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Letter to the editor

Shop makes biggest sale - itself

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF, Times Correspondent
Published December 21, 2007

LUTZ - Two years ago during the kickoff to the holiday shopping season, Margie Shrum was blissfully browsing in a cute consignment shop off Land O'Lakes Boulevard in Lutz, when she heard the owner say the store was for sale.

Not only was it for sale, Margie recalls, but the owner also said that a previous offer to buy the business had fallen through.

Holiday serendipity?

Definitely.

And, no doubt, "meant to be," she said.

"I made the decision that same day," recalled Margie, 59, who was working as a consultant after a 30-year career at GTE and had no plans to open a business.

"I called my husband and said, 'I just bought the store - the whole store.'"

That store, From Our Home to Yours, which you can visit online at www.atreasureshared.com, is something of an institution in the sunny Key West-yellow shopping center at 1532 Land O'Lakes Blvd. in Pasco County. The Pebble Creek couple decided not to change the name, hoping to keep much of the shop's original clientele.

Betty Barlow, a regular customer and consigner, had been shopping at From Our Home to Yours long before the Shrums bought it because it took her back to the 1980s, when she owned the Hayloft on Florida Avenue in Tampa.

"It reminded me so much of the shop I once had," Barlow said. "Mine wasn't consignment, but we carried just about the same kinds of things."

The Shrums' consignment store specializes in home accessories, vintage goods, art, pottery, china, furnishings and one-of-a-kind objects, like the handmade glass table with legs made of fish-shaped bottles. Prices range from less than $1 (a pretty forest-green tea kettle is 95 cents) to several hundred dollars for an Ethan Allen dining set.

A red slash through the price tag means half off, and it's possible to walk out of the store lugging several bags of treasures for under $20.

On a Friday afternoon, the store hummed with activity. Dozens of customers wandered in to buy Christmas decorations or holiday gifts, content to visit for long stretches in the 1,800-square-foot shop that's elbow deep in interesting knickknacks, including a set of 1930s crystal ashtrays in their original box, vintage-style Christmas tree ornaments and what looked like a Depression glass candy dish shaped likea swan.

Customers admired such things as blue-and-white throw pillows, a small pink divan and an Oriental-style area rug.

"I'll tell you what: Price has a lot to do with it," said Kristen Littrell, who had just purchased a vintage 1950s set of china and explained that she was a regular customer.

Marcia Nell-Norris, whose parents came to Pasco County in the 1930s to grow citrus, says she's such a regular she sometimes visits the store a couple of times a week because the merchandise turns over so quickly.

She said she likes consignment items "because I like to enjoy something someone else enjoyed."

That one-of-a-kind soulfulness of consigned goods may explain the store's popularity - at least in part.

Steve Shrum, 59, who was also working as a consultant after an 18-year career at GTE, says he was thrilled when his wife called to announce she had bought the store.

"I said, 'Great!' " Steve recalled. He soon joined his wife at the store every day, helping to sell the thousands of items of merchandise.

"We like unique things," Steve says. "Anyone can go into Big Lots, HomeGoods, Marshalls or T.J. Maxx."

Fast facts

To learn more

For hours and more information about From Our Home to Yours, call (813) 948-3855. The store closes annually for vacation from Dec. 23to Jan. 15.

[Last modified December 20, 2007, 21:56:01]