Life just fine, even without the hoopla

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jun 8, 2007 | by Lee Benson Deseret Morning News

Life isn't always fair, and for the latest example of that, how about all the free publicity the new IKEA super furniture store received when it recently opened in Draper.

It wasn't that IKEA didn't deserve the front-page newspaper stories and the video clips on every TV station -- and that visit from the governor was a nice touch.

But what about all the businesses that open without any free publicity? The ones that turn the key on opening day, flip on the lights and hope enough customers show up so they can pay the power bill?

If life were fair, wouldn't they get similar treatment?

Wasatchhome is a furniture store that sits in the shadow of the new IKEA giant. It opened for business in its current location three months ago but is yet to have a proper grand opening. This is chiefly due to the fact that no one among the nine-person staff has had the time to hang the streamers and blow up the balloons.

"We've been pretty swamped just getting up and running," said Diane Naylor. "Maybe when we catch our breath."

Diane doesn't own the store. Her sister, Beth Colosimo, does. Diane first signed on to help out, as she remembers it, "for a day or two now and then."

"Now I'm here every day," she said, smiling as her sister walked through the door.

Beth, who has an MBA degree from Westminster College, said she decided to open Wasatchhome because she saw a niche for the rugged- yet-elegant Western-style furniture she sells. Plus, after years working in the corporate world, she liked the idea of not just being her own boss, but getting to be Diane's boss, too.

She opened her first store about a block away in an 8,000-square- foot building next to Astro Burger that quickly turned out to be about 8,000 feet too small.

"My husband (Galey Colosimo is principal at Juan Diego High School) calls that our mulligan," said Beth. "Now we get to do it the way we wanted to do it in the first place."

The new place, located at 241 E. 12300 South, sits between Office Depot and Axis Sports and is covered with couches, chairs, desks, pots, mirrors, artwork, beds, lamps, carpet, tables and armoires. Almost nothing looks like you could break it without help from a blacksmith.

"What we offer is furniture for the way we live in the West," said Beth, "not something that you can't let your kids sit on."

"We're not Ethan Allen but we're not IKEA either," said Diane. "What IKEA offers is nothing like what we offer. They appeal more to maybe like college kids. We're the next step after that."

"We actually think IKEA will help us," added Beth. "It will bring more traffic to the area."

The sisters exhibited no resentment for the international Swedish furniture giant and all the fuss over its Utah opening -- even if it is the dead opposite of the fuss over their opening.

When I asked them how much media coverage their beautiful new 16,000-square-foot store has generated in its first three months they looked at me and said, "You're it."

Hey, better than nothing.

Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.