Everybody’s Antiques held a ribbon cutting with the El Dorado-Union County Chamber of Commerce on Friday.
Chamber ambassadors joined Everybody’s Antiques President and CEO, Larry D. Anderson and store staff for the festivities.
Anderson was retired and enjoying playing golf in 2010 when he was presented with the idea of investing in the South Bradley Avenue location. By 2011, he decided to make the move and go all in on creating what is now Everybody’s Antiques.
“In 2011, we assembled a crew and my partner Roy Watkins came in and we bought out the previous owner,” Anderson said.
When Anderson and his crew first started out, they had with 5,000-square-feet to work with. After three different expansions over the course of 10 years, Everybody’s Antiques is now a 31,000-square-foot facility with 120 different booths for private sellers to sell their merchandise.
“We’re all full and we have a waiting list of over 40 sellers wanting a space in our store,” Anderson said. “We have 120 booths plus our store’s products and furniture gallery. We originally started out with just three or four sellers.”
Everybody’s Antiques has a sprawling array of products that range from vintage baseball cards, utility trailers, portable buildings and tires to handcrafted and decorative lanterns, paintings, light fixtures, tchotchkes and more.
“We’re almost the largest antique store in Arkansas,” Anderson said. “There’s another one that says they have a 32,000-square-foot facility and we have 31,000. So we can’t say we are the largest in the state, but we are definitely the largest in south Arkansas.”
Anderson said he is extremely proud of what he and his team has been able to accomplish with the growth and success of the store. His vision was to always have a place where collectors and anyone could shop and give into their hobby of acquiring personal, vintage and antique collectibles.
“Our mission statement is to offer reasonably priced antiques, collectibles and gifts that everybody can afford,” Anderson said. “That mission statement is also the reason for our name, Everybody’s Antiques.”