When Gypsy Honeymoon made it onto the cover of the latest issue of Victoria, a national design magazine, calls started coming in from women as far away as Arkansas, Kentucky and New Jersey.
The women wanted to buy what they saw featured in the magazine. “It’s one of a kind,” Gypsy Honeymoon’s owner, Gabrielle Ekedal, found herself telling most of her callers.
Gypsy Honeymoon, a Mission District mainstay for the past 18 years, has had no shortage of attention since it relocated from the quiet corner of Guerrero and 24th streets to the bustle of Valencia a year ago.
“I feel like I’ve moved from the country to the city in one block,” said Ekedal.
Conveniently nestled next to Arizmendi Bakery and Heart wine bar, the antique shop sits amid one-of-a-kind businesses that have opened on the commercial strip and are creating a renaissance after the difficult years that followed the 2008 economic meltdown. Nowadays, Gypsy Honeymoon is experiencing more foot traffic than ever before, has double the inventory and has piqued national interest. Ekedal and her treasure chest of antiques also appeared in the New York Times.
But turning the new attention into a profitable business model is still a work in progress. In this third installment, Mission Local sat down with Gabrielle Ekedal to reflect on the past year: the challenges, the successes and the ultimate cost of sustaining a niche business on Valencia Street.
“I’m a Valencia Street business,” she said. “I just thought that I was going to have a little store and now I’m part of this thing that’s being recognized.”
She’s remained cautiously optimistic as Gypsy Honeymoon’s strength, at times, has proved to be its weakness. Sometimes, the challenge is having items that are one-of-a-kind and can be sold only once; at others, it’s having items far too expensive to sell to the average shopper.
Many of the customers who called after seeing Gypsy Honeymoon in the national design magazine asked for the pair of Victorian ship frames displayed prominently in the inside spread. But at $625, they were too expensive.
“What I’m learning most of all is patience,” said Ekedal, adding that it’s as important as good business sense.
It’s a trait she’s been exercising since Gypsy Honeymoon landed in her lap three years ago, when she took over the long-established vintage shop from a previous owner. In 2008 the higher rent forced her to move from her old location on Guerrero (that will soon be an Italian restaurant). She found a helping hand in Ron Mallia, who had fixed up the old auto repair shop on Valencia near 24th Street, and had an eye out for unique and local businesses to fill the property’s three vacancies.
Although this meant $1,400 a month more in rent for Ekedal, she decided to make the move, hoping to cash in on the prime location and encouraged by Mallia’s vision.
“I’ve been surprised and pleased over and over again at the response and the support and the good feedback I’ve gotten about having the store here,” said Ekedal, adding that Mallia “always knew how good it could be.”
The weekends are the busiest, when crowds of shoppers stop in for a reprieve from the busy street or to consider the $1 to $10 items she’s laid out for the weekend stoop sales she started three months ago.
The crowds, however, don’t equal sales.
“I might have 200 people in here on the weekends but I might have a much better Tuesday,” she said.
And then there are the unexpected turns in business flow.
She said the hardest days are those like a recent Tuesday. People stroll in and browse around; some compliment Ekedal on her lovely selection of dishware, textiles, mirrors and unique array of chandeliers, but then leave empty-handed. That was the case with one gentleman who came in and couldn’t stop praising the store. His partner chimed in: “Stop complimenting her — buy something.”
January’s slow pace has been somewhat disappointing, especially after the swell of Christmas, when there was a constant flow of people. It seemed nice and busy, but when it came time to crunch the numbers, Ekedal calculated only a $2,000 increase in sales from last year. It wasn’t the profit she expected. Although, for what it’s worth, she’s learned to appreciate the season of giving.
“Now I know why retailers like the holidays,” she said. “If it could be Christmas four times a year, cool!”
To nudge sales, she’s considered selling soaps and gift cards. But being a purist, she’d much rather stick to selling what she calls “soulful materials,” like handwoven textiles that took months to make, or hand-carved chairs with an old, rustic smell.
“Yet hopefully my tendency is also to make the right decisions for having a business, which would be to sell things that people can afford,” Ekedal said.
Then again, she’s found that business can come around in unexpected and auspicious ways.
Ekedal’s first sale of the year was her biggest since she took over the business three years ago. A nice man came in, stumbled upon a 132-piece handmade flatware set from the 1950s that she had acquired just three weeks earlier, and told her, “I want that.” She made $1,800 on that sale alone.
“With an antique store you can never tell what’s going to sell, when it’s going to sell, what day it’s going to sell — it’s totally random.”
There’s also something to say for location, location, location. Next door, Arizmendi and Heart are booming. According to Melissa Hoover, a staff member with the Arizmendi Association of Cooperatives, sales were so strong at the bakery from day one that they’ve hired more workers to keep up with demand. Heart, which opened its doors a week before Gypsy Honeymoon, enjoys a steady flow of 100-150 customers a day, said owner Jeff Segal. His one significant down time was when the Giants were in the playoffs.
Still, Segal understands some of the challenges Ekedal is facing. Also a first-time business owner, he prides himself on running a unique wine bar. When customers suggested he offer additional seating to make room for more business, he said no. He prefers to keep an intimate and cozy atmosphere than to go for big and even more boisterous crowds. Segal has learned that one has to be persistent in “sticking to the character of what you’re trying to do.”
Part of Ekedal’s success is due to spillover from her neighbors, especially Arizmendi’s strong customer base.
“It means a lot of people discovering the store that wouldn’t have, just because they decided to come to the bakery,” she said.
The good vibes are keeping Gypsy Honeymoon afloat — so much so that Ekedal doesn’t miss the old store, at least not anymore. Vast and spacious, Gypsy Honeymoon has maintained its charm. It’s still a quiet place where customers can walk in and calmly survey exquisite jewelry, while Venus, Ekedal’s bird, chirps away in the background. Many of the shop’s loyal customers are from before.
Occasionally, Ekedal’s mind drifts to the future, four years from now, when her lease is up. Can she keep working six days a week for the next four years, especially if it remains impossible to hire a couple of employees to help manage the shop? Maybe. She loves Gypsy Honeymoon and everything it affords her: the opportunity to work for herself, to be creative and to offer her customers a place where they can be around “materials that were imagined at a time when people had a lot more time on their hands,” she said.
For now, as she runs through the endless list of things to do — clean, dust, do some pricing, organize the store, write checks — Ekedal says that being a Valencia Street business has been “pretty amazing.”
These local business articles are well done and very interesting to read. Thanks!