KalamazooKitty opens second location, on West Main

Kathy Jennings | Thursday, May 15, 2014

People tried to tell Kitty Copeland that she should start out small when she decided to go into the consignment quality home furnishings business in 2011. Copeland didn't listen. Instead she opened an 11,000-square-foot store on Portage Road. Now she has opened her second store and it's big, too.

KalamazooKitty's second location has opened at 6883 West Main. The store is 8,000 square feet to accommodate the ever changing pieces of furniture.

Copeland says people often comment that her furnishings change so often it seems like a new store each time they come in. It is common for the store to carry as many as 2,000 items at a time.

Her business works on consignment. People drop off furnishings they hope to sell. They can earn 50 percent commission on consigned items. The price drops 20 percent if it has not sold in 45 days. It must sell within 90 days. Furnishings often are donated if they don't sell.

Customers find the store through social media such as Facebook, Craigslist and Twitter, but primarily through word of mouth. Arriving from Chicago, Indiana and Detroit, they have made KalamazooKitty a destination, Copeland says.

Copeland had been a designer for seven years before opening the Portage Road store in 2011, and she continues to offer design services through her website. Her struggles to find antique and unique pieces for her work spurred her to open the quality home consignment store.

Initially, she was concerned that opening a second store would be hard to manage, since she has so much new inventory every day -- hundreds of pieces -- and she wanted to focus on the first store.

Though she wanted to take her time before opening a second store she says she always hoped she could. As the business developed its own flow, and with the hiring of managers for both stores, she now is confident both stores will operate as smoothly as the first one does.

Copeland also will be taking time to teach furniture painting lessons at both stores. "People were asking me how to use it so I decided to offer lessons," Copeland says. Both stores now carry Vintage Market and Design Furniture paint. The paint requires no prep, and no sanding. The paint also has a large line of colors.

"People tell me all the time that when the come in it is like coming to a completely different store," Copeland says. "There is always something different from the last time they were in."

KalamazooKitty is open in both locations from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. It is closed Sunday and Monday.

Source: Kitty Copeland, KalamazooKitty