Published: October 25, 2009 05:03 am      

Red Rooster, This & That: Focus on bargains

FAIRMONT — When Karen Baldwin attends an estate sale or an auction, she can be on the lookout for items for two different shops that she owns with her two daughters.

Baldwin and her daughter Shelly Storms own the Red Rooster, where they sell antiques and country items. Then, with her daughter Tracy Young, Baldwin owns This & That, a thrift store that offers clothes for free and other items for low prices.

“It’s kind of helpful,” Baldwin said. “We can go to yard sales and we can go to an auction. If they have glassware or newer furniture, then we can use it in the thrift store. Sometimes we can pick up glassware, and some are old and some are new. We divide them up. It makes it easy if we can go and shop in one place.”

Located on Apple Valley Road past Deerfield off U.S. Route 250 South, the Red Rooster has been open for about a month, Baldwin said. She and her daughter had the idea for an antiques store for several years.

“We’ve been picking up stuff here and yonder for six years,” she said. “We had a lot of it in our home, plus we’ve been picking up stuff so we could open a shop one day.”

The store offers furniture, glassware, books, table runners and a variety of household items. Current items available include a Hoosier cabinet, china cabinets, some vanity dressers, an old radio, a buffet and antique rocking chairs, Baldwin said.

When she picks up items for the shop, Baldwin has a couple of things in mind.

“I just like the way they looked,” she said. “We started buying them to put in the house, and my daughter Shelly, she has her house furnished in antiques. We like the way they look and the way they are built.”

However, they also want to remain budget conscious.

“We thought that we would get antiques that are down to the prices that normal, everyday people could afford. That’s what we are trying to do,” Baldwin said.

If a customer wants a specific item, even a higher-priced one, she and Storms will keep an eye out. But for the most part, “We are trying to stay away from high-priced items. We have nice items that people would be interested in.”

At This & That, located on Corey Road off W.Va. Route 73 behind MPE Rentals, low prices are the name of the game. The store has been open for about two months.

Her daughter Tracy Young got the idea from seeing leftover items at yard sales.

“We’re still doing that, but we have been picking up furniture — good furniture but not antiques — from sales. So she’s got those for sale, plus she gives away the clothes.”

People who are cleaning out their homes who have leftover items are encouraged to donate what they can.

“We take it in and we clean everything before we put it on the rack,” Baldwin said.

Baldwin works part time at the antique store and also helps look after Tracy’s twin girls, Karen and Kelsey, 3. Tracy also has a 13-year-old son, Nick.

“I work wherever I can or whenever I’m needed,” Baldwin said. “I usually work two days at the antiques store and then whenever she needs me at the thrift store.”

To reach the Red Rooster, call 304-534-9833. To reach This & That, call 304-366-1115.

E-mail Mary Wade Burnside at mwburnside@timeswv.com.