With their shared love for antiques and unique vintage items, it only made sense to open a store and share it with others.
Jennifer Davis, Michael Stephenson and Sherilyn Cotton previously owned booths in a local flea market where they bonded over their shared love of antiques and unique vintage items. Together, they decided to open Olive Street Vintiques, Texarkana’s only antique shop.
“We love antiques and we really thought Texarkana was in need of a true antique store because there’s not any antique stores in Texarkana, there’s only flea markets, and we wanted a place where someone could come and everything is good vintage or antique items,” said Jennifer Davis, co-owner.
Olive Street Vintiques originally opened on Small Business Saturday in November of 2020. Sales have steadily increased since opening day and the response from the community has been phenomenal.
“Initially we started our business doing Facebook Live sales,” said Davis. “We did them every other Sunday night, and we still do them, but it just grew, and we were doing it out of our homes, which was kind of a pain, so thankfully we found David [Peavy] and we rented a place. We had a smaller place around the corner, but we outgrew it very quickly,” she added.
Olive Street Vintiques is located on the second floor of the 1894 City Market building in downtown Texarkana. Peavy has transformed several areas in the building and each area represents a different time period. Because Olive Street Vintiques features a wide variety of antiques, photographs, artwork and unique designs from many different time periods, it was quickly realized that the location was a perfect fit for the business.
Davis, Stephenson and Cotten find the majority of their items in southern surrounding states spanning from Oklahoma down to Louisiana and will expand their searches to other areas if a customer is looking for a specific item that they do not currently have in the store.
“We like to be able to tell customers where things come from if we can because we like to provide a shopping experience and help our patrons envision these items in their homes, so if they come in asking for a specific piece, we try and find out what their needs are and we try to fulfill them,” said Michael Stephenson, co-owner.
The business is currently only open to the public on the second Saturday of every month, but customers can schedule a shopping appointment any time through the Olive Street Vintiques website. The business also does Facebook Live sales every two weeks. Because items that are featured in the Facebook Live sales are sold on a first comment, first-served basis, Olive Street Vintiques owners give customers a sneak peek of the items prior to the sale by sharing photos of them on Facebook. Being able to view the items ahead of time gives customers a better opportunity to claim the items they want during the live sale that follows.
“The lives have been pretty successful,” said Stephenson. “Our goal is to continue to build the live audiences because I think the lives are really important right now because of the pandemic and people are shopping from their couches, so they can literally log on to Facebook and watch us live when we show the item and they comment ‘sold’,” he added. “We can do curbside pickup; we can do anything to make it easier for them. The lives have really been successful and driven by the pandemic and it’s an easy way for people to shop if they’re uncomfortable coming here in person.”
Olive Street Vintiques is located at 105 Olive St. in Downtown Texarkana on the second floor of the 1894 City Market building. Masks are encouraged to be worn inside the store. Employees wear masks at all times.
More information can be found on the Olive Street Vintiques website and Facebook page.
