Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: It's not something that I feel that I'm forced to do. It's something I go in with a passion for. And we discover things in that antique warehouse all the time that just shock us, like, wow, we've got this, we've got that. And you don't notice it till you get it back, that you've really got something special like that. Coco Chanel Villa furnishings. I didn't know they were from there. I just did a lot of research and found out that all the stuff that I brought in was from her villa in the south of France. Wow. That was incredible to find out. And Chanel in Paris emailed me and said, we want this, this, this, and this. They wanted it back.
[00:00:48] Speaker B: That was a clip from today's guest, everybody. Welcome back.
I'm super psyched about today's guest. It's someone who is a personal and family friend and also someone who runs a business that my family loves and I love, my wife loves, and is also just like a cool business with an interesting story. This is a great story about a person and a business that really started from just someone saying, hey, I think I can do that. And then has gone on to really impact a lot of people's lives in a very positive way. So before we get to it, please rate, review, subscribe, all that good stuff. My name is Aram Arslanian, and this is one step beyond Mark, welcome to the show.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: Thank you, sir. Nice to be here.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: So, for the uninitiated, for those who don't know, who are you and what do you do?
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good question. Who am I? Sometimes I don't know. I forget. And it's just that sort of thing. You wake up and where am I? But anyway, who I am is Mark LaFleur, and I've worn a number of hats throughout the years. I was born in Vancouver, and I ran everything from modeling agencies to this particular business we have now. And I actually completely just fell into it. It wasn't something I had planned to do, but I met somebody I fell madly in love with, and that was his profession, and he was working for somebody. And I said, well, let's just open our own thing. You're making too much money for the little bit that you get. So that's what we did. 1989 was the year we did it.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: And the business you opened up was the antique warehouse.
[00:02:46] Speaker A: Can I plug it, please? On 226 Southwest Marine Drive. It's been around now for 35 years.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: And you ship to people all over the place, right?
[00:02:56] Speaker A: Yeah, we do. We're on a couple of really great websites, including the one I built. Well, I built the first one, and I don't know when, but it was early on with Microsoft front page, which was very basic, and people just clicked on very fuzzy photos, and they'd blow up. He still couldn't see anything any better. But it got us on the web really early on, and my partner didn't even think it was worthwhile.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: So the story of antique warehouse and just background for anyone listening, background of how we even know each other is I'd be driving to the airport for work to travel, and I'd always see this place, antique warehouse.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Oh, really? That's how you saw it?
[00:03:39] Speaker B: That's how I saw it. And I kind of, like, fancied myself. Like, oh, you know, like, I like, I like antiques. Of course, I knew nothing, like, 0% knowledge. Right?
[00:03:49] Speaker A: As did I when I started.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: So I went in one day, and you were there, and I just clearly remember you and I having this conversation that I was like, I love this guy, and this place is awesome. I'm totally stoked. And I always wanted to, you know, get into it.
And then when Monica and I met and we started our relationship, we started putting together our house, I said, like, let's go to the antique warehouse. And that started this, like, incredible journey that we've had with you guys, where, as we were saying before we started, like, every room in our house has pieces that have come from you and from your team, and we just love it. Like, it's the best. So why I wanted to have you on the show is because, a, it's just like my antiques. Like, how did you get into it? Like, how'd you build this business? But also, what I love about your business, it's so tied to your relationship and building it with Larry.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: So I know you touched on it just a little bit, that Larry had been working at another antique place, and he hadn't been making a lot of money. Be making money for someone else.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: Yeah, he was a salesman, basically.
[00:04:55] Speaker B: So you said, let's do it. So tell us about the beginning of antique warehouse.
[00:05:00] Speaker A: Yeah, we wanted to be on Main street to start because everybody was there. We couldn't find something on Main street. So we went down to where we are now.
Yeah, we bought. Well, originally it was run by Larry and another guy, and the other guy was.
He was never there, so I bought him out. I said, enough of this. We're just going to. You and I will take over from here. Because the business started failing. And I don't think I got into this last time. But around five, six years after it opened, the business started to fail, and nobody was interested in the quality of furniture we were bringing in. Plus, everybody was bringing in the same thing. So Larry and I had been going to France because we love France. I said, let's bring in some french furniture. And everybody's going, no, you can't do it. It's too expensive.
You have to speak French and this and that. And we did it. We started bringing in French, and that changed everything.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: So why french? French or, like, what's distinct about it? Like, why would anyone care about french antiques versus any other kind of antique?
[00:06:14] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a very good question. Because it's a classic design.
They're beautifully made. French have a great eye for proportion. Like, I've gone down to Spain to look. Half the stuff I won't bring back. It's just not beautiful. The french furniture has all the. Well, it goes through the different kings.
Each french king had his own style. So Louis XV tends to be the most important. And that's the one with the gal bay legs, they call them. That's very shaped, almost feminine shape, because it's so beautiful. And their work is out of this world. It's copied by lots of people, and it's classic. You can have 2300 year old piece sitting there, and it just looks fabulous no matter where you put it. And you know, you've bought some. I should say Aaron has. And Monica have great taste. They've bought some beautiful things that I've brought in, like those little marketry tables and, oh, they're top of the line. And you can put them in any setting and make it interesting. And it's the difference between buying everything restoration hardware like people do, but mixing it. I mean, you can do that. You've clearly done it here, and it looks great. And there's only two chairs that you've mentioned that are. But I. Aram and Monica bought some beautiful, like, that table. Wow.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: Well, you know, there's a certain look Monica gets when we walk in the door. Like, there's, like, a walk in the door and I'll see her look at something, and she gets this distinct look where I'm like, that's coming home with us.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And I never know what you guys are looking for. I remember when Monica bought that, that beautiful vanity, and I had a really cheap because I didn't think it was that marketable because not a lot of people use vanities, but you guys came in and you really scored on that one. That looks great up in Monica's room.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: So if you were to say, like, someone who's even thinking about putting together their house, why would someone think about antiques, especially french antiques, versus like, a restoration hardware or Ikea or whatever, well.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: You want the quality. There's no comparison to quality. Everything in Ikea or restoration hardware, any of them, urban, barn, they're all made in Asia. And if you care about the planet at all, which a lot of people do, why a lot of shoppers come in, it's all about recycle, reuse and the three r, as they call it, the quality will last for 1200 years, whereas I can't piece. You're lucky to have it till next week.
So, yeah, it's the love of the quality and the story and everybody loves the history. Everybody says to me, well, where did you get this? And sometimes I know, but sometimes I'll say, well, I just got it at an auction or dealer.
But where they sourced it from, I don't really know. But I do know that I can tell now, which took a long time to learn how old something is. The age of something is super important, but Ikea won't last. Well, I think they're actually selling off vintage Ikea now that was made in Sweden.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: Really.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: It's become actually quite cool to have because it's lasted for so long. Stuff now it's just disposable.
[00:10:00] Speaker B: What we found was like, when we were looking at stuff and putting together our house, getting antique stuff was comparable from a price wise. And a lot of cases is actually cheaper than getting something brand new from restoration hardware because there was a bunch of stuff that we got or we were going to get where, like, we could just get this from antique warehouse. And it's like a lot cooler, it's more beautiful and there's more work involved because you have to, like, go and source things and something you want isn't necessarily going to be available. That's true. You got to piece together. But we had like, way more fun. So we actually, this whole house had, was filled with restoration hardware stuff.
[00:10:39] Speaker A: Was it?
[00:10:40] Speaker B: It was. That was our first thing because it was during the pandemic and we just needed furniture.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: And we got a bunch of stuff and then after a while we're like, this doesn't feel personal, it doesn't feel cool, it's not beautiful. It's just like, it just feels like, I don't know, utilitarian kind of whatever. And so we ended up replacing everything and it's been amazing. Like, this whole thing that we've been doing with you guys has been awesome. And we also like the idea of, like, bringing something old and giving it a new life with a new family. And then eventually it will go on to our kids or to someone else. So you, you had said earlier you worked in a lot of different businesses. What's uniquely different about working in this industry and having a business in this that you don't think you'd find anywhere else?
[00:11:23] Speaker A: The lifestyle is very different because what we get to go over four times a year, maybe more, to source antiques, and that's really fun. I started to take Michael with me, and I just have a great time. And as you know, Larry used to go with me. And then he passed away, and it got sort of. I don't know if I want to do this anymore. But I did. I kept it going. And I said to him, well, just before he passed on, I said, I can't do this without you. I don't want to do it without you. It's going to be horrible. He goes, no, no, keep it going. We put so much work into it. And so I did.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: So you start the business, and it had been Larry with another person. You bought him out. But for many years, it was just Larry who was on the floor, who was kind of running the day to day.
[00:12:13] Speaker A: He was always on the floor, and.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: You were in the background, and he.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: Didn'T want me coming in.
He thought I was a terrible distraction. He'd say, you're like a witch on a broomstick, flying in and scaring everybody. I said, oh, come on. I'm just pointing out the things that need to be changed here. And he didn't like it, so I never came in. Yeah, but I did the website and mail outs and all that sort of thing.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: But then Larry became ill and you had to step in.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Yeah, that was hard because we got married the year before he passed on, well, eight months before. And I'd step in and start helping him because I could see the decline. He had cancer of the.
Well, it was all through him. And there was one point he couldn't do his books. He was a CGA, actually, just before getting a CGA, and he couldn't write in his ledgers anymore. And that really upset him. I said, oh, don't worry about it. I'll do it for you. But got to the point where he said, well, I'm building a bedroom in the back upstairs. He wanted to put one. And I said, what are you going to do sleep here? And he goes, well, yeah, I have to get rest while I'm working. I said, you don't need to work anymore, just retire. He said, oh, great, I'm retired. And I said, yeah, he was happy about it. It was so funny. I came in virtually not knowing anything because he ran the whole thing. And thankfully, my manager at the time was there for quite a while, so I learned from him very quickly on different things and styles and going to France on my own, it's like I didn't know anything. I did know quite a few things, but I didn't know most of the customers. That was odd. They'd come in and Gareth would always say, oh, hi. And I go, who's that?
So, yeah, it was complicated, but it was fine.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: So you take over the business after Larry passes, and you have to make the decision, am I going to keep going or I'm not going to keep going. Why did you keep it going?
[00:14:32] Speaker A: Well, he was paying me well, I'll be perfectly honest, you know, and I thought he was going to hire me.
I was getting on an age. It wasn't like I was 25 or anything anymore. So, yeah, I kept it going because of that. And I really like it. It's not something that I feel that I'm forced to do. It's something I go in with a passion for. And we discover things in that antique warehouse all the time that just shock us. Like, wow, we've got this, we've got that. And you don't notice it till you get it back, that you've really got something special like that. Coco Chanel Villa furnishings. I didn't know they were from there. I just did a lot of research and found out that all. All the stuff that I brought in was from her villa in the south of France. Wow. That was incredible to find out. And chanel in Paris emailed me and said, we want this, this, this, and this. They wanted it back from the chateau or the villa because they were restoring it. I haven't seen it restored. I'd like to see it.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Let's hear about how it works.
So when you're like, okay, it's time to go to France, you fly over there and what's the program? What do you do?
[00:16:00] Speaker A: We rest for a week of jet lag, as you know. Well, you fly more than I do. I don't know how you guys do it, but anyway, we start to go to all our suppliers that we know, which are very a lot. They vary a lot. We have auction houses that we see we see different dealers that we know will work with us well, and I trust, I mean, that really at the beginning was awful.
Nobody would work with us. They were like, yeah, we don't like foreigners. Get out. They didn't.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: So how did you build those relationships?
[00:16:38] Speaker A: Just by persevering? I mean, they wouldn't talk to us and go, no, get out of here. And I spoke a bit of french, very, very minute bit, and it sounded really bad. But they could see we were determined and we weren't to be trivialized because we had a business to run and we're going to do it. And really, it took a long time to build relationships with them because french dealers, auction houses and everything else, as you might think, are not the friendliest people. They're just not. And they look at you up and down when you come in, and if you're not dressed a certain way, they won't talk to you.
[00:17:26] Speaker B: So you're persistent. You figure it out. So now when you go and buy stuff, is it like when you go to a dealer, are you looking at individual pieces or you just come in and being like, okay, what do you got? What are you doing?
[00:17:38] Speaker A: Oh, no. We look at individual pieces closely because a lot of these warehouses are really dark. And so we bring little flashlights and everything else just to see because, and they're cold and it's not glamorous at all. You go in there and it's freezing and you're like, each individual piece is, we call it curated. In the, in the industry, where you've handpicked each piece, it's time consuming, but it's great because you know what your clients like. So you pick Robert.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: Do you go in looking for specific things, or do you just go in and like, whatever interests you?
[00:18:17] Speaker A: It's a combination of both. I like buying things that I like, which doesn't always work, and they're too expensive normally, but I buy them anyway. And I think, oh, I like it. Like that bar I have in the store. Remember that geometric bar? Oh, my God, I saw that 20 years ago and I brought it back and Larry goes, dont buy that. We dont sell that sort of thing. And he was very, a little bit difficult to deal with. I said, im buying it. I dont care. And so we bought it. We paid €700 for, which was nothing. Nothing at all. And we see the bottom of this bar online for 40,000 us.
And I thought, score. I really scored with this one. And I decided never to sell it because I liked it anyway.
[00:19:12] Speaker B: Have people tried to buy it from it.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
If they pay me the right price. I mean, im not going to sell it for anything less than I have currently got it on sale now for 22,000.
[00:19:25] Speaker B: Wow, good for you, man.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, that's worth it, huh?
[00:19:29] Speaker B: So you're out there how long, how many different dealers would you see in, like, however long you're there?
[00:19:36] Speaker A: A dozen, maybe more.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: And then you fill everything up into shipping crates and get them shipped back over to.
[00:19:42] Speaker A: Yeah, they don't go in crates. They, I have a shipper there that comes and picks up wherever I want. He won't go down to the south of France. He's not big enough to do that. He comes and picks up things that are around Paris, and he transports everything back to a central packing house. Then he leaves it, sit there for, I have currently two containers sitting in Paris waiting to come over. And he'll pack a 40 foot high cube container and then ship it off.
[00:20:13] Speaker B: When you're talking about a container, like, how big of a container? What are we looking at?
[00:20:16] Speaker A: Oh, 70 m³ inside. It's big. And I hire a crew when they come over to unpack it because I'm not doing it anymore. Michael and Brian love him. Unpacking the containers. And the last one we got in was amazing. It really was.
We were finding all these beautiful pieces that were stamped with famous makers, and that really excited me. I didn't know they were famous at the time, and most of them don't. Most of the dealers will just don't even really care about it. But I start looking them up on the Internet, and I go, wow, look at this guy's reputation and what he sells. And like, that Sormani chairs that I'm looking at right now and thinking they're perfect for you to go over there. They're really special.
[00:21:12] Speaker B: All right, so every kind of, like, business has its own subculture, you know, like, for example, like, academia has its own kind of like, subculture. You know, like almost like, you know, like the financial sector has a type, kind of like there's like a subculture, like, where people are kind of play a role in it, and there's stories of, like, totally hilarious stories and totally terrible stories. So without naming names, without like, you know, identifying anyone, if you're thinking of, like, some of the people that are in the subculture of, like, antique dealers. Dealers?
[00:21:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: Like, what are some of like, kind of the funnier, like, wilder sides of it?
[00:21:47] Speaker A: Well, Vancouver, for example. Well, France has a very different handling of antique dealers, and they have something called the Conseil de Vant, which is a governing body that watches every single dealer, every single, everybody that's in the business. And if somebody pulls a fast one on somebody, all these people have to do is phone up and that dealer is going to be out of the picture very fast because the conseidt vault doesn't put up with lying and all that sort of thing. Vancouver is very different. We don't have that. So it's just reputation you have to build up here. It's very different than there. And I've used that Conseil Devante thing on a couple of guys because I was really angry. I said, if you don't give me what I want, I'm calling the Conse de Vante. Well, it's done because they don't want the Conseil devante in their books because they'll go through everything.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: So it's a regulated industry.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Yeah. In France, not here.
[00:22:51] Speaker B: So there's a certain wild west aspect that's part of an unregulated industry, which has its super cool parts because it can be relatively easy to start a business and get going and all that. But it also has all sorts of like, space for like grifters and con people and all sorts of things like that. So but when somethings like that, you know, kind of very often there kind of be like a self regulation from like either customers just catch on and they dont go there anymore or people kind of like shoulder them out.
[00:23:21] Speaker A: I think so. I think ive seen a lot of dealers come and go, and its mostly because theyre not honest. And I know a lot that would con people. There's one still in business now who is, I'm not going to mention her name, but she conned me, for one thing, and I don't like being conned. I'm a dealer. And I was really pissed and I thought, how dare you? Anyway, she runs a business that it's more of a consignment thing. She does not play fair at all. She'll say to somebody, oh, I only got $200 for your piece, when in fact she got more like 2000.
[00:24:04] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: So, I mean, that's awful.
But she's got pretty bad reviews.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: If someone was going to get, because I want to get into your specific business in a second, but if someone's listening to this and they're like, I don't know, maybe I want to get into antiques. Like, how would you recommend someone, like, start dipping a toe into that? And let's say they're not from Vancouver. That could be anywhere in the world. How could someone start dipping their toe into collecting or getting into that?
[00:24:28] Speaker A: Well, you have to know what you're buying.
If you don't know, don't bother. I mean, don't start. Well, start by learning your product. And that takes a while. You don't learn that overnight. It took me a number of years, and Larry had been doing it for a number of years, too, before he even met me. So we were able to, to figure that out. But if somebody is starting in the business, I'd say go small, try it out, see if you like it. There's certainly a lot of things in town that you can start with, and we call those collectibles. We don't really deal with those. This is not worth it for me. I like to sell the big ticket items and, but that's how they should start. Learn it. And you're not going to make millions of dollars. I can tell you right now, I see all these kids on Instagram saying I make 40,000 a day. And I think, God, I wish I did that.
But it's more of a passion thing if you're a collector and you love things. I knew a guy that never had a store. He didn't do anything. I don't know that he's alive anymore. But he was very nice to Larry and I. And this guy had an eye that was incredible. He came to see Larry and I one day goes, there's a guy in that flea market that's selling amazing things, but he says these things are worth a fortune. You should go down and buy some. And he would buy things like that. He'd just search for a Vancouver. I know he found something like, he bought a hood ornament that was a leek ornament and there was only twelve made. And he found it here in the city and he sent it to Sotheby's in London. And they said, oh, yeah, it's worth about $120,000.
[00:26:28] Speaker B: For a hood ornament?
[00:26:28] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: All right, what about someone who wants to get into having antiques in their house, but they're like, oh, I don't want to get ripped off. Like, how could someone dip their toe into it?
[00:26:37] Speaker A: You have to come see me because we're very honest and we've had a lot of very good clients that we've had for years that will come back. And I loved seeing them because we just are. There's a couple of dealers I'd recommend in Vancouver that are pretty honest, too.
The rest of them are kind of. I don't know, they're not going to. They'll just sell you a piece and say it's good. And it isn't really kind of how.
[00:27:08] Speaker B: I feel about real estate agents.
It is like, there's some real estate agents that want to sell you your home and that, like, care that you're investing in something that's going to be good for you or your family or your portfolio. And there are way more who will just be like, I just want to sell you something. Yeah.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: Yeah. I've told you before when something I think is good for you also. Like that blue, you know, we ended up throwing that out.
[00:27:33] Speaker B: A couch.
[00:27:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:35] Speaker B: Kills me, man.
[00:27:37] Speaker A: It's too dirty and we couldn't clean it. We tried and it was a nice thing, but I said, don't buy it. I don't recommend it for you because I like you guys and I don't even. I mean, I could have said sure, but no.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: So let's just say. And it's not someone in Vancouver, let's just say somewhere, anywhere. It's like, yeah, I want to get into antiques, but I don't know what. Like, I want to. I want to start buying antiques for my house, but I'm nervous about it. I don't want to get taken or I don't want to. I don't want to be tacky. What are your thoughts? Someone who's just dipping their toe into buying?
[00:28:10] Speaker A: Well, they should look for people's reviews. Honestly, Google review is really great. And see what people are saying about them. And then I think that's the way. And meet these people. You can't just buy online. I do. Sometimes it's not good to do but meet them, see the piece, make sure it's what you want. And most dealers are okay.
They're not terrible, certainly not in France. I mean, we had trouble with them at first, but not anymore.
That's what I would do. Just read Google reviews. They're very handy and they're usually pretty accurate. I had one, we've had, I think we're up at 85 or something. I had one from a woman that was really pissed off at me. She came in and we say, no food or drink in the store, please.
[00:29:04] Speaker B: Which makes sense.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: Yeah. And I said, oh, ma'am, could you just leave your slurpee or whatever the hell you're drinking on the table over there? She just turned around and walked out. And I thought I said, well, no, you don't have to go. Just leave your drink at the front desk here. Never said a word. Walked out and left me the cruelest one star review I've ever had. And I thought I didn't deserve that.
[00:29:33] Speaker B: People are crazy.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. She was nuts.
[00:29:36] Speaker B: So let's say someone want to put antiques into their house. What room? So totally starting.
What room should they start in and what kind of pieces should they seek out?
[00:29:47] Speaker A: Well, let's start with the living room. That seems to be people's showcase.
I would get any kind of sofa, and it doesn't have to be antique, but it should be vintage. The ones that are vintage that you can find literally at flea markets or anywhere else are, usually are built in North America, so they're better built. Even Martha Stewart said to do that. Just says, don't waste your time on new sofas because the old ones are better built and have, you can just recover them and they'll last you another 50, 60 years. So I don't get a lot of upholstered furniture in because, I don't know, people like to get new ones. But in any event, start with that. Start with. It's good to get sometimes a designer involved, but not always, as designers tend to kibosh your personal taste, and they'll say, no, no, that's not good. See, you guys have fabulous taste. I'm looking around everywhere, and that's great.
[00:30:53] Speaker B: Monica has fabulous taste.
[00:30:55] Speaker A: Oh, is it? Yeah.
[00:30:56] Speaker B: What are some things to avoid, though? Like, what are some no nos, like, you know, when we're talking about, like, right. Starting the living room, really, your carpet.
[00:31:04] Speaker A: Is, is your main focal point. So get a carpet first and make sure it's the right scale. And then bring the sofa into the picture and then decorative pieces after that. So pictures, mirrors, that kind of thing is good for that room. A dining room, of course, your focal point will be your table. And so table and then sideboard. And sideboards, I get. A lot of people will buy them. And the table you have in particular is a wonderful example of art deco. It's very, very nice. And your chairs, too, are good.
And that's about it. And, of course, you're talking about replacing your sideboards. So that's a good thought. Just the most important thing is scale. People buy things that are completely out of scale for their room, like chairs that are far too big, and they look crazy, and they can't figure out why. So for that, you might want to seek the assistance of a yemenite designer, interior designer. But not always.
[00:32:12] Speaker B: Is it okay to blend. To blend different styles and different areas.
[00:32:17] Speaker A: Sure. Absolutely. A lot of people do. And you'll find the east coast designers. East coast buyers have a really sophisticated taste, and they love their antiques. Just hundreds of flea markets and everything over there, even one down in Portland, is very good. And it's just, they have a love for antiques down there. And there's a way bigger population. I remember sending a silver chair to a woman that lived in one of the highest security, top, highest per floor count building in New York. In Manhattan. We had to fill out ten questionnaires of security just to get the thing there. He asked us, oh, have you ever been in Iraq or something else like that? And we're like, but it finally got there. She liked it.
[00:33:13] Speaker B: So let's talk about the actual business.
[00:33:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:33:17] Speaker B: You've got a cool crew there.
[00:33:18] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, they're great.
[00:33:20] Speaker B: Everyone that works there that we interact with is awesome.
[00:33:23] Speaker A: I know they're good boys.
[00:33:25] Speaker B: So how did you build that culture?
[00:33:28] Speaker A: I think the most important thing to do is feel like a family.
And we do. We.
I mean, I don't have a family anymore. That's just how it all ended up. I think I pissed everybody off and they thought, oh, he's nuts. My family are the guys and all of them from the boys that work in the back, that do superb work for restoration to the. Brian and Michael and I used to have a third guy there, but I. We had to let him go. He just wasn't fitting in.
[00:34:03] Speaker B: Your business does not only do you bring the stuff in, but you also restore some of the stuff on site before you bring it out into the showroom a lot.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: Yeah.
The difference in the early days, when we were bringing in nothing but belgian and English, it was all clean. Everything was brought in. All it needed was some oil, and it was fine. Nowadays things are all as is. So I bring a container in, and there's probably about a month's worth of work, of restoration work on them. And I tell you, when those boys do their magic on a piece, it's completely different. And what I initially thought of as going to be a certain price. I take a look at it in person, and I'll up the price because it well, pay for them, but also it's worth more when it's restored. And I don't mean refinished necessarily, but when we refinish, we keep the original patina on it and so it doesn't look plastic or anything like that.
[00:35:11] Speaker B: So you have an interesting business in the sense of not only are you selling things to people, like selling an item to people, but you're selling something that they're probably going to interact with every single day for however long. So you help change the landscape of people's homes.
That's kind of a cool, creative space to be.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: Oh, it is. And you wouldn't believe how many clients I get sending me pictures of what they're like. You have done, sending pictures of what their interior looks like and sitting there. And we're shocked sometimes how nice it looks. I know this for a fact that I don't want to badmouth restoration hardware, but people say when you go to the venue, everything is so perfectly lit and beautiful and it looks great in there. And they get at home, they hate the thing, whereas ours is different. I don't have a showroom like restoration hardware. Mine is a typical kind of dealer's warehouse in France, so it's not bad, but it's not as beautiful as restoration hardware. And every client says to me, this looks beautiful. In our house, we just didn't imagine how nice it would look because don't forget, I've got tons of furniture interacting off with each other. And you can go through that store three, four times and find something different each time. And somebody will say to me, well, is this new inn? I go, no, you've been here five times and you haven't seen it. So, yeah, it's very different space.
[00:36:46] Speaker B: All right, so let's head into the kind of like the last part of our conversation. A little sensitive, though. So, you know, you're heading into the later years.
[00:36:56] Speaker A: My golden years.
[00:36:57] Speaker B: Well, the later part of your career.
[00:36:59] Speaker A: I said to me as I was crossing the street, he said, oh, take your time. You're into your golden years now. And I thought, what? What golden years? I don't have a cane or a walker. What are you talking about? And, you know, I just turned 70 last year. Oh, my God, that was a shock.
[00:37:19] Speaker B: Well, you look great for 70.
[00:37:21] Speaker A: Thanks. But sometimes I'm starting to feel it.
[00:37:24] Speaker B: All right, so you're. Now you're heading to, what I was going to say is the later part of your career.
At some point you're going to retire or are you just going to keep going till there's nothing left?
[00:37:37] Speaker A: Yes, but I'm going to keep going until there's nothing left. But to be honest with you, I don't have to go in at all anymore because Brian and Michael and the staff are very good. And that's how I set it up. I don't want to have to be there all the time now. Well, I'm taking a full month off next month. I'm going on a men's health retreat.
[00:38:00] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:38:00] Speaker A: Yeah, we're going to do yoga and meditation and just about everything else.
[00:38:06] Speaker B: Very modern of you.
[00:38:07] Speaker A: I think so. I like to feel it. I'm still hip to some degree.
[00:38:13] Speaker B: So when you're gone, will antique warehouse still be around?
[00:38:19] Speaker A: I hope so.
I'm teaching Michael the ropes, and I've taken him twice to France now to meet the dealers, and so they all know who he is.
That introduction is very important. And to keep people that I like that will help them, that are honest, that finally met over the years of cultivating that market. So it'll be, you know, when I'm gone, I don't really care what happens to it anymore.
I'm not going to be haunting the blade.
[00:38:56] Speaker B: Maybe.
[00:38:57] Speaker A: Maybe. Yeah, but, yeah, no, that's an interesting question, but I hope the boys will keep it going. I haven't really changed my will to reflect that yet. Keep changing. It costs a lot of money to do that.
[00:39:12] Speaker B: We have an episode of the podcast with a death project manager who talks about all of those things. It's like, you should listen to it.
It got all of us in the company to change our wills and do it's. Having an up to date will, and updating it once a year is like a super important thing. Anyways, I won't go into that.
[00:39:33] Speaker A: Updating it once a year.
[00:39:34] Speaker B: Once a year?
[00:39:35] Speaker A: That's expensive as hell.
[00:39:37] Speaker B: You don't have to update it every year. It's that you just have to review and say, did anything happen this year that would cause me to make a meaningful change to this thing? And a lot of people, like, for my example, myself, I'm in my prime, earning years for the next, however many years, there will be changes from year.
[00:39:52] Speaker A: To year to year.
[00:39:54] Speaker B: Is it weird, like, how do you, like, when you're saying, like, michael, is it weird to think, like, first of all, how do you even find someone where you're like, hey, I started this business with my husband, and at some point, like, I'm not going to be around anymore. How do you find someone to pass that on to, that you'd even want to do that with?
[00:40:12] Speaker A: Yeah, good question.
I had considered selling it to.
Well, I considered it something about right. And a woman approached me through my accountant, and all the interactions I had with her were very impersonal. She was just looking at it from a monetary point of view, and she was never making me an offer on it. And I thought, don't waste my time.
Like, put the money on where your mouth is and let's start talking figures. And then it just occurred to me, I'd rather have somebody run it that I trust that runs the business. And saw she there. She didn't want to do that this morning. She just wanted to know what she wanted to do, to be honest.
So, Michael, I found. He just answered an ad I had, looking for somebody.
I don't know if this is the best way to find people, but I did. I liked him. We trained him, and he worked out great. When I got that subdural hematoma a couple of years ago, he was at my apartment every day, and he had to make a long trip. I was living out in Delta at the time. And it suddenly occurred to me, here's the right guy. I don't know anybody else that would do this. And he was so kind and generous. And he was doing food. Food donations for the food bank, like, running them to different people. And he had a kind heart. And I thought that. And he was smart. My God, that guy is really bright. He's taken my. Like I can look up any of my. Larry couldn't even do this. I had. All my stock is in a database now, before it even gets to us. And he links it to a photograph, and he'll see what it is. And I've never been able to do that. He designed the whole thing. Pretty smart. Yeah.
[00:42:18] Speaker B: A wonderful guy. And I love to hear. Being a business owner myself, I kind of think, what does the future hold? And maybe someday, could you pass yours on? We've talked about it, Monica and I. So our oldest daughter works in the company, and our middle daughter is. We're kind of talking about what might happen. But also, my best friends work in the company. And then the people who I didn't know beforehand, who joined the company, who we didn't know before, have become, like, really close. And it's that kind of thing where it's like some people like to call a business a family, other people don't. It's like this company feels like a family. Like we're all real, real close. Could I sell it? I mean, conceptually, I could. This company is worth. I have an evaluation of how much it's worth. Could I sell it? Totally. Do I want to sell it? My mind of, like, this is what life should look like when I retire wants to do that. But could I do it? Because I feel it's something that I. I'm. It feels like a band I'm in with all of my friends and, uh, I don't know. Do you, do you, like, do you let your band go on without you? I don't know. It's an interesting question.
[00:43:26] Speaker A: It is, all right.
[00:43:27] Speaker B: But as we are heading to the end of the interview, I've got three questions for you. It's what we call the crucial three. Three. And they're going to scale up in difficulty as we go through it.
[00:43:35] Speaker A: Lay it on me.
[00:43:37] Speaker B: All right. What is one piece, without naming any names, was one piece that you got that you got totally hosed on, totally burnt.
[00:43:48] Speaker A: I remember distinctly it was an art deco piece that was fake, and it was made in Egypt in five years ago. And I thought it was a really great piece. And I bought it. This is when I was. Larry was still around. He goes, what did you buy? And I said, well, that's Art deco. He goes, no, it's not. It's made in Egypt. And because Egyptians do replicas like that. And so that, I think that was the one I got. Also, somebody brought in a beautiful Jules.
You probably don't know his name, but he's a very famous french designer. And I knew his mistress in Paris.
She was an 80 year old woman. And she sat down with Larry and I and started drinking shots of whiskey.
She was a scream. She's passed away now.
She would always identify a lulu piece, and she'd say, yeah, you have a gen. Because she was running the atelier. And so I had brought these lily pieces in, and this was a stupid thing I did. I had quite a low price on the buffet.
And the chairs were magnificent. They were a set of tan, beautiful chairs. And the table. I price things in Vancouver much less than I do for the global market. So lelouch commands a fortune, and I sold everything too cheap. And the guy, get this, he bought it from London. He was in London. He bought the set and then opened the drawer. And there was a tag in there. That was a sale tag. That was half the price of what he paid.
That was just a big mistake on our end. And I said to him, we have to give him a refund.
I know.
[00:45:54] Speaker B: Whats one piece that you can think of that you unintentionally just made bank on that. You got it at whatever price. But you didnt realize how valuable it was.
[00:46:05] Speaker A: It was the estate of Coco Chanel. And ill tell you, when it came up for sale, nobody wanted it, and they didnt know it was hers. But I just liked everything because it was unusual. And so that I did really well.
[00:46:22] Speaker B: All right, final question.
[00:46:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:46:26] Speaker B: What will antique warehouse, assuming its still here, what will it look like 20 years from now?
[00:46:35] Speaker A: Well, I don't know.
I honestly can't answer that. Because antiques are dictated by pop. Well, by popularity.
Antiques in 20 years means that it goes without saying that it's usually 100 years old before you can call it an antique. So that means antiques now go back to 1924. Wow. Now they'd be up to 1944. So if they're well made, classic antiques will never go to style. They just won't. I know that because I've been in the business so long, I've seen things change, but not go out of style nowadays.
Years ago, particularly in Vancouver, I'll do this fast for you.
Houses were very cheap. People just wanted to fill them up with lots of furniture. So we were all the antique dealers and making a fortune.
Now, houses are expensive and it's a different.
They want just quality pieces and like show pieces for their homes.
[00:47:47] Speaker B: All right, man, we've made it through. This is a great conversation as we're closing off anything you want to share, anything you want to hype up, anything you want to put out there.
[00:47:56] Speaker A: Not really. Just look us up. We've got a nice website and I'm going to be revamping it shortly because I think it's too old right now, but it looks good.
[00:48:08] Speaker B: All right, everyone, so anyone who listens to the podcast knows that so much of this business is about my personal relationships with people in the company. I love this company, Cadence, and everyone that works in it. We're like coworkers. We collaborate, we create things. We get to be creative with each other. We're also just like really good friends. And there's something I really. It's great. It's working with this team has been awesome. But as I go further and I do more and more business with more and more people, I find myself having these really deep, amazing relationships with all these people that we work with, all these clients. And you talk so much about your clients.
[00:48:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:48] Speaker B: And it's not just the people who work in the company or the people that I'm lucky to have as clients. It's also like the people that Monica and I get to do business with outside and like, what we fill our home with and all that. And having a relationship with you and all those guys at Antique Warehouse has just been so awesome, and we're so appreciative of you.
[00:49:07] Speaker A: Yeah. We love you guys.
[00:49:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Heck yeah. All right, everyone, this has been a fun one. I will see you next time. On one step beyond.
