by Karen Brune Mathis
Managing Editor
Nadine Gramling doesn’t sit still, literally or figuratively.
She bought a consignment store along Edgewood Avenue in Murray Hill four years ago and put her family name on it in honor of her mother, calling it Bryson’s On The Avenue.
Her mother, Ernestine Bryson, had been a cashier in a little grocery store. She had Alzheimer’s disease, but recognized the “Bryson’s” name.
“She was so excited,” said Gramling. Her mother died last year.
In April, Gramling opened a second store, Bryson’s Furniture Consignment, at Beach and Southside boulevards.
Gramling moved quickly this week through the newer store, sharing information about the inventory of tables, chairs, sofas, desks, beds, dressers, bookcases, lamps, paintings, mirrors, dishes, decorations, room dividers, scarves, jewelry and other items.
She had stories about many of them.
“I love the business,” she said. “I truly love doing what I do.”
Gramling has done a lot.
She grew up in Lyons, Ga., outside Vidalia, and attended a year of business school in Americus, Ga., on a scholarship.
At the age of 18, she took a secretarial job answering phones at Southeastern Metals Manufacturing Co. in Jacksonville. That was 1964.
“Then I bought the company and sold it,” she said.
She bought the company in 1984 and sold it in 1997 to Gibraltar Steel and stayed on until 2000.
She then bought and sold a staffing company and here she is with Bryson’s, with a staff of two full-time and five part-time employees.
Gramling launched Bryson’s when she bought Foster’s On The Avenue in Murray Hill. She was looking for an investment and, serving on the board of Trinity Rescue Mission, was aware of transitional housing and the need to find furniture at a bargain.
She’s learned a lot about the business, in which she sells people’s furniture for a 50-50 split. If it hasn’t sold in 90 days, the owners can take it back or they can leave it to Bryson’s.
She’s learned that 40 to 50 percent of consignors are people who are downsizing, such as senior citizens moving from larger homes into condos.
The rest include people who are divorcing and people who decide they don’t want or need the furniture anymore because they are redecorating or for other reasons.
Gramling said her prices are 50-80 percent below the retail cost of the items.
She said people who buy consigned furniture include bargain hunters, decorators and others who look for name-brand items at a discounted cost.
“My wish is that anybody who walks into the store can afford to shop here,” said Gramling.
Her prices range from a few dollars up to $2,000, although that top range is the exception.
Customers, both those buying and selling, come from throughout the area, she said.
Entrepreneurialism runs in the family. Gramling and her husband have three grown children. Son Scott and daughter Tonya own Millennium Metals in North Jacksonville and Donnie Jr. owns Great Wood Products on the Westside.
Gramling’s first taste of retail came at the age of 14 when she sold clothes at a department store, working from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. every Saturday.
That “taught me to love retail,” she said.
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