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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Veteran Retailer: Avery's owner Nancy Trainor sells Christopher Radko ornaments at her store in the Kirkwood Plaza.
Public Citizen
New Start for Trainor and Avery's
By Erin Mayes
Nancy Trainor lives and breathes her business. As the president and owner of Avery's of California, a Campbell gift store, it's hard for her to keep her hands off the goods.
She has a penchant for decorating and the finer things in life, as evidenced by the 14, "soon to be 15," sets of china she has purchased for her own personal use. In fact, she moved from her local home to one in Gilroy mainly because of its roomy butler's pantry, where all of her dishes could be stored.
Trainor's new house also has two garages--one fits two cars and the other, a single, is crammed with holiday decorations.
Trainor and her husband, who passed away in 1992, purchased Avery's from its previous owner, Avery Smith, in 1986. Trainor had actually worked at the store as a manager a few years prior to the purchase. The couple decided to stick with a good thing and not change the name.
"You don't change the name of a ship," Trainor says. "It's bad luck."
By purchasing the business, she and her husband were fulfilling lifelong dreams.
"I've been playing store all my life, so I guess it was my fate to be involved in this," Trainor says. She says she has always worked in retail and enjoys it immensely.
She says her husband, when he was 16 years old, begged his parents to buy him his own store.
Avery's is, to date, not a chain store--the Campbell Avenue location in Kirkwood Plaza is one of a kind.
Avery's set up shop in the location on Sept. 7, after operating for almost a year in a portable building set up in the plaza's parking lot.
Most of the store's merchandise sat in storage during that time, with mostly ornaments, wedding gifts and Christmas decorations on display. Avery's unexpectedly lost its lease at its previous location on Stevens Creek Boulevard in San Jose. Its old location was about 15,000 square feet, and moving to the portable building meant it had to downsize to about 1,500 square feet of space.
Trainor, however, is looking on the bright side and is just happy to be moved into her newly completed store. She says she is also grateful that the city of Campbell allowed her to operate out of the portable for so long.
Avery's is known for its stock of Fitz and Floyd figurines--Trainor says the store carries the distinction of being the largest dealer of the collectibles on the West Coast. Currently on display are Halloween and Christmas figurines.
The store also carries items designed by Christopher Radko, who is known for his glass Christmas decorations, as well as other seasonal gifts, collectibles and home furnishings. Indeed, Trainor says the store's new slogan will be, "Your store for all seasons."
Avery's has a bridal registry and even offers complimentary gift wrapping, which Trainor says is not available anywhere else.
Since she moved into the new location, Trainor says the response from the community has been "phenomenal."
"I'm very lucky," she says. "I'm so blessed to be in retail."
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Campbell, California
