Covid-19, it’s a weird fact but the antique business for us has only strengthened during these times as our sales numbers are up 20% from just last year. We are empathetic to all the businesses that had to close for good; we are extremely thankful that we are allowed the opportunity to do what we love and stay open.

Vintique Estate Sales wrapped up two of its biggest estate sales this summer and we just signed a lease for another storefront “House of Vintique”, which will feature vintage clothes, records and home decor mainly from the 1960-1980s.

We live by this: “Never give up”; “Follow your dreams”; “Work hard”.