For the love of antiques

Downtown Somers is an especially hopping place one Saturday a month, six months of the year, when the Vintage Whites Market is up and running.

The venture by two Somers women began in May and proved itself a good idea from the start, Vanessa Pleasants said.

Pleasants and Jana Roach are partners in the market. The two women are also good friends who share a love of antiques, Pleasants said.

For a while, Pleasants and her mother planned to start an antiques store. They were just waiting “for the perfect location,” which they never found, she said.

One night Roach and Pleasants were talking, “and we came up with the idea of doing it out of our garage,” Pleasants said. So the women decided to redo the garage at Pleasants’ home, “make it up cute, put up burlap and lace,” and go forward. They chose the name Vintage Whites Market during a brainstorming session. Both Pleasants and Roach like the style of white-painted furniture, so they wanted to use the word “white” in the name. “Vintage” made sense because the business focuses on antiques and “market” seemed suitable for their operating environment.

They started collecting furniture and knick-knacks to sell at the market and contacted a group of women they already knew who were fans of antiques and vintage items and invited them to participate.

Roach developed a website and a blog about the market and the Pleasants began using an old pickup truck as a marketing tool. The pickup, adorned with signs about Vintage Whites Market, is often parked alongside the highway and so far this year has appeared in two parades. It’s scheduled to be in the Northwest Montana Fair parade, too.

A goal of the market is “to stay mostly vintage,” Pleasants said. However, they have one soap vendor, one jewelry vendor and a dessert booth. Pleasants and her husband sell some of their vintage-inspired custom furniture.

The other vendors bring all sorts of vintage items — furniture, dishes, knick-knacks, totes and crates, to name a few. Most months, they are joined by 10 to 15 other sellers.

Pleasants and Roach store their goods in the garage from month to month, but other vendors take their unsold merchandise away each month. So far storage hasn’t been much of an issue, Pleasants said. “We usually get pretty cleaned out.”

In the month between sales, she and Roach are busy trying to restock their shelves, “which is sometimes tough.”

Most customers are from the Flathead Valley, Pleasants said. And many are regulars who return every month. Fortunately, she said, almost all shoppers turn into buyers, too.

Some mother-daughter teams are especially avid shoppers who “come every time and buy a bunch of stuff.”

One customer was preparing to move from the Flathead to Philadelphia, and she came to the market to buy furniture for her new Pennsylvania home.

They get plenty of tourists stopping by, too, Pleasants said. “They do buy because we have a lot of little things for sale.”

“We have a ton of fun with it,” Pleasants said. “Next year we’re hoping to definitely go bigger.”

After closing shop for the winter, Roach and Pleasants plan to search for another location for the market. They want to stay in Somers but locate in a larger space than Pleasants’ garage. They’d also like to find a spot that allows for a booth arrangement, similar to those found at farmers markets.

“Right now it’s not really booths,” she said. Vendors “just come and find a place to put their stuff.”

What won’t change, she said, is the emphasis on vintage merchandise. That’s what they intend to sell.

The two organizers are also considering reducing the number of times the market is open in 2011. They’re contemplating three markets — one each in the spring, summer and fall. But no final decision has been made.

Pleasants believes the Flathead Valley is becoming an antiquing destination. “We’re excited about that and helping make it even more so. I would come here to shop if I didn’t live here.”

She says there are “awesome” antique stores throughout the valley, with Columbia Falls a particular hot spot.

“I don’t think the public really knows how many antique stores there are in the valley,” Pleasants said. Part of the reason, she speculates, is the stores “are all spread out.”

The market is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., usually the third Saturday of the month, from May through October. Remaining dates are Aug. 21, Sept. 18 and Oct. 16. It’s at 269 Burns St.

The two women have found a line of customers waiting each month for the market to open, so they’ve had to adopt a policy of roping off the driveway, yard and porch where the other vendors all set up shop, just so vendors have time to set up before being rushed by customers.

They appreciate the eager shoppers, though, Pleasants said, and are developing some sort of prize package for customers who start the line early.

Reporter Shelley Ridenour may be reached at 758-4439 or by e-mail at sridenour@dailyinterlake.com