Juicy Junk Shop ticks a whole lot of boxes on my secondhand shop checklist. First there's the owner, who's a very nice bloke (his name is Phil, after all). He likes blues, so there's always a decent soundtrack to browse by: anything from Robert Johnson to Ben Harper, with Phil doing a bit of guitar accompaniment when things get quiet on the cash register.
I have to admit, Juicy Junk Shop does lack the creaking floorboards and all round rustic architectural charm of Cooran Traders. As you can see, J. J. S. is more of a shed. Well let's be honest it is your basic tin shed; but a tin shed cram-packed with all sorts of juicy stuff, and all sorts of juicy bargains. You just need to know how to look. You need to be a prowler.
Secondhand shoppers, you see, can be sorted into two camps: the strollers, and the prowlers. The strollers walk - well, stroll obviously - into a second hand shop, stroll through, and stroll out, usually empty handed. Then there's the prowlers.
On the surface, there's no discernible difference: it's all in the REM. No, not Michael Stipe, I'm talking Rapid Eye Movement. The prowlers may appear to be casually browsing, but all the while those beady hawk eyes are darting back and forth, up and down, under cupboards, across the floor, and even circuiting the ceiling. Their peripheral vision is constantly tracking. They stare deep into corners and possibly around them. Some may actually have eyes in the back of their head. If charted, their eye movements would be less a series of neatly intersecting dotted lines than a frenzied cross-hatching.
Sometimes though, it's nothing to do with technique, it's just a matter of timing. A matter of luck. And the other weekend, we got lucky, arriving just in the nick of time to score this handsome hunk, this big old daddy chest of drawers.
Veteran shop fittings like this old brute are getting harder and harder to find; let alone with such a fine full set of forged iron handles. And original paint, in the best sea green, worn and patinated to perfection. He just needed a wee scrub, and a lovely rub down with beeswax polish.
And he was such a bargain. Phil the Juicy Junk Shop man believes in turnover. He's my kind of shopkeeper.
Juicy Junk Shop is in the pretty little hinterland town of Pomona (home to the famous Majestic Silent Picture Theatre), and opens Fridays and weekends. Tell Phil I sent you.
