Yuppies go for antiques, wooden home furniture

Despite the entry of modern furniture designs, antiques and wooden home furnishing items are still in demand by the new generation market.

It is for this reason that home-based home furnishing retailer Nene Treveño was able to expand her small shop to the shopping mall, with the opening of Treveños Arts and Antique shop at the new SM Northwing.

Like the all time favorite fine jewelry, wooden home furnishings, or the hard-to-find antique pieces, regardless of its cost, are still the favorite shopping items of the young generation consumers.

Treveño, who started her little arts and antique shop along Banilad in 2001, was able to expand her offerings and invested considerable amount of capital to set up a 90 square-meter antique and arts shop in the mall, because of robust market, from both local and foreign clientele.

“Wood base furniture pieces are like fine jewelry, it is a good investment, because the value will go up, as it aged. All the more with antique items--they are priceless. There are a growing number of young people who appreciate antiques especially for investment purposes,” said Treveño.

She said it’s not easy to enter into the home furnishing retail, especially that the market is saturated with all kinds of products made locally or even from other countries which are priced competitively are widely available.

However, she said, she was able to distinguished herself from other home furnishing retailers, as she constantly travels to look for hard-to-find quality home furnishing products, including antiques, to provide consumers with unique interior design pieces, as well as furniture products for investments.

Aside from the growing interests of the new generation market to invest on good furniture, she said the position of Cebu as tourists’ destination benefits her business, as foreign customers go to her shop to find Cebuano-made painting works, and other Cebu-made furnishings as souvenirs.

Financially wise younger generation, single or newly-married couples are one of the shops’ top buyers, she said.

“They came from other places in the Philippines, some from other countries. They like what they find here, because what I sell is one of a kind home décor, or furniture,” Treveño said.

“It’s not easy to invest in a permanent retail shop inside the mall. But, I took the risk as I noted improving customer traffic, base on the short-term exhibitions held in malls like SM and Ayala in the last couple of years,” she added.

Treveño is an employee-entrepreneur, although she has succeeded in her arts and antique shop, she continuously works for a company, so that she will not depend solely to her business for living.

“This business is actually born out of my passion. I enjoy selling and buying the things that I like. When I travel, I buy the things I like, and [surprisingly] people like it too,” she said.