These days, many San Fernando Valley merchants who make their living selling something old are keeping a watchful eye on something new--mindful that business lost to cyberspace may make them somewhat blue.
Antiques dealing was one area of retailing considered fairly cyber-proof because of the thrill of the hunt and the need to inspect. But it is now joining the rest of the retail world in forming a sort of love-hate relationship with The Web.
Some antiques dealers view the World Wide Web as an enormously efficient distribution channel, one that is able to push a struggling business into the black. Others fear that antiques shopping via the net will spell doom for some mom-and-pop shops that rely heavily on foot traffic, or for consignment shops that will lose their stock as people sell directly to the cyber public.
Perhaps nowhere in the Valley is the topic hotter than in three distinct regions whose lifeblood has been catering to strolling antiques shoppers--Magnolia Boulevard in Burbank, Sherman Way in Canoga Park and Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks and Studio City.
For the most part, vendors in these regions say business today is pretty good, thanks to robust sales of homes that are just crying out for an authentic marble-top Herter Bros. table or a Louis XIV armchair.
"I would say for us, business has never been better," said Mitchell Litt, founder of the eponymous upscale-antiques store in Sherman Oaks, a fixture in the community for 26 years. "Quite frankly, it's the best it's ever been."
Growing interest in antiques is reflected in the popularity of television shows like "The Antiques Road Show," the No. 1 prime time program on PBS.
But nearly all dealers acknowledged that even during this upswing, the Internet is having an increasing impact--for better or for worse.
When Joan Thornock, co-owner of Burbank-based Heidi's Antiques & Collectibles, noticed that business at her shop was slack three months ago, she wondered if her former strollers and browsers had become cyber-shoppers.
"We wondered over these last several months if that was what was happening, with the sales not being what we expected," said Thornock, whose Magnolia Boulevard shop carries an array of 20th century Americana pieces. "That's one of the reasons we felt we needed to sell at [an online] auction until we get our own Web site ready."
