Updated 6-17-20 at 10:24 a.m.
The Tribune is highlighting small businesses around Cullman County during the COVID-19 pandemic. Know of one we should feature? Email maggie@cullmantribune.com.
TRIMBLE, Ala. – Easy Pickens Antique Market is located in a building with rich history. The big red structure, located at the turn off County Road 222 to Smith Lake Park, has been around since the late 1800s, according Molly Bradley. Bradley and husband David, new owners of business, finalized the paperwork in March and had a “grand reopening” June 4, 2020. Easy Pickens originally opened in November 2011.
The Bradleys moved to Cullman from Ohio, but know the area from visiting friends.
“We’re just starting out,” said Molly Bradley. “We offer collectibles, refurbished furniture, just a little bit mixed with retro feel. We have candles and soap that’s an old family recipe. There’s nothing in here that doesn’t have a little vintage to it, so to speak, or where it came from.”
She humorously noted her husband got her the business as their 30th anniversary present, laughing, “I wanted to get away for our 30th anniversary.”
She smiled, “My husband got off the phone with the previous owner and goes, ‘Molly, how do you feel about owning a business?’ I went, ‘What do you mean?’ and he goes, ‘I just bought you Easy Pickens.’ So, this is my little gift from him.”
She noted she and her husband decided to keep the business name despite the option to change it, explaining, “I had an option to change it, but I thought ‘No, that’s how everybody knows it,’ so I chose to keep it.”
The COVID-19 pandemic had an effect on the Bradleys reopening, but they said they saw the silver lining.
She shared, “We’re not an essential business, so we had to have our doors shut, but it did give us some time to prepare inside. It was scary and exciting (finally being able to open). I knew they (customers) wanted to be in here. When I had a couple of porch sales with vendors’ items- the vendors held on staying here (during the ownership transition)- but I had a couple of porch sales just with them outside, but then most people wanted to come into the building; they just love this building.”
She added, “Customers do wear masks; it’s their option to do so and I offer them disinfectant if they need it. Basically, most people, they’re keeping their distance. I don’t have it where people are busy in here or they mingle, but I feel like they’re doing the social distancing. I don’t feel like there’s an issue with that. I periodically during the day, I wipe and disinfect things and do it again at the end of the day.”
Bradley said she and her husband hope to grow the business.
“We’re planning to keep on growing, trying to find what people like in this area. We think they like the retro, vintage-type items, it helps them reminisce a lot,” she said. “I try to pick things when I’m out that are reminiscent-type pieces.”
Easy Pickens Antique Market is located at 6474 County Road 222, Cullman, AL 35057 and is open Thursdays-Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays noon-5 p.m.
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