AT WORKWendy Paladini, managerTuscan HillsNassau Street, Princeton
By: Nick Norlen
How did you get into this business?
I had a small Internet business. It started in 1999. For three or four years, I did that on my own, importing Italian ceramics. My husband is from Italy, so I lived over there and that is how I became interested in it. So when we moved to Princeton, I started this little business on my own. About 2003, I heard Greg and Sue Evans opened up this place, and then I just came in to see what they were doing and to see if they would buy some of my merchandise, actually. They really were looking for someone to help them run it. So I started working for them and then I eventually closed my own business.
What kind of education or training did you need?
I have a lot of retail experience throughout the years. And I did take advertising and communications in college, so I’ve worked in marketing and advertising.
Describe a typical day in your business?
It’s never typical. We do a lot of different things. This business is not just the store. We have three or four different types of activities that go on here. We have customers coming in. We have a Web site … because we get Web orders. And we have a wholesale-trade business where we sell to designers or architects. And we do that all over the country. We have a small villa rental business. So people come in asking for rentals in Italy. On top of that, we also sell houses in Italy. It’s very diverse. But it really is all based on Italy, Italian design, Italian living it’s a lifestyle.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I’m really more into the home furnishing and working with the designers. That’s what I enjoy. (The sales people) really concentrate on the people walking in the door. They love the stuff that we have and helping them pick out stuff. We can help them custom design some things as well. So I think everybody enjoys doing that.
What do you enjoy least?
Accounting. Which is what we’re doing now doing the books. Being that we deal with only Italian companies, it’s very challenging to work out the Euro exchange and all that. So it’s a little more difficult than your normal gift store, especially when you’re also dealing with people across the country and overseas.
What is the key to success in your business?
I think the key is because it is niche. We’re a destination store versus if we were in Palmer Square, we’d get a lot of walk-ins, but maybe people who are not looking directly for Italian stuff. So we’re on the other side of the shopping district, but that’s because we’re a destination store. Also, 95 percent of what we carry, no one else carries it around here or in the United States. So that’s what really keeps it special the wood furniture, the iron furniture, the paintings, the photographs, the antiques. A lot of the big stuff, no one else carries. All the companies we deal with are small, family companies that have been in business for a really long time. Some have been in business since the 1800s generation after generation. And they really keep to the traditional way of making furniture. They use solid products. And everything really is handcrafted. We’re the anti-Pottery Barn. There’s no mass production.