Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 22, 1995 TAG: 9501200036
SECTION: ECONOMY PAGE: 16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CLAUDINE WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Roanoke may not be the hub for art and craft stores, but Christine Byrd, Kalinda Wycoff and Theresa Cook were willing to gamble that tourists prefer homemade artwork over plastic reproductions.
And that gamble has paid off.
With two locations in Roanoke County and one in Floyd County, the three women transformed New Mountain Mercantile from a Mom and Pop - make that Mom and Mom and Mom - venture, into a business that creates interest in local products. They operate inside Tanglewood Mall and last summer opened the first retail operation at the new Explore Park.
In the future other small towns across the country could tap more into local artistry, Byrd said. But right now, New Mountain Mercantile has created a niche of its own.
"I don't think we are 'it,'"Byrd said. "We have a rich variety of traditional crafts here. There are other places, other pockets of artistic areas, but we have an advantage of already existing."
That advantage comes in the form of the traveling tourists who stop by and shop or call to place orders, Byrd said.
"That woman on the phone was visiting us from Fairfax," Byrd said after taking a call in the Tanglewood store. "She had seen a print on the wall about a year ago and wants to place an order. That happens all the time."
Since the opening of the first store in Floyd County four years ago, business has quadrupled, Byrd said. Though their business venture could be called a success story, the owners said they still are struggling to expand their market and dispel mainstream labels.
"We are not a craft store and we are not solely a gift store," Byrd said. "We are a mercantile. We are a collection of different artwork."
Items like tiny medicine bottles flank the store's shelves. There are paintings, handmade sweaters and a colorful array of tie-dyes.
While many shoppers have begun see the Tanglewood store as a permanent fixture in the mall, Byrd is quick to add that the store still has what she considers a temporary lease.
"Whether we open up in another mall depends on if malls hear the outcry for a more diverse product," she said.
NEW MOUNTAIN MERCANTILE
THE COMPANY: New Mountain Mercantile, founded four years ago, sells different kinds of artwork and crafts created by local artists.
HEADQUARTERS: Floyd.
OPERATIONS: The company operates three stores in the area - the main store ANNUAL SALES: $346,000.
EMPLOYEES: 12.
by CNB