A few weeks ago, my husband and I dedicated an entire day to antiquing. We have some really great shops on one street in particular in our city. We parked our vehicle at one end of the block and decided to walk to each antique store lugging our purchases behind us. I think that it was only -15°C that day, so why not? We had better make hay while the sun shines!
The first store was called Back to Coffee Beans. It’s our favourite vintage store in Saskatoon. I like it because it has two levels of “stuff”. It’s mostly filled with oversized furniture, but has really great smaller items like bowls, jewellery, skulls, and pictures. There are always great deals happening, and the guy who works there is also incredibly friendly as well. Geoffrey likes it because the store also doubles as a coffee shop. While I’m looking around and staying focused, he’s usually playing with something and sipping a hot drink.
The second store was called Owl & Crate. They have more expensive but still really unique items in their shop. You can tell that it’s a very organized and well-run business. However, because they have several new items mixed in with the vintage pieces, and a few side businesses going on in one little store, it feels like a mall inside of a strip mall. I much prefer to go antique shopping in divey-er locations. To me, it feels more authentic.
All in all, it was a very good day.
Emory
Hello, Scarlett Blog 
Chris
/ 04/26/2014Love the ‘Russel’ building photo and the “found objects” (my term) photos. I agree about antique shopping – the retail experience needs to be fairly authentic as well. Hunting and pecking in a unique antique store is one of life’s universal guilty pleasures. There’s a large antique “mall” a few hours from us that we goto on occasion, and it literally used to be an old tiny indoor mall. It’s just not the same, despite the sheer amount of items to browse.
One last note on antiques – I always love the idea of old items with a history, but then find myself getting weirded out by strange smells or I start thinking about decades of grime and dirt. I guess the ideal and reality are not easily resolved by me when it comes to antiques.
Thanks for sharing.
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