^ I Support Local Community Journalism Support the independent voice of Phoenix and help keep the future of the New Times clear. Michael Robertson was already having a miserable month when his antique store caught fire and burned almost to the ground. “My mother was at home in hospice care, and my brother died the next week,” he said. “Then I get a call from a friend, ‘Hello, I think your store is on fire.'” The fire broke out on June 22nd at Twigs and Twine, the store next door, with Robertson’s store, Michael Todd’s Treasures, up against a wall shares “It was a Tuesday and we were closed on Tuesday,” said Robertson. “Not that I could have done anything if we had been open. The fire went through. It burned her storeroom and study, then shot up the roof and through my wall. ”Robertson made a name for himself in Phoenix with popular vintage stores that he opened and sold a few years later after they became popular. His shops always had hand-painted furniture and a mix of old and new objects. He had owned so many that he couldn’t always remember them all. “Okay, so I opened Pomegranates in 1992,” he said. “Then Qcumberz here and in San Diego. After that I had Michael Todd’s Furniture and a store called Mixture over on Camelback. Then my friend Heidi and I had a store called Hollywood Regency, then Zinnia’s on Melrose, and then this store. ”Somewhere there, Robertson was taking a break from retailing and working as a consultant to other local vintage stores that wanted his retail secrets“ Mine Secrets are pretty simple and not very secret, ”he confided. “Be kind to customers and be open when you say you will be open.” Robertson’s career was inspired by his great-grandmother and grandmother who combed ghost towns across Arizona looking for old things to sell in her antique shop. “I was a kid who watched them pick up dusty stuff and recreate it as something beautiful,” he recalls. “They put milk glasses made of glass on the roof of the house so that the sun would turn them purple. They display coffee and cookies for customers. They were more interested in the people who came in than they were in selling things. Neither of them cared if you bought anything, they just wanted to talk to you. ”Robertson worked in Mervyn’s department store for years before opening his first boutique. “That’s when I learned how important it is to change the displays every day,” he said. “Also, I’m gay and a virgin, so tidying up, tidying up and decorating is a matter of course.” At his first store, he remembered his grandparents’ homely approach to customers and decided to adopt the same standard. He’d noticed that other antique dealers weren’t always very friendly. “I didn’t mean to,” he insisted. “I still hear about it from my customers. They will say, “Everyone in your business is so nice. I was just in that other store and nobody wanted to talk to me! ‘”Robertson always takes the main street. “I say, ‘I’m sorry to hear this, but this place has great stuff! You should give them a second chance! ‘”Not every customer was fun, he admitted. “Sometimes someone irritates me to death, but I will never tell you. If someone upsets me, I just go back and paint something turquoise. ”The people at Twigs and Twine have apologized about a thousand times, Robertson said. “I say, ‘Dude, it was an accident.’ They want to know how I can be so gracious. I don’t like people who are constantly negative. It’s not that they deliberately set my shop on fire. I said, ‘We both have insurance. Let’s comfort one another. ‘”Customers and others have been really nice, he said. “Oh my god, they come from the woodworks. If I ever thought that these were just people who bought me things, I can’t imagine anymore. ”His landlord was a prince, said Robertson. Someone set up a GoFundMe account to raise funds for anything the insurance company doesn’t cover. One of the dealers whose booth was destroyed by the fire donated $ 350. Food was delivered to customers and messages, voicemails, and anonymous donations were sent. Even the insurance expert was compassionate and requested full replacement coverage with no deductible. While waiting for news of whether the mall will be rebuilt or demolished, Robertson is determined to stay positive. “I refuse to lie down and die when something bad happens,” he says. “I learned to be a survivor when I was a kid who was beaten up for being gay. If the fire department would let me, I would be back in my shop in a flash, sorting things and cleaning the windows. ”He is eager to get back to work and add the fire to the list of stories he can tell anyone who comes by . “That’s even better than the one about the lady who threw her COVID mask at me because her to-go order wasn’t ready. She thought my vintage shop was a Thai restaurant. ”Robertson laughed. “I’ll get a lot of the game out of this story as soon as we open again.” Keep Phoenix New Times Free … Since we started Phoenix New Times, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Phoenix, and we want it to stay that way. We offer our readers free access to concise coverage of local news, food and culture. We produce stories about everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with bold reporting, stylish writing, and staff who have won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Feature Writing Award to the Casey- Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with the existence of local journalism under siege and the setbacks in advertising revenues having a bigger impact, it is now more important than ever for us to raise funds to fund our local journalism. You can help by joining our “I Support” membership program which allows us to continue to cover Phoenix without paywalls. Robrt L. Pela has been writing weekly for the Phoenix New Times since 1991, primarily as a cultural critic. His radio essays are broadcast on the Morning Edition of the KJZZ subsidiary of National Public Radio.
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