More than 700 vendors attend Tacoma Home & Garden Show

Enter the show and you’ll be hit by the earth-sweet scent of fresh bark and the sound of a burbling fountain. Goldfish mingle beneath a small waterfall in a pool a few steps away as a plastic alligator swims a lazy circle on the surface.

More than 700 vendors await your attention.

Opened on Wednesday and staying through Sunday at the Tacoma Dome, it’s the 29th Annual Tacoma Home & Garden Show.

And in a handful of ways, it offers something of a snapshot of the recession-weary economy at work. After conducting focus groups with people who have, and who have not attended the show, promoters O’Loughlin Trade Shows have acted on what they heard and what they see.

 • Gardens grow as a business.

 • Remodeling stays strong vs. new home construction.

 • Antiques – and just plain old stuff – continues gaining popularity.

For the first time in the nearly three decades of the show, this year visitors will see what the promoters call a “Vintage Market.” It’s a collection of 21 Western Washington dealers who deal in things that have been “repurposed.”

“People have asked for more plants. People (also) want more things to buy, things they can take home right away,” said show manager Jeff Swenson.

Hence the Vintage Market.

“I haven’t heard of anybody else doing this at a home and garden show,” he said.

Partners Kris Williams and Amy McCoy attend some 10 shows each years, trading in a variety of what to some untrained eyes might appear to be rusty stuff that has outlived its useful life.

“We’re rescuers,” said Williams. “There is a collector for everything out there.”

“This is a great place to buy,” said McCoy. “We’ve already bought some things from dealers. I’m hoping this will be a success (for O’Loughlin) so they’ll do it again next year. We wouldn’t be home-show shoppers, but we would come here.”

“We were shabby before it was chic,” said Williams.

They had already sold a rusted iron patio set for $150.

A rusty wash tub was priced at $165.

Linda Albers, one of the Funky Junk Sisters of Puyallup, was selling an old travel trailer – as well as promoting her own series of antique shows.

“I think we are on to a good thing,” she said. “I think the trade shows are seeing that happen and they know they need to get in on it.”

Which doesn’t mean that the traditional role of home show vendors has diminished.

As in years past, visitors will have the chance to discuss, buy or wonder at a broad smorgasbord of services, ideas and products for sale.

For instance:

Awnings and mops, elevators, decks, beds, chairs, heat pumps, insurance, windows and walk-in bathtubs.

Custom home solutions, affordable design solutions and organic soil solutions, doors, floors, garages, sand and granite, fresh water, log cabins, bird feeders, bird seed, vegetable seeds, flower seeds, cookware, cabinets and countertops, recliners, roofing, stained glass, lawns, light bulbs and tulip bulbs, dryers, washers, stoves, refrigerators and a $24,000 hyperbaric chamber said to relieve the stress of anything from autism and coma to migraines and gangrene.

Abby Cole, branch manager of BECU at Puyallup South Hill, was taking loan applications.

“We’re not just here to talk to people,” she said.

Ryan DeMarre of DeMarre Construction was talking construction.

“In my opinion, with the foreclosures and all the problems, people are staying in their houses, fixing them up and being happy to be in the house they’re in.”

“This is our very first show anywhere,” said Betty Moynahan of The Bark and Garden Center of Olympia.

Hers seemed to be the largest space at the show, nearly a forest with all manner of conifers and perennials, blooming primroses and even a Tasmanian tree fern.

And in case you were wondering, that alligator was in the pool to scare away the great blue herons that might otherwise be tempted to eat those goldfish.

C.R. Roberts: 253-597-8535
c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com