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Child Wonderland: Bonnie Peterson, of Mountain View, and the owner of the Nice Twice Doll Shop in Campbell, started working at the business two years ago.
Public Citizen
What a Doll
By Erin Mayes
Bonnie Peterson spends her days surrounded by the smiling painted faces of hundreds of dolls. "The very first thing I see everybody do when they walk in is smile," she says. "How could you not smile when you walk into a child wonderland?"
The Mountain View resident says owning Nice Twice Doll Shop, 253 E. Campbell Ave., has therapeutic effects for her as well.
"A doctor might laugh at this, but I think there's a chemical reaction in your brain when you handle something from your childhood," Peterson says. "I have customers who have doll rooms--they go in there and they can remember something from their past, maybe their parents."
She described bathing dolls that people sell to her so she can fix them up and resell them. When she first started out in the doll business, she questioned her motives for doing so and thought perhaps it was because she'd never had children. She has since eliminated that motive as a possibility.
Peterson, who has never been married, refuses to divulge her age but says that she's young enough to be "looking for Mr. Right."
Peterson says getting into the doll business was the best move she's ever made. She bought the business from its former owner, Ruby Sargent, in October 1999. Sargent owned and operated the store for 17 years.
"She's the one who put love and care into making the business," Peterson says.
Before Peterson purchased the business, she had somewhat of an apprenticeship, which started in 1999. She worked two other jobs as an electrologist and a flight attendant simultaneously, and now that she's retired from those jobs, she says "I don't know how I fit it all in."
One of the most rewarding parts of her job is her customer base. Some of them are historians; some like to renovate old dolls; and some are just collectors. But, most importantly, Peterson says all of her customers are happy people.
Doll shop owners are, for the most part, willing to work with each other, she says. If a customer is looking for an item she doesn't have, Peterson says she is more than happy to refer them to another store. Unfortunately, she says, doll shops seem to be going under, and the Internet may be to blame. Specifically, Peterson says, eBay.
She says what people don't know is that they are trading the convenience of shopping online and having products delivered to their doorsteps for quality goods. Her personal policy is never to accept dolls from anyone unless they own them. Peterson doesn't want to risk buying dolls from, say, an embittered ex-husband or someone else who may be seeking revenge on an innocent doll owner.
Another problem with buying items online is that customers may not be aware of the shape the product is in.
Sometimes people tell Peterson she should be able to match the prices of dolls being sold on the Internet, but she cites the fact that she has to pay rent and taxes whereas people selling items on the Internet do not.
Although the Internet may be an obstacle for her business, she says she has a great customer base made up of regular collectors, who are willing to pay as much as $2,000 for a single doll, whether old or new. Her goal is to stay in the business for at least another 20 years and "beat Ruby's record."
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Campbell, California
