Business & Tech
Antique Love: Inside Silver Lining Consignments
For Joann Walsh, owning and operating Silver Lining Consignments is a labor of love.
If you stop into on any given day, you’ll probably find the store’s owner Joann Walsh doing what she loves most— chatting with her customers about antiques. Buying and selling antiques is a labor of love for Walsh who is just as happy talking to hard hard-core antiquers as she is talking to casual collectors.
“My store is a very social place and I just love it when anyone comes in to browse my store even if they don’t buy anything,” Walsh said. “I get excited to see what people have to sell me, especially when they bring me something I’ve never seen before.”
In addition to antiques, Silver Lining Consignments, located on 470 Main St., specializes in stylish household collectibles. Walsh said that while the business started with antiques she cound't fill the whole space with antiques and so now accepts and sell collectibles too. Right now, just in time for the backyard barbeque season Silver Lining also has plenty of outdoor furniture—perfect for any 4th of July garden party.
Although Silver Lining opened its doors in the mid-1970s, Walsh didn’t enter the antique business until 1996 when she started working for the original owner.
“I bought an antique house in Pound Ridge (NY) and through the process of furnishing it, I got really interested in antiques,” she said. “So I started working at Silver Lining and then when I was given the opportunity to buy the store in 1998, I couldn’t pass it up!”
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A Pound Ridge resident, Walsh said that she feels like she is part of the Ridgefield community she has served for the last 14 years; a community that in turn has been extremely loyal to her. In fact, Walsh credits her loyal sales team (who have been by her side since she took on the business in 1998) for helping maintain good business even during recent tough economic times.
The other reason she was able to maintained business even through recession—her loyal customers. “I have great customers, a few only come around Christmas time – but during the holiday season, they skip the mall to support me. These are the people that make my job worth it!”
