A blast from the past | It's Your Business

Seven years after opening Bird Street Vendors in downtown Oroville, businesswoman Rori Summers has launched a sister store - Bird Street Vintage.

"People are uber-duber excited about the store," said Summers. "We've had a lot of traffic in the store since our soft opening on April 15."

Summers wasn't planning or even thinking about opening a second retail business. Then she learned the owner of Northwest Trading Co. was going to retire and the 40-year-old antique store at the corner of Bird and Huntoon Streets would likely close.

"I just didn't want to lose an antique store that had been around for so long," she said. "So I decided, what the heck."

Once she worked out a rental agreement with the building's landlord, Summers invested time and money in getting the 2,800 square foot space cleaned and spruced up. She had the space repainted, laid new carpet and installed three new air conditioners.

Then she applied the same successful business model she employs at Bird Street Vendors. She brought in all-new vendors who rent spaces ranging in size from 10-foot-by-10-foot areas to wall space and two-foot-by-three-foot-by-six-foot "vignettes," which look like free-standing, open-face armoires. Those with the larger spaces work shifts in the store.

"The whole business is updated. It's not cluttered with everything packed in like sardines," Summers explained. "The space flows now and you can see everything."

"Everything" includes vintage clothing, jewelry, refurbished furniture, home decor, glassware and eclectic goods like "old, old curling irons, milk jugs, 1950's calendars, mason jars, railroad ties and pictures," among many other "cool finds" dating from the 1880's to the 1970's, said Summers.

Cameron Ragsdale, a Jackson resident, said she made a list of Oroville antique and thrift stores to visit on her way to Chico to visit her daughter. While Bird Street Vintage wasn't on the list, she saw the store's sign and stopped in.

"I'm really glad I found this place," said Ragsdale. "It's so clean and well organized with really cute stuff. And the prices are awesome."

There are currently 10 vendors, none of whom have ever sold their wares in Oroville before and a couple who are new to the vintage and antique business.

"I have one woman who's cleaning out an old barn on her property and finding really neat stuff she's selling, bringing in new items as she discovers them," said Summers. "I have another woman who's getting rid of her inheritance now, selling everything now instead of leaving it for her kids to sell after she dies."

The store has room for about nine more vendors but Summers is going to cap it at that "to maximize the space but not clutter it up. I don't like clutter," she said.

Bird Street Vintage joins 11 other vintage and antique stores downtown and is the largest in terms of physical space, said Summers.

"We don't really compete with each other because even though we are all vintage stores, we are very different and carry different things. We all have our own tastes and business processes," said Summers. "Having so many of us actually supports all of us. People who like to shop for vintage and antique stuff, can come to one place - downtown Oroville - and have a lot of places to shop."

Bird Street Vintage will be hosting its grand opening starting at 10 a.m. on May 2, the first Saturday of the annual Feather Fiesta Days event. Summers plans to have food, drinks and a raffle at the opening.

"We are geared up and ready for our opening and Feather Fiesta Days," said Summers. "We're excited and looking forward to it."

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