Taking over a local business when the original owner fell ill, a local businesswoman kept the same name to honor its creator.
“People ask, ‘why I haven’t changed the name,’” said Pat Diamond, owner of Fran’s Classic Consignment. “I wanted to honor her dream.”
Diamond purchased the store after paying for a small space in the building for a few years.
“I first met Fran (Frances Procida) at my old store on Winery Road and when my store closed in 2008 I rented out a small area of their store for my floral arrangements and we soon became good friends,” Diamond said. “She became increasingly ill, I’d come in and help and they decided to sell and I worked toward trying to get the money to buy them out.”
It took about a year to get the store back up to par, after becoming a bit run down between ownership changes. Diamond’s business goal is the same as it was when she first started renting there.
“My vision for Fran’s is to sell big, beautiful furniture, with unique home accents and one of a kind gifts, in a boutique setting,” she said.
Fran’s has been at its current location, at 1240 E. State St., for the past three-and-a-half years. The current space is 5,000 square feet next door to Mom’s Diner, and Diamond said most people don’t realize the size of the building until they walk through the doors.
“People come in and say, ‘wow, this is really big. This is the most beautiful store in Pahrump,’” Diamond said. “A lady was in here the other day thanking me profusely for having a store like this here, so they don’t have to travel to Vegas for one.”
Diamond likes to mix new items and items brought in from other people to make the items more presentable, and up the chance that those items are sold.
The way the consignment store works, is that a person looking to sell their goods comes in, signs a three-month contract and will split the money made off their item 50-50.
If an item doesn’t sell within three months, a new three-month contract will be drafted, in hopes the item will sell in that time span.
If a person who is selling a piece in Fran’s happens to move away before their item sells, Diamond will either send them a money order, or in some cases the seller will leave a deposit slip for her to deposit into their bank account once the item is sold.
With the worst of the economic downturn over, customers new to town are big business for Diamond, as they work with the shop in a dual-profiting fashion.
“People are moving to Pahrump and they’re new to town and they’re looking for furniture because if they brought their furniture in they soon realize that it wasn’t going to fit the way they envisioned it,” she said. “So we serve two purposes now, one we help them sell their furniture, and two we sell them furniture, so the business is doing very well.”
Fran’s Boutique and Consignment Shop is open seven days a week from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. and can be reached at 775-751-8222.