By Aleasha Sandley, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
\ANDERSON — Barbara Smith has been moving and expanding her consignment store since it started 14 years ago in a small two-room building in Anderson.
After a couple years there, Smith moved the business, which she named Sophie’s Emporium, into a new location for the next 11 years. Recently, she made her final move to her expanded location at 3729 Madison Ave., which is three times bigger than her previous store.
“I’ve just kind of evolved from little to bigger to bigger to bigger,” Smith said. “I’ve had such positive feedback, it’s amazing.”
With the extra space, Smith plans to add a children’s shop to one end of the store called Maddyson and Max’s Ritzy Rags, named after her 6-year-old granddaughter and 3-year-old nephew. She plans to name a newly created accessories room in the store after her other granddaughter, Audrey.
The store has been a family venture since its beginning, when Smith’s husband, Gerald, encouraged her to start a consignment shop.
“He said, ‘You could start a store with all the clothes you have,’” Smith said. “That’s actually what planted the seed in my head.”
Gerald Smith has since been helping in the store, making racks for the clothes and running the store at times. Although it’s a consignment shop, Barbara Smith has taken care to make sure the store is inviting even to shoppers who usually look for high-end products. The racks are decorated with vintage knick-knacks and dressing-room memorabilia, such as dress mannequins.
“That’s kind of the flavor that I like,” Smith said. “We strive to have an atmosphere of a nice store, a boutique.”
In addition to the women’s and children’s clothes at the store, Smith sells her own line of beauty products called Sophie’s Vintage Vapors. The line includes body powder, perfume, lotion, soap, bath salts and cuticle treatments in Smith’s own made-up scents such as “Savannah Nights,” “Bodacious” and “Charleston Gardens.”
Smith also is expanding into the card business, creating and selling at her shop one-of-a-kind greeting cards for $1.
“They sell like hotcakes,” she said. “Everybody keeps telling me to raise my prices, but I don’t want to.”
In fact, Smith has had to lower her prices somewhat during the current recession, but business remains strong. Women often come to her shop to find deals, including on the $1 racks around the store, she said.
“You can change your wardrobe out without spending a lot of money,” she said. “(Business) is up and down. It goes by the economy. I try to price things so the consigner’s happy, the consumer’s happy and the store is happy.
“I’ve been in business 14 years, so I guess I’m doing something right.”
Smith will consign clothes, accessories, bridal and formal gowns and other women’s and children’s clothing items as long as they are in good condition, she said.
No matter what the economy looks like, Smith said her business has remained strong.
“Even if we weren’t in a recession, women like bargains,” she said. “They’re going to shop whether we’re in a recession or not.”
Contact Aleasha Sandley: 640-4805, aleasha.sandley @heraldbulletin.com.
