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December 12, 2005

Art barn | A chat with Tracy Fulop, owner of Wild Plum in Naples.

By Whit Richardson
Founded: May 2004
Employees: Two full-time, one part-time
Startup costs: $42,000
Revenues, year one: $88,000
Projected revenues, year two: $64,000
Contact: 693-4410
1253 Roosevelt Tr., Naples 04055
www.wildplum.net

Tell me about Wild Plum.
Wild Plum is a gift shop, but it's a gift shop offering something for anybody. A child could come in and buy something with their allowance for 15 cents and then someone else could come in and spend $2,400 on a piece of antique furniture. I would call it a very nice collection of new, vintage and antique merchandise.

How did you get the idea for your shop?
I've always wanted to have my own store someday. I've been in the retail business pretty much all my life. My mom was an antique dealer, so I started doing shows with her when I was 10.

I didn't want a run-of-the-mill shop because there is a stretch of gift shops here. One of the biggest draws I could think of was to feature local artisans. Our first year we had 27 local artists in the shop, everything from jewelers to people who do paintings to wearable art, such as scarves.

What was the biggest challenge going from idea to reality?
I think the biggest challenge was getting the right merchandise in here and having to rely on my common sense and my gut feeling. I also thought about where we live: What can I have that's going to have the locals coming back and that will entice the out-of-towners and the weekenders to come in?

What is your competition like?
There's quite a big group of us and we have between us a verbal non-compete clause, meaning if you're going to carry x, then I'm not going to carry x. I think we're all very aware that the only way we're going to survive ˆ— and to thrive ˆ— is to be able to offer different things and be able to send customers to one another.

How do you market your business?
We're right on [Route] 302, so you can't miss us. If you need to go to North Conway or Portland, guess what? You're going to go by our shop. So I only advertise in the local paper, the Bridgton News, and I have my website.

How important is the holiday season to your business?
It'll be interesting to see what happens this year. There's no heat in our barn ˆ— it's just too big and we haven't been able to afford it yet. Last year we were only open weekends in October and Thanksgiving weekend. This year we were open Thanksgiving weekend, [but] we only did half of what we did last year in sales. We'll see what happens because this will be the first time we'll be open on weekends in December and Christmas Eve.

Why do you think things have been slower this year?
We've been giving it a lot of thought, believe me. I think the first year there were a lot of curiosity-seekers who turned into customers. But this year I know for a fact that everybody is hurting ˆ— that includes the lodging people, all my competitors. We all were very honest in saying it was a bummer year for us. But does that deter me from next year? Absolutely not.

What are your plans for the future?
We have a side barn we'd very much like to turn into a place especially men can come sit, read the newspaper or a magazine and have a glass of lemonade or a brownie while their wives, girlfriends or friends are shopping.

We also want to expand in the back to have that be more of a gallery space with proper lighting to be able to showcase some of the painters and artists we can bring in.

Have you been approached by any artists with odd pieces that you had to turn away?
One woman came in and was very adamant [that I take her pieces]. I happened to see one of out of the corner of my eye, and honest to God it looked like the black velvet Elvises. It was very ˆ— for lack of a nicer word ˆ— vibrant colors and nothing I would ever have in the shop.



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