The Willow Glen Resident Frumas moves to a bigger location after three months on the Avenue 'South' Lincoln will boast two furniture consignment shops By Michelle Ku Three months ago, Theresa Higgs spent her time cleaning, painting and ordering furniture for Frumas. Today, Higgs is doing it all over again, this time for the expansion and relocation of Frumas to another part of the Avenue. "I'm getting really good at painting and cleaning stores up," Higgs says. If she ever becomes tired of running Frumas, she can always become a professional painter, she jokes. A consignment furniture store, Frumas opened in October at 1000 A Lincoln Ave., near Coe Avenue. But when customers visit that location beginning on Jan. 2, they'll discover the store has been vacated. Frumas is moving to the other end of the Avenue--to 2208 Lincoln Ave., near Curtner Avenue. Higgs says she is changing locations because the space she inhabits now is too small. "There's a lot more furniture to come in than I have space for, and it gives people more of a selection," she says of her new storefront. The move allows Higgs to more than double the size of her store. At present, Frumas has approximately 1,100 square feet. After the move, the shop will have close to 2,500 square feet. When Higgs was originally searching for a second location, she says, she inquired about the space occupied by Into the Looking Glass Tea & Chocolate Shoppe, because it appeared as if the store had closed its doors. The shop was only closed temporarily, however, because the owner, Rebecca Mapes, was on maternity leave. With the recent closure of Victorian House Antiques, located next to Into the Looking Glass, and Mapes' decision to downsize and retool her store into a cooking school, Higgs found a new location for her growing business. "I think it will be great," she says. "It will have more visibility. This location [at Lincoln and Coe] has trouble because it's back in on the street and people have a hard time finding it." The move to the southern end of Lincoln puts Frumas closer to Village Consignment, another consignment furniture store, which opened recently at Lincoln and Malone Road. But Higgs says she does not feel that the relationship will be only about competition--in fact, she says she is looking forward to the customers the two shops could attract together. "If I don't have [a piece of furniture] maybe they'll have it. Or if I don't have space, hopefully they'll have space," Higgs says. "It will be like West San Carlos--none of those antique shops have closed." [ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Willow Glen Resident, December 23, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.