Cookeville Antique Mall — Attraction in Cookeville

Tis the season to be merry? My new man and I got into town early the night before a family celebration. So, naturally, we found some antique shop to browse and a bite to eat before going to the hotel for the evening.

First, the GPS directs you to the front of the old mall. This Antique mall is hidden in the back. Common sense dictated to drive around, or otherwise leave.

The front of the building is junked up. It's overcluttered, so much so that any curb appeal is erased, and the clutter is so tight that much of it couldn't even be browsed through. My man and I made remarks about that issue, but we went in anyway. Be warned. There is this tremendously loud bell at the door, to alert that someone just came in, but it is truly a scare, and more of a put off.

The building boasts 9000 square feet. Honestly, it's footprint doesn't feel much bigger than my previous 1850 square foot house. We browsed everything, while the same, singular Chrismas tune played repeatedly from behind the checkout counter.

Like most places, much of the layout is both rental spaces. Some booths were clean, others heavily dusted. Some were merchandise with some Christmas items. Some booths had sale percentages off. Aside from the rental booth space was a big signage room, perfect for man cave items. The t-shirt booth, with all new items, in an antique store, really felt like a stretch.

I will point out that there were two very obvious places in the building where the roof was heavily leaking. Personally, I believe that antiques, and exposure to rain/moisture are a really bad idea. Bad for the antiques, the booth renters, and bad for the business in general.

My personal experience? I had one item that I found early on in the visit there. I simply had to get it, and it was only $12. It was two-piece, fragile ceramic, and I knew it was best to set it down. The older man at the counter acted really disinterested in me, or me asking if he would hold it behind the counter with him til we were done. "Just leave it here" he said, as if he allowed me all of the 6" of corner counterspace with my insignificant find. I said, "We'll don't let anyone else get it (because it would have looked like a Christmas sale item on display)." He later placed it in a sales bag, on the front counter, as if that made much improvement to my request.

I quickly lost my enthusiasm for shopping, but we finished our browse anyway.

I don't understand why the older man doesn't understand the concept of customer service, or Christmas spirit. Antique'rs and Pickers may only stop at your business once, in any town, especially traveling through. Why not give them a good personal experience? 2.5 stars to be fair, since...

We stopped in just to check it out.., kinda hidden.., neat store front and larger than it looks from the outside. My wife found a fireplace grate cover she liked, it was not an antique (or even slightly old.) Manufacture tag was still tucked away on it. Found it on line for $99 and free shipping, the store had it marked for $145! She asked the younger guy at the desk about it and offered to pay the available new price of $99 for it. Instead of just saying" No, sorry I can't do that" he came back very sarcastically with, "Well maybe you should just buy it on line then." Regardless of the offer, it's all about customer service, We ended up buying a few small items but the experience was not enjoyable after his remark. We won't return, there are many other similar stores...

I shop a lot of antique stores and malls in TN. This one has a lot of cluttered stations and the prices in some of the booths are ridiculous. The cameras were grossly overpriced. The only camera of interest, an underwater video camera, wasn’t priced but based on the lack of concern by the guys up front, I wasn’t optimistic that they’d give a fake price The room at the far right had cool auto memorabilia, but terribly overpriced. Almost everything was priced well in excess of retail, even in comparison to stores in Nashville. There were two booths priced at 50% off, but it was essentially junk. The vintage tshirt booth had the...