A news By yahoofreeshop:He has strode the halls of power and stood outside the oval office, dealt with some of the biggest names of our time, worked in high tech and followed many paths yet Geoffrey Abdian never found fulfillment until now, here in the West Seattle Junction.
He will open Suite Arrangements, a furniture consignment store at 4706 California Ave. s.w. in the West Seattle Junction on Oct. 1 and the business means more to to him than anything he’s ever done.
Abdian has lived in West Seattle for 16 years working in custom remodeling but he began his career as a press agent and legislative aide for U.S. Senator John Melcher, Montana (D) in the 1970′s. Dealing with people meant working, “in a heady atmosphere” he said but left him with no sense of having served his life’s purpose.
He later went on to work in the paper and pulp industry, migrated to the world of high tech working in marketing and advertising and along the way wrote a novel, created a unique “periodic table of behaviors” for the educational market and most recently supported himself by helping West Seattle homeowners fix up their houses as a general contractor but even after all this said “I’m a writer.”
As for the move into the consignment furniture business, it was a matter of timing, luck and other elements coalescing. “The reasons that came together all at once were the macro-economic picture, there are people downsizing, in some cases involuntarily, there’s a lot of foreclosures in the pipeline nationwide. Unfortunately some people here in West Seattle are losing their homes. Others are upgrading or redecorating. It’s difficult to sell furniture that you no longer want. Meanwhile all these townhouses, condos and apartments are being built, people are pouring in. They already have debt from college and they need less expensive furniture. They want nice things but don’t really have anywhere to go for them in West Seattle.”
This for Abdian is also a green pursuit since as he points out, “there are plenty of fine furnishings here that are simply ‘pre-loved’ and why pay to build something new and ship it across the country?”
He also sends 5% of his profits to the West Seattle Food Bank.
Suite Arrangements offers pick up and delivery (he has hired some very capable students from Seattle Lutheran High School to do the moving).
There are several options for selling furniture of course but Abdian has a persuasive argument.
