MASON, Mich. — Fast fashion is a term commonly used to describe the influx of cheaply-made clothes quickly being pushed out to consumers. However, there is also a fast furniture epidemic.
Municipal solid waste has gone up 93% leading to 292 million tons of waste dumped into landfills, according to University of Michigan's Center for Sustainable Waste.
Simply Vintage's Rose Marie Center is helping revitalize old furniture, and the Mason Antique District as a whole.
"Antiques feed off of arts and crafts as well. People taking that old chair and turning into a flower planting box or taking that old piece of furniture and flipping it and making it more functional and more useful," said Nicole Ward.
Mason currently has eight different small businesses that specialize in antiques. However, there doesn't seem to be competition among the stores. In fact, they bring business to one another.
"With the antique industry, it's actually a cluster effect. It does better the more antique stores you have around, the better the industry is," said Lucretia Mansfield.
That's why the Mason Area Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Development Authority created Antiques & April. It was designed to bring customers out for the day and get them to explore Mason.
"On our first day, we had a bus of 50 women, family members come through from I think it was, Saginaw. So that was a amazing because these people that maybe had never been here before got to see our little town and explore it," said owner Katie Reece.
Each store will stamp an Antiques & April passport, and once customers gather all eight stamps, they can enter to win a gift basket worth $100.
Each store donated a basket meaning there will be eight lucky winners.
Want to see more local news? Visit the FOX47News Website.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere.
Sign up for newsletters emailed to your inbox.
Select from these options: Neighborhood News, Breaking News, Severe Weather, School Closings, Daily Headlines and Daily Forecasts.
