Business Spotlight: A little bit of everything

What looks like a high-end antique store but is also a nonprofit, food pantry, outlet store, interior decorator, and liquidations and estate sales contractor? The Avant Garde’n LLC, of course. When it comes to diversification, the Ozark business’ founder and owner Marcia Bell knows how to put the right eggs in the right baskets. It’s how she’s grown Avant Garde’n over the past 16 years from a single, 1,700-square-foot antique-store to an enterprise encompassing three locations in Ozark with distinct business types.

“It reaches out to so many diverse lifestyles and people,” says outlet store manager Kim Cook. “We serve such an array of customers and clients because we have diversified by having all three stores and the not-for-profit that reaches out beyond that, as well as the estate liquidations in home estate sales.”

The main location on 20th Street is primarily high-end consignment offering furniture, skin care and fragrance products, lighting, decor and wood-care products. In 2020, Bell encountered the need for a space to sell items such as dated furniture, electronics and some appliances that did not fit in the main store. So, she opened the Avant Garde’n Outlet on South Street, which offers bargain deals. That same year, she also founded the thrift store nonprofit, Garde’n Gate Provisions, located on West Jackson St. All proceeds of the store go back into the nonprofit’s events or to other local organizations, pet rescues and school programs.

“All those locations came out of, basically, filling a need for the community and a need for our business, as well,” Bell says, adding that, because each location provides such a unique function, it made sense to keep them close together in Ozark. “It makes it easier when we are all right together because we can move things between the locations much more cost effectively.”

Around 2011, TAG was asked by a real estate agent if they offered estate sale services. This began a new branch of the business, which is now one of its largest sources of income. Bell’s method of in-home estate sales is unique because of her ability to consign items rather than auction them at the end of the event.

“We don’t have to give it away at the end,” she says. “Especially the high-end pieces, we don’t discount them if they don’t sell. We price them fairly and, if they don’t sell, they move into the retail location. It’s a nice alternative for people, especially with higher end stuff, to know that their stuff is not going to go for $5 for a table like they do sometimes.”

Together, the estate sales and consignment create a symbiosis with about 90% of estate clients beginning as retail customers. Bell says she caps her team at two estate sales per month because of the amount of effort each event takes and the influx of product at the stores at the end of each sale.

Marketing occurs naturally with numerous routes customers can take to find their way into the world of TAG. While EstateSales.net brings in a large number of estate clients and social media always helps, most customers for the business in general are word of mouth. Advertising isn’t a challenge, but staffing is, particularly finding volunteers for the thrift store – a common theme for businesses across industries. Between the three locations, TAG has 40 employees who are both full- and part-time. Bell says finding space for consignment items is also a constant difficulty. TAG currently has two warehouses in Springfield and Ozark along with a small unit for seasonal items that can’t be in the store year-round. Running a consignment store takes immense time and detail, Bell says. Currently, TAG prices approximately 1,000 items per week. Working individually with each client like they’re the only client, taking the time to price items fairly and providing excellent customer service is key to Bell’s business model.

Community service is also important to the TAG team through the Garden Gate Provisions thrift store. The nonprofit hosts community events throughout the year, including being co-chair of Santa’s Toy Drive with Affordable Dumpsters LLC. The nonprofit provides new-with-tag clothing for parents to shop from at the event. It also hosts the annual prom dress day where approximately 400 highschoolers come to pick out dresses, shoes and handbags. Garden Gate Provisions also partners with Foster Adopt Connect Inc. to help support grandparents who foster their grandchildren and do not qualify for service by providing needed furniture. The Garden Gate Provisions thrift store also provides a food pantry offering a variety of dry goods, soups, diapers and similar items donated by community members, local businesses, staff and the occasional food drive. It is open during the same hours as the store with approximately 250 people utilizing the service per month.

“Anybody in the community who needs it can come and get it,” Bell says.

Another lesser known aspect of TAG’s enterprise is interior design and home staging services for realtors. The team will fully furnish newly purchased or for-sale homes using products being sold in the store first and then supplementing with buying whatever else is needed. Interior decorating is a big part of consignment, as well, with each store being carefully decorated to display items as inspiration for customers. This is a big part of what Cook does at her outlet location, and she says it speaks to the heart of what consignment can be.

“Everybody deserves to have a space that they can be proud of, that they can feel comfortable in regardless of their style,” she says. “Your home, your surroundings, if it’s peaceful and if it’s comfortable, it affects everything else you do in your life. … That’s one thing I think of with Advant Garde’n and Garden Gate Provisions that all three of our stores, we can hit on anyone’s budget.”