Apr 6, 2008

Former mall store manager adds human touch to careerBy Don BoldingKDHNews.com

Tanya Mckiver, who cut her teeth in the gift business with nine years at Trevors in Killeen Mall, has set out to build a business of her own with a resolute dedication to the personal touch.

She started A Fynd in The Shops at Modoc in Harker Heights at the end of February after the Trevors store closed with a dream of improving on the bulk-order, assembly-line way of doing business essential to chain stores, although she managed the mall store for several years. “I think people want to feel the little extra money they have for gifts is going for something special,” she said, “and I want to get to know my customers. All of them have stories to tell.”

Her stock consists mainly of home accents, including wall art and small statuary with European, African and religious themes. “There’s not enough faith in life,” she said.

It looks a little sparse so far, but she says she never wants the shop crowded so that customers are always at risk of knocking something over. Besides, about 30 to 40 percent of her business is special order. A customer comes in with an idea, and she searches her sources until she finds something. She will also take orders over the phone from people in assisted living and deliver to them.

Her markups are only $5 to $10 over her cost, she said, and she never orders the same set of items twice. “There’s nothing worse than seeing a central item in your decor in a friend’s house,” she said. At any rate, a large number of items come from liquidators so that those items would not be continually available, anyway. She does order some stock from wholesalers, but says, “I spend 80 percent of my time on the Internet looking for the best price.”

She plans to change half the stock in the store every three months for a complete turnover every six months, with no items remaining in stock more than three months. “I’ll move it to a discount center in Fort Worth if it hasn’t sold by then,” she said.

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