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You Won't Believe This Store

Southern Living, Feb 2007 by Vanhooser, Cassandra M

Those in the know shop at this Maryland emporium for wholesale prices on all kinds of treasures.

I keep a Belgian enamelware coffeepot full of flowers on my desk. The flowers I usually pluck from the cooler at the local grocery. The bright red pot I found at Great Stuff by Paul in Frederick, Maryland.

As a general rule, I don't drag purchases back from work trips. It preserves the budget and keeps airport security agents off my back when I fly. But the second I stepped into Paul Berkowitz's Carroll Street store, I knew I'd buy something. I've never seen so much stuff in my entire life.

"Paul loves abundance," says shopkeeper Deb Edge with a smile.

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The More the Merrier

Indeed. The visionary entrepreneur travels around the world and buys in bulk. Where other stores might have a single Canadian sap bucket or half a dozen Chinese baskets, Paul boasts hundreds, sometimes thousands.

"What I do takes guts," the Brooklyn native says. "I don't buy five items just to try them out. I buy big. Then I have to find a price that people will pay."

On a recent trip to Thailand, Paul bought 1,000 sticky rice bowls. In China, he found baskets of every description. A few years ago, he scooped up all the English antique flowerpots he could find. He still has more than 20,000 of the hand-thrown pots from the 1920s in stock.

High Volume, Low Prices

The original Great Stuff by Paul store and warehouse, located in a carriage house in Frederick, measures 10,000 square feet. His second store encompasses 42,000 square feet-and that's not counting the barn out back. For those who have difficulty making decisions, the selection is overwhelming. For those who love choices, it's nirvana.

Great Stuff has long been the secret province of wholesalers and interior designers. Martha Stewart is a fan, as are numerous set designers. Paul is a bit coy about naming names, but his stuff often appears on The Early Show and QVC, as well as in movies such as The New World and Gods and Generals.

The store offers a wonderful Web site that lists many of the items you'll find in the stores. Best of all, Paul offers some of the best prices around, and he ships all over the country. "My prices are low because I sell in volume," he admits. "Nobody else has what we have."

-CASSANDRA M. VANHOOSER

You Won't Believe This Store

Southern Living, Feb 2007 by Vanhooser, Cassandra M

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