When Jimmy Amason and his wife, Nan, were visiting Yazoo City a few years ago, they stumbled upon a charming store whose concept clicked with them.
The store was a multi-vendor emporium, where shoppers could tour several different booths within one unified market. The Amasons, who live in Carroll County and already operate one brick-and-mortar store — Jim’s Home Furnishings — decided to give the same model a try in Greenwood. And thus, Delta Emporium was born.
The renovated Johnson Street warehouse, a clean, sunny and spacious venue that Jimmy Amason designed himself, opened April 1. It has 22 vendors now, specializing in everything from antiques to local oddities to works of art. There are about 25 available booth spaces, said Amason, though more could be made, since the space is large. Many of the vendors are from the Delta, though there are others from Oxford and Jackson, too.
One of the more remarkable things about the store is how cohesive it feels, despite the individual shop corners. That’s likely thanks to the Amasons’ keen eye for design, which has imbued the market with an elegant atmosphere that’s consistent despite the different goods of the vendors.
In one corner, antique dolls sit on store shelves. In another, home furnishings are displayed under twinkling lights. Amason said the business rents the booths out to vendors, and then the emporium gets a small percentage of the vendors’ sales.
“But we do all the selling, so they don’t have to be at the store to do any of the selling,” he said.
The Amasons have been commuting to Greenwood for 48 years. Though people have warned Jimmy about opening a business in a precarious economic climate, the entrepreneur said people told him the same thing when he opened Jim’s Home Furnishings in 1993, and that business got off the ground.
When asked if he felt like Greenwood is a good place to open a business these days, he responded with a quick “yes.”
In addition to craft items, furniture and antiques, the emporium also features jewelry, children’s clothing and toys and kitchen condiments.
So far, he said, business is good: “We have lots of traffic, and it gets better and better every day.”
But perhaps the Amasons’ enduring success can be boiled down to one simple concept that he announced during the emporium’s ribbon-cutting ceremony: “”If it works good, try it.”
• Contact Jeanie Riess at 581-7235 or jriess@gwcommonwealth.com.
