Getting to know your neighbor: Southtowns Rte 219 Antiques offers something for everyone

Karen O’Hara’s antique warehouse, Southtowns Rte 219 Antiques, brings antiques down to the consumer’s level with what the owner calls “usable, utilitarian antiques that the modern family can use in their everyday lives.” Located past the commercial strip on Cascade Drive, O’Hara’s 8,000 square foot store features stalls with merchandise from 60 different vendors, a variety that offers something for every taste and price range.

The antique store has been in operation since 2008, after O’Hara sold her consignment store, Second Glance Consignment and Gifts, in the village of Springville.

“In consignment, I carried mostly kids’ and women’s clothing. I would take the product and sell it at a 40-60 split,” O’Hara explained. “In a co-op, which is what the antique store is, the owner sells the item and takes 100 percent of the profit. I don’t take any commission. Vendors rent a space in the store and pay a monthly rate.

“I wanted to expand from where I had the shop in the village of Springville, and this location became available,” O’Hara added. “There was an antique store in Hamburg that was going out of business, so I asked the owners if they wanted to rent and they said they were interested. Eleven dealers came with them, and, by word of mouth among the antique dealer community, I actually had people come to me to say they wanted to rent space.”

O’Hara has seen many changes and much growth since she opened her doors, including dealing with changing conceptions about antiques’ being expensive or opulent.

“A lot of people don’t realize that they can come to an antique store and get a piece of furniture like they’d get from a big box store, but better quality,” she said. “You can go to a store ... and spend $600-$1,000 on a dresser and it’s poorly-crafted veneer over particleboard. You can take it home and it’ll get banged up or fall apart and you’ll need to replace it in five years. Or, you can come in here and get a dresser that’s been around for a hundred years and will probably last a hundred more that will cost far less and actually appreciate in value.”

O’Hara added that many antiques also hold potential for customization, inviting those who want a do-it-yourself project to come in and see what they can make their own. “It’s interesting to see young people who are looking to furnish a home come in here and modernize a piece. They’ll take a commode, for example, and cut a hole in the top and put a sink in. Then, if they do go to resell, it will add value to their home because people will fall in love with the piece,” she said, pointing out a promising item in the shop.

“A lot of young buyers don’t realize the potential for a piece gaining value. They can sell it years down the road and get their money back, sometimes even more, or they can pass it down as a family heirloom.”

In addition to selling merchandise families can use to add character and value to their homes, O’Hara said the antique store offers a shopping experience that can be valuable, especially for children.

“I want people to come in and look around with their kids so they can learn about history, back before everyone had those handheld electronics. So the parents and grandparents can say, ‘Look, this is what I used to have when I was your age,’” said O’Hara. “In today’s economic hardship, it’s important to teach our kids that there are ways out of a difficult situation, and buying and reselling antiques is one way of doing that.”

Dealers come to display their wares from all over the country and Canada, most notably from Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida. Southtowns Rte 219 Antiques acts as a supplier to other stores as well as a retail space, and the business depends on Canadian customers for a healthy bottom line, since these customers are often more interested in higher-end pieces than the average local buyer.

“They’re usually the ones coming down on their way to Ellicottville, looking to furnish a second home,” O’Hara explained. “I stock what the market can bear. This isn’t New York City. I do like to have some of those ‘wow’ pieces, where people can come in and say they’ve never seen anything like it before, but I also want to know that I can sell it, that I can move the product.”

She added that one “wow” product she has sold was a naval officer’s sword from the 1800s, which was crafted in Solingen, Germany.

“It was pristine,” O’Hara recalled. “A person had bought it at auction and asked me to look into it, and I was able to tell him not only that it was very valuable, but that I also had a buyer for it. Now he’s a loyal customer. It was a real wow moment for me to be able to do that.”

O’Hara said that one of the most rewarding parts of running her antique store is sharing in the excitement of a big find. A collector of Buffalo pottery, she said she enjoys seeing what dealers bring in, learning about the pieces and finding out more about the business.

“Antique dealers are a different breed; they’re always very willing to share with you what’s real and what’s a fabrication, what’s selling now in the market, what’s a pretty good deal. It’s a real education,” O’Hara said.

Despite a dedicated stream of both customers and vendors, O’Hara said the closing of the old Route 219 bridge and associated uncertainty over when or if it might reopen has led to “a lot of sleepless nights.

“The new expressway cost me money. I had to take out twice as much advertising, and I had no control over that. You’ve got to get the customers, and eventually the costs work out,” she said, referencing the construction of the 219 extension that allowed southbound traffic on the expressway to bypass Springville businesses altogether.

“With the bridge closing, we don’t have a time frame to work with and it’s very difficult for a businessman not to have control over their own budget. We’ve gone from 2,500 cars per day to nothing,” O’Hara said. “On a Friday, to have an empty shop, that’s scary for me and it’s scary for dealers. They’re depending on their stalls in the store for their livelihood. If they leave, I can’t pay my bills and then we have another empty storefront in Springville, and there’s a ripple effect.”

She added that the customer traffic vendors bring into the area is beneficial for many types of businesses, including gas stations, restaurants, grocery stores and local merchants. If she is unable to keep her shop open, that spin-off business also stops.

“The [Springville Area] Chamber of Commerce is really doing a fantastic job of staying on top of it. I commend Kate Moody for that and I’m so thankful to have someone like her in my corner. But we, as citizens, need to get involved. We can call our congressmen and senators. It’s very convenient right now to go to Wal-Mart to pick up what you need, to go to Lowe’s, get your shakes at McDonald’s. It’s not going to be so convenient to have to go to Orchard Park for those things when the road closes because there’s no traffic. Everybody in this area will be impacted,” O’Hara said.

“Six weeks to just get a response from the [Department of Transportation] is a long time. People need to be asking these questions. The DOT needs to be honest and transparent with us,” she added. “I think the DOT should ... give us some information so we know what to do; so we can prepare a budget. If we did that to them, if we said we’re shutting down their area and didn’t say whether it would be six weeks or two months or a year, they couldn’t operate. They need to be there, person to person. That’s good business.”

Southtowns Rte 219 Antiques is open seven days a week: Monday - Saturday, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Sundays, 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.