For four years, Daryl Lewis has sold antique furniture, plates and other items from his East Grant Road store. He'll be the first to say the antique business is a difficult one.
Antiques are luxury items.
Then there's eBay, where antiques proliferate, often at lower prices.
Lewis tries to overcome the competition, local and on the Internet, as best he can. Fair competition is part of doing business, he knows.
But he also faces competition from an unexpected source: Pima County. The county sponsors an antique fair one day a month at the Lew Sorensen Community Center on East Tanque Verde Road and will soon begin a second fair at the new Brandi Fenton Memorial Park on East River Road, also one day a month.
From Lewis' perspective, he has to pay a mortgage, property tax, maintenance, city and state sales tax, advertising, utilities and other costs. Vendors at the fair do not.
People are also reading…
"As a small-business person, I can't compete with the county," Lewis said.
Several store owners said the county's antique fairs draw customers who otherwise would purchase at established stores.
At the antique fairs, the vendors pay $35 for a space and are required to have a seller's license. They pay sales taxes.
With the antique business struggling, Lewis said he's put his store up for sale.
He's not alone. Another Grant Road antique store owner is closing shop.
"It's costing me a fortune to sell something," said Judy Swanson, owner of Arizona Antiques.
She said the county-sponsored antique fair added insult to injury because the county increased her annual tax assessment by 25 percent.
"It hurts me," said Swanson.
Swanson plans to sell off her antiques and hopes to lease her building at the southeast corner of East Grant Road and North Dodge Boulevard to a restaurant. Swanson owns the corner, including a store selling used records and compact discs, which she plans to keep open.
Phillip Gaillard, who owns Copper Country Antiques, a mall on East Speedway, said the Pima County Fairgrounds should host antique fairs, not the parks.
"What would Jim Click say if cars were sold at county parks? Why not have a tools fair to compete with Ace Hardware stores?"
But Joe Barr of the Pima County Natural Resources, Parks and Recreation Department, said antique fairs are "a very common activity across the country."
The fairgrounds on the Southeast Side hosts gun and car shows, he said. At Rillito Racetrack, a mobile-home show was recently held, Barr said.
Not all antique-store owners view the county-sponsored fairs as unfair.
Dorothy Hamilton of Antique Mini-Mall on East Grant Road isn't convinced the fairs take business away.
She has dealers in her mall who sell at the park, which "in turn promotes our business," Hamilton said.
But more than selling antiques, the fairs attract families with children and dogs, said Pat Tuttle, a county recreation coordinator.
"It's not something they can do at a store," Tuttle said.
And that, ultimately, is why the park fairs are not out of line. They draw some business from established stores, but the Sunday vendors also promote business for store owners.
The fairs are for families who want to have fun outdoors.
Second wall planned across Arizona as Trump administration doubles down on border
