Ms Bee Haven

First of all, let me state I was super excited to poke around Ms. Bee Haven after window shopping the night before. There is/​was a genuinely antique child’s horse rocker, and lovely knick-​knacks in the window.
Once inside, the experience was much different than expected. First, trying to navigate one’s way around Ms. Bee Haven is difficult. I’m no longer a teenager/​child, but due to my age I’m super cautious about not giving stores a reason to think I’m a hooligan or that I’m not going to treat their wares with respect. Yet — the cluttered miscellanea and haphazardly stacked piles of dishes, glassware, and brik a brak made me so overly cautious as to take away from the fun experience of picking through an antique store.
Which brings me to my second issue: After 10 minutes of glancing at items I began to demonstrate less care if only for the reason that the items are not all antique, many of them not older than two decades. My parents did not raise a dummy as far as antiques and arts hunting goes. I’ve been privileged to grow up around authentic windsor chairs, Shaker furniture, and cabinets from the 1700s. ***To say that 50% of the wares in Ms. Bee Haven are of sufficient age and quality to be considered «antique» is being generous.***
Example: «Antique» choir chair near front window — over $ 100 in price, yet a nick in the arm of the chair reveals bright new wood that is too evenly plained to be handmade. Granted, the chair may be from the 50s, even 40s if one wants to feel generous.
The only redeeming items in my mind were the clearly vintage/​antique silver wares, crystal, and ivory pieces. Unfortunately, even those items while more appropriately priced suffered from gross inflation. $ 80 for an incomplete set of crystal flutes from an undetermined maker? I guess people have to make their money some how.
The business is currently up for sale; let us hope the future owners have a more focused merchandising focus and pricing savvy. This is Port Townsend in 2012, not 2000.

I purchased an «oak» dining room table from Ms. Bee Haven several years ago. It was delivered to my house upon purchase. (That would be the first star.)
However, (fool me once, shame on you) I failed to notice *why* one of the store clerks insisted upon eating her lunch at the table during the time I was looking at it. I had assumed that the table was scarred… after all, it was an antique. But… I failed to notice that it was a truly «reconstructed» table. That is… legs were mismatched, table top was veneer, *and* there were large gouges on various parts of the surface.
«No exchanges, no returns» said the sales tag. So it still sits in my livingroom reminding me of my own folly. The «oak table» wasn’t cheap. And that brings us to the reason for the second star:
Thanks for the lesson, Ms. Bee Haven. I award you a star for bringing me up to speed on checking every little detail of a purchase… before buying. (Fool me twice, shame on me… not gonna happen to this lady!)
Even in a friendly, artistic, waterfront town… you’ve got to realize that you *can* be taken for ride. But ask me if I intend to buy anything there again. Or if I will sprinkle stardust over the place with my magic Unilocal wand.
Not.