Nannymoos

If you take a close look in Susan Street, Eltham you will find a little (actually quite large), Treasure Trove, called Nannymoos - Interesting name....even more interesting is the couple who run this fabulous business. The week before last, I got to meet the very personable and obviously passionate part owner Tony Narduzzo and ask him some questions about Nannymoos and here's what he had to say.....

1. Tell me a little bit about Nannymoos and how did you get to now?

Julie started selling bits & pieces as Nannymoo on eBay to earn a little money whilst at home some 8 years ago now.

Julie was always known as ‘Moo’ by our youngest daughter and once we had grandchildren she became Nanny and to distinguish her from other Nanny’s in the family she became known as Nannymoo!

I (Tony) was at the ‘crossroads of my career’ 2 years ago and whilst having some time off decided to help Julie in the eBay business. I enjoyed this very much and decided to go down this track rather than go back to the ‘rat race’ I was involved in for 34 years! However, to make ends meets we needed to do more than just be an eBay store so we decided to bite the bullet and commit ourselves to a retail outlet. That was ten months ago now and although we’ve had our ups and downs – and a hell of a lot of hard work - we feel that the business has been reasonably successful and should continue to be as more and more people learn of us.


2. Where do you source your products from?

We mainly source from Estate Auctions but are starting to buy more and more from the local community. People are starting to realise that pre-loved furniture that would normally end up on the nature strip for instance is in fact worth something!


3. Why should people visit Nannymoos?

There are many reasons!

We are not just an Antique Store or a Furniture Shop as such, as we have a huge variety of items to offer. For instance you can buy say a book, a glass or a spoon for as little a dollar or a Baby Grand Piano for $6,000 and 1000’s of other items everywhere in between!

People can spend countless hours just browsing at the many different items we have on offer. We often have a bit of fun suggesting to someone that they should go back up an isle they have just come out from, as they will spot something they didn’t see the first, second or third time around!

Our motto is to turn stock over quickly so that we have something different coming though all the time. That keeps customers coming back on a regular basis …sometimes as much as three times a week. In fact we have regular customers that pop in of a Wednesday and Friday – knowing too well that is when our new stock comes in – to get first look and hopefully that bargain they have been looking for! Some times they even hop up into the truck and buy something before I have had a chance to clean it up and price it!

To keep our turnover up of course we need to price product at pretty good prices which is another reason why people should visit us. This is evident by the fact that customers are always commenting on how cheap we are!

We regularly have specials on items that haven’t moved and have reduced some items by up to 80% in certain instances.

We also provide a sourcing service so if we don’t have a particular piece that someone is looking for we will find it for them with no obligation - unless it is very un-usual or uninteresting item that we would have trouble moving on of course.


4. What does a typical day @ Nannymoos involve?

Work! Work! Work! Fun! Fun! Fun! The first half an hour consists of clearing stock out of the shop on to the front lawn or under the veranda’s as we generally have so much stock on the floor that there isn’t enough room for people to walk around!
The last half hour of coarse consists of packing it back in …although normally not as much as we hopefully have sold stuff from out side. This process of having stock on display outdoors has been a bit of a draw card for us as well, so it is well worth the effort.

Wednesdays and Fridays are busy days for me personally at least as it means unloading what normally is a full truck load that we have bought on Monday or Tuesday and Thursday. This involves cleaning and polishing most items as well as the odd repair. We then have to measure and take photo’s of most of the large items as we also sell on eBay. Then come the usual task of working out how to manoeuvre the stock in and most importantly where to put it!

The fun part is meeting new people and chatting to regular customers and enjoying the music we have on during the course of the day. We love – and so do a lot of our customers – Irish Music and in particular the Furey’s and the Chieftans and I have been known to break out into a Jig from time to time – much to Nannymoo’s embarrassment. We also play a lot of other music that we like including Pavarotti, Van Morrison, Patsy Cline and of late the Sound Track to the ‘Sound of Music’ that has been very popular with us and our patrons! Memories!!!!



5. What has been your greatest second hand find and why?
Well I suppose it was a set of Retro Drawers that we …yes literally found on a nature strip some time back and ended up getting $270 for them at auction on eBay!
The other is a Lovely Old Organ we got from an Estate Auction that dates back to 1830 which we have on show in our store. It is probably worth upwards of $1500 and yet we picked it up for ….well lets say nowhere near that amount!


6. You clearly have a love for all things vintage and bric a brac, how is your own home decorated?

Prettymuch the same as our store. We have developed a love for such things to the extent that we in the process of building our ‘dream home’ - up on the mountain in Kinglake – that is a Victorian Weather Board re-production. No need to tell you what type of furniture we will be having!


7. What do you like to collect yourself?

I personally like to collect musical instruments and that reflects on some of the items we have in our Store and Julie loves to collect ‘Blue & White China’ amongst a general range of other old and unusual pieces such as lamps and figurines.

It’s funny that in the early days in particular we have never really had any idea of what would sell and what wouldn’t. Admittedly we have had the odd dud in the past but generally speaking we have always bought what we liked and that seems to have held us in good stead over time.


8. Five words that best describe your decorating style.

Antique, Vintage , Country & Shabby Chic


9. Style or Comfort?

Both!


10. I bet you get to meet a lots of interesting characters in you shop, who has been the most memorable and why?

There have certainly been quite a few in the short time at our Store but the chap from Altona way stands out the most as he persisted in fitting a large desk into his sedan car after pleading with him that it would be impossible! He ended up driving all the way home with a leg up around his left ear and I ended up with a red face!!!







Nannymoos is located at:
39 Susan Street, Eltham
or you can see them here too