I know where you can find a museum that has no admission fees and everything you see is for sale. A place where the exhibits are actually wares curated by a family of professional gift givers. A place that may also host a doorway into another dimension (I’ll explain later). I’m talking about the Bizarre Bazaar on Five Mile of course.
I found myself inside the Bizarre Bazaar for the first time a couple weeks ago with my wife. I’ll admit I was kind of on auto-pilot as we walked toward the front door to do some Christmas shopping. My plan was to go through the usual shopping motions like any good consumer; to browse, select, and maybe purchase. But before I made it around the first turn, my experience changed and my curiosity was piqued.
Yes, the density of merchandise was impressive, but it was how everything was displayed that really caught my eye. The owner of this place must have some design skills I thought. Instead of rows of metal shelves, everything was placed on what appeared to be antique dressers, tables, and bookcases. Visual weight and color themes were applied throughout the store.
It all felt whimsical and regal at the same time. And although there were countless things on display, nothing seemed chaotic or out of order. What’s the old saying? A place for everything and everything in its place.
Items were arranged in a way that almost told a story, and if the shop itself was a book, then each section was its own chapter. There was an overwhelming sense of peace and comfort that washed over me the deeper I browsed, like I was visiting a grandparent I had not seen in some time.
I bet they could charge people to take naps in this store I joked with myself. Then I realized I wasn’t shopping anymore. Instead I was marveling, and not at any particular piece, but at the ensemble of everything all at once.
The Wormhole
Then a young man brushed by me. “Hey Kelly I found this,” he said as he turned a corner near the back of the store. “Kelly?” he asked out of my view. “Where did Kelly go?” he asked someone else. “She was just right here.”
By this time he had come full circle but still without his Kelly, now chuckling, realizing how silly he must look while brushing by me a second time. My wife was just ahead around the corner so I decided to catch up, but when I made the turn she was also gone.
“Tina?” I called out.
“Kelly?” I heard again from behind a display somewhere.
Thankfully Tina and I were reunited a few moments later in a section that I hadn’t been in before and seemed to appear out of nowhere. Did the other guy and I get turned around because we just weren’t paying attention – or is there some kind of third dimensional wormhole consuming consumers?
This was one of the many questions I wanted to ask the owners and was eventually delighted to learn that they were happy to answer them. So I met with owner Maureen Searcy and her daughters Sara and Emma to learn everything. They even let me take some pictures.
Before the Bazaar
Before Maureen Searcy sold delicate home decor and gifts, she and her husband John sold hefty wood stoves for their Searcy Chimney Sweeps business. It was back in 1979 during the energy crisis when everyone was looking for an alternative way to heat their homes.
John Searcy, originally a musician and songwriter, made the move to chimney sweeping to help pay the bills. Although business was steady for them, Maureen recalled the struggles of operating such a business back then. “I would book his appointments and I didn’t have a map to know how far I would be sending John,” Maureen said. “So sometimes the customer’s address would be miles and miles away and he’d end up driving for two hours to do a chimney clean.”
It didn’t take long for the literal weight of massive wood stoves, the dirty work and long hours to start taking their toll. And besides, Maureen confessed that the profit margin for a wood stove is much less than most people think. So Maureen and John had other ideas and this is where Maureen’s prior education and experience really came in handy.
In 1976, before she was married and before she ever sold a wood stove, Maureen received her BA in art history from the University of Cincinnati. Beyond that she interned for the Contemporary Arts Center downtown and also did some work for various art galleries, namely framing and other things. Eventually she would work for a commercial artwork company that designed content for clients like Proctor & Gamble, King’s Island, and the Cincinnati Ballet.
Before wood stoves, Maureen was immersed in a world of art and museums. She only quit her commercial artwork job to take care of their oldest daughter, Sara, and then to help with her husband’s business. So when they eventually wanted out of the chimney industry, Maureen tapped into some of her curation experience and started to display smaller items like toys and decorations on the sales floor.
It wasn’t long until the number of large wood stoves dwindled and the number of small gifts increased. Eventually the gifts and home decor would prevail over the stoves. No more soot, no more iron; and Bizarre Bazaar would be born.
Their first bazaar was on Beechmont close to Salem. “It was like a garage,” Maureen told me. Eventually they would move to their current location on Five Mile Rd. and remain there for almost the next 30 years.
A deliberate stock
One of the many things I learned about the Bizarre Bazaar that surprised me was how they obtain their stock. Like most of you, I assumed Maureen logged in to some kind of online catalog where she can simply click and buy items to place on her shelves, but that is far from how it actually works.
Twice a year Maureen and her crew “Go to market” as they say. “The market” is actually AmericasMart or the Atlanta Market, one of the largest wholesale trade centers in the world. Basically there are three skyscrapers in Atlanta, Georgia with dozens of floors and millions of square feet occupied by vendors from all over the world showing off their products.
This is how the Bizarre Bazaar does their shopping. Everything in their Anderson store has been seen in person, picked up, touched, and examined by Maureen and crew in Atlanta before they put in an order and it gets put on their shelves. All items are individually hand picked, they do not make bulk orders of fluff.
I’m told Maureen is the world’s best gift giver, that she has this way of finding the perfect gift for someone. Sara says it’s how she expresses her love for others. There is no doubt that this love trickles down to her customers as they shop through items handpicked by Maureen. After all, aren’t these items simply gifts to her customers waiting to be found?
The experience
It’s not uncommon for some customers to confess to the Searcys that their store is like therapy for them. Retail therapy comes to mind, but I think it goes beyond that. It’s not the shopping at the bazaar that makes people happy, it’s the world of aesthetics customers get immersed in. It almost made me wonder, can a store be too beautiful? Do shoppers get lost in the beauty and the experience and actually forget to shop? Or could they almost be too afraid to touch anything?
And what made me feel like I was visiting a grandparent when I was browsing? It was a great feeling, one that I haven’t felt in a long time. How did they tap into that? One thing is for sure: you cannot get that feeling while shopping online.
Naturally one would expect a store so beautiful to be kind of snooty, but that is certainly not the case here. Maureen is probably the most genuinely modest person I have ever met. She deflects compliments and praise like a ninja. The only thing that may get you thrown out of her store would be trying to persuade her to take some credit for what she has built.
Family is everything
The Bizarre Bazaar would not be what it is today without an intense family effort. Maureen’s children, Sara, Evan, Emma and daughter-in-law Nicolle have been instrumental over the years. I’m told even her grandkids have been known to help out when needed. Maureen and customers alike recall the early days when Emma, now a mother herself, slept in a crib behind the counter.
It normally takes an entire week of long work days, that go well into the night, to prepare the store for Christmas. Sara, who moved away to Austin for a few years (but is back now), would make the trek back to Cincinnati every winter to make sure her mother had enough help to set up. Maureen’s sister, Gayle, should be credited for her involvement over the years as well as her niece, Holly, who did a lot of design work. And Jean Parker, who may not be related by blood to the Searcys but is considered family for all of her work at the store.
After the bazaar took off and John Searcy stopped cleaning chimneys, he stayed home with Sara, Evan, and Emma. This allowed him to focus on his music and other creative passions while also providing his own contributions to the shop. I’m told he’s quite the handyman and has pretty much built, repaired, and installed everything in the store.
The story of a father who quits his job to spend more time with family and pursue creative endeavors sounds very familiar. It’s still kind of a taboo practice today, but like me, I’m guessing John Searcy isn’t someone who puts following rules on the top of his list of things to be concerned about.
I asked Sara and Emma what they remember about growing up with a dad who was always around.
They reflected on the walks with their father to and from school everyday, the soccer practices and games, eating peanut butter crackers, looking curiosities up in the dictionary or encyclopedia, artwork at the kitchen table, talking and laughing, playing music and dancing and singing. Emma added, “He used to wrap pennies in tinfoil and hide them all over the house so we could go on treasure hunts.” They remembered going to pet stores and Kevin’s Fish Market on Salem, and getting ice cream from Graeter’s.
“He was truly supportive and compassionate,” Sara said, “proud and loving, super playful.” His mother-in-law describes him as a real life Peter Pan.
2020
“We used to joke that it would take a global pandemic to get my mom to take a break from the store,” Sara told me. Maureen’s other superpower beyond her modesty is her tenacious work ethic. Normally she would very rarely take a day off unless she had to, but 2020 was far from normal.
The Bizarre Bazaar was closed for three months during the beginning of Covid, but instead of taking the opportunity to begrudge lost profits, Maureen and Sara reflected on the extra quality time Maureen got to spend with her family, like the hikes Maureen got to take with her grandkids most mornings. The pandemic does present opportunities to those who are willing to see them.
I think deep down those three months away from the store may have opened Maureen’s eyes to what she may have been missing. In fact, Maureen has actually been toying with the idea of cutting back the store hours after Christmas and more importantly, Sara says that Maureen, “has been using vocabulary about retirement lately.”
This caused Sara’s voice to quiver slightly. She averted her eyes as Maureen stepped away to engage with Violet, one of her grandchildren, who found something shiny in the store to hold onto.
“After everything we’ve been through for the past 30 years; online shopping, then the pandemic, when she leaves, when she’s out of here, we want it to be special,” Sara said.
As for whether or not one of Maureen’s children will take over the business when she does retire, we did have that discussion and it truly does seem to be up in the air for their family. To be fair there appears to be a million good reasons for their decision to go either way. Having only known the Searcys for a few days, I can tell you they are thoughtful and earnest people who will make the best decision for everyone in the end, no matter what it is.
I have my own prediction of what they will decide, but I’ll just leave it at that.
The interrogation
“Oh there’s one more thing I wanted to ask you,” I said to Maureen and Sara. This was probably the most I’ve sounded like a cop since I quit the force in 2019. “How often do your customers disappear while in your store?” I then went on to explain my wormhole theory.
They both laughed. “How do you think we get our workers?” answered Maureen.
#prayersforkelly
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