Shop’s novelty never wears off
TC’s offers lots of ‘what’ and not a lot of ‘not’
Staff writer
TC’s What-Not Shop is impossible to miss.
Its bright-green facade, speckled with metallic lawn décor and fiery novelty signs (“Keep Calm and Return Fire”; “God is Great, Beer is Good, and People are Crazy”) lies just beyond the dividing line of Lula Creek.
Travelling west to east, TC’s begins the second strip of businesses on Main St. Compared to downtown, the buildings and backyards are larger this side of the creek, and both TC’s size and hours embrace the rural sprawl.
The building is close to 5,000 square feet and houses up to 20 vendors at a time.
It is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day, including holidays.
In the last 365 days, manager and vendor Ida French said, TC’s has been closed only one day, after a sudden blizzard meant staffer Janice Davis couldn’t leave her driveway.
“Most places that are vintage places are only open Thursday, Friday, Saturday,” French said. Owner Theresa Carroll “believes if you want people to stop, you have to be open. If you’re not open, you’re not going to get people driving through, or the people at the lake that only came in because it was raining.”
In a county where businesses are routinely closed for three or more days a week, What-Not Shop’s constant availability stands out.
Yet paradoxically, the building feels somewhat overlooked in town.
At Cedar and Main Sts., TC’s is frequented mostly by lake visitors and antique hunters from outside the county.
“You meet a lot of cool people from everywhere,” French said. “All over the world, really — Australian, German. We had some Irish people in here.”
There are some local regulars, but generally, the business thrives in the touristy summers and dwindles in cold weather.
It’s not entirely clear why. Perhaps locals who have been to TC’s once or twice feel as if they’ve seen everything the shop has to offer.
Perhaps it’s a case of dazzle camouflage, where the eccentric building fades into the background, becoming easier to miss.
French was Carroll’s assistant for several years before she was asked to step up as a part-time manager.
“It was nothing major, just friends helping friends,” French said.
While she has to come into the shop only a few days a week — the store’s many booth vendors also must volunteer for shifts, part of the reason Carroll is able to keep TC’s open so often — French must be on call practically every day.
“It’s consistency,” French said. “Your customers always know you’re open.”
TC’s specializes in oddball antiques and knicknacks, some coming from the other the side of the world.
“I have a giant Chinese print in the back that I have not been able to find any information about,” French said. “I mean, it’s original. It’s about six feet tall. It’s on a scroll.”
Carroll also has an interest in alternative medicine; essential oils and matcha and elderberry products line the shelves.
But what sets the What-Not Shop apart is its many booths, run by third-party vendors.
Booth renters must stay at least three months, but most keep it up for a year or two.
Some booths have lasted more than a decade, slowly selling items that span the owner’s lifetime.
Ancient musical instruments, spooky vintage dolls, obscure baseball caps, chicken-shaped measuring cups — the store may be neatly laid out, but strange artifacts lie everywhere.
“Even though I’ve been here for 10 years, I’ll still walk down these halls and I’ll still see something I’ve never seen before,” French said.
The store gives few restrictions to what the vendors sell.
“No catfish bait or gasoline items,” French said.
You can get a good sense of a vendor’s personality by looking at their booth.
One might sell simple blouses and shoes; another might put crystalline cups in mahogany drawers and hang paintings on the wall, like a Victorian sitting room.
Another booth, operated by a former Marion high school art teacher, features decades’ worth of the woman’s paintings.
“To me, that was cool, to have her history come in,” French said.
While the majority of vendors and customers are 50 or older, French has been surprised by an uptick in young people at TC’s.
The store has benefited from the trendiness of sustainability and vintage aesthetics.
“People are looking for certain items to go with another project they’re building. People are going back to vintage furniture… even the trends of collectibles,” she said. “It’s been interesting.”
Red Wing pottery is popular, as is mercury glass, which shoppers seek out with ultraviolet flashlights.
“Records have picked up,” French said. “You couldn’t get rid of a record before.”
Staff at TC’s say they enjoy Marion for the kindness of the people, both outsiders and locals, who pass through.
Vendor Janice Davis, for example, dropped in on Thursday simply to spend some time with French.
“It’s like an antique coffee shop,” French said. “Sometimes people will sit and chat for quite a while.”
Marion also is low on petty theft, which the business no doubt appreciates, given its keeps many large antiques by the side of the road. Once, a stop sign was stolen by two kids, French said, but for the most part things are calm.
“In the last year, we’ve had a few more small items disappear than normal, but on a day-to-day basis… it doesn’t [happen],” she said. “In my mind, I’d always envision somebody pulling up with a truck and just piling stuff in. That never happens.”
While the harlequin building isn’t exactly historic, it has become a staple of the Main St. strip, standing out dramatically against gas stations and parking lots.
It is a weird place in many ways — its size, its rotating vendor system, its constant openness — but it works. Business has remained steady over the years.
“I don’t think it’s really changed,” French said. “You still have your faithful.”