Mike Robertson has assembled an amazing collection of odds and ends, with more in store for his new store in Chemainus.
Robertson is set to open Lost In Time Antiques And Oddities on June 3 in the former longtime location of Leena Cameron’s Top Hat Antiques & Collectables at 104-9844 Croft St.
The items in the shop, Robertson said, are “all over the map. There’s something for everybody.”
Prices will range from a mere $5 to hundreds of dollars, depending on the item, of course. Robertson has spared no expense to make some unique collectables available to the public.
For the summer months, at least, he plans to be open 10:30 a.m.-4 p.m. five days a week from Wednesday through Sunday, closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Robertson, 52, has long been in the construction business and was looking for a change of pace.
He was a 50-50 owner of Can-Am Building Envelope based on the Lower Mainland, but with extensive work around the province. His partner will be completing one more job before the company wraps up.
“I did that construction for 34 years,” said Robertson. “I needed to get out.”
Born in New Westminster, he lived in the Vancouver area before purchasing a place in Yellow Point about two years ago.
Robertson’s had his eye on the Chemainus location for his business foray for a while.
After Cameron put it on the market, “I was interested in it, but the timing was wrong,” he indicated.
Cameron took it off the market and Robertson said he asked for first dibs when it came back on again.
That happened and they were able to finalize a deal last September.
“Leena’s awesome,” said Robertson. “We became friends.”
In the time since the purchase, he’s been sprucing the place up to get ready for the eventual opening. He also did some travelling that included picking up items after month-long stays in Taiwan and Japan that will be available for purchase in the store.
“I’ve always been a collector, but not to this level,” he said. “In the past year and a bit, I’ve been on a bit of a buying spree. I started buying like crazy when I bought the store. There’s thousands of items in here.”
As the store name implies, there’s antiques and then there’s what Robertson describes as “weird stuff.”
“Canada doesn’t have a lot of oddities,” he pointed out.
As a result, he has imported a lot of items from the United States that are hard to find, such as old circus posters.
Robertson had a friend of his with Bonegarden Design on Salt Spring Island with taxidermy experience to make a big foot character for him.
Robertson has a selection of old comics but is more into 1930s pulp fiction type magazines. There’s some toys and memorabilia that older folks will remember from their childhoods and he has an alligator boy piece, among other things, fitting into the weird category.
But at the other extreme, “I have a lot of high end,” he stressed.
Robertson sees his shop complementing the other antique stores in town and not attempting to take business away from anyone else.
“You can’t have too many antique stores,” he confided. “There’s no such thing as competition. I don’t think you’re going to find the same things in each store.”
Robertson has already joined the Chemainus Business Improvement Association and the Chemainus + District Chamber of Commerce that he concedes will help in promotions.
He’s looking forward to the transition from his previous hectic years in construction. Going to the other extreme and sitting idle wasn’t an option.
“This is my thing and purpose in life to do something,” Robertson said.
“I have a bunch of stuff in storage and I’m constantly buying. I’m really trying to get the things that are hard to find.”
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don.bodger@chemainusvalleycourier.ca
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