HURRICANE  —Twelve years ago Myka Desormier bought an antique store called Mercantile Antiques and Consignment, inaugurating her first retail business near the intersection of Main and State streets in Hurricane. Four years later, she opened a one-of-a-kind gift shop called the Gypsy Emporium. Both moves were a gamble, but today the sister shops are among the most successful businesses in town.

The stores are located in different buildings in the same lot, a couple hundred feet apart. The Mercantile offers 4,000 square feet of antique goods, 90 percent of which are sold on consignment. The Gypsy Emporium, which at 15,000 square feet is the biggest antique store in Southern Utah, comprises booths curated by individual entrepreneurs who rent space in the sprawling shop.

Not long ago, Desormier also introduced a section of new and consigned clothing at the Gypsy Emporium after tourists kept asking where they could pick up a sweater or other wearables. She experimented with a 10-by-10 clothing section. It did so well, the entire second floor is now dominated by clothes.

There is “something to tempt everyone,” she said.

“It’s not just old stuff, it’s a big mixture of all kinds of things, especially over at the Gypsy Emporium,” Desormier said. “It’s new, old, handmade, distressed. And out of all the clientele, some people say, ‘Oh, I like the Mercantile better.’ Some people say, ‘Oh, I like the Gypsy better.’ It’s really interesting.”

Desormier was at a crossroads when she first moved to Utah after a divorce. Her parents, who had retired to Southern Utah, were showing their daughter some local sights and decided to drive to Zion.  “We were driving through Hurricane and they’re like, ‘Oh, an antique store! Let’s stop,'” Desormier said.

The trio liked the antique store and when they learned the owners – a married couple who founded the shop in 2003 – offered booth rentals, they decided to give it a try. The family ran an antiques booth for about a year when they learned the shop was closing.

“And at that time (2010) was when the economy dumped,” Desormier said. “I was working out at a copper mine out in Milford that went up … You couldn’t get a job anywhere. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, what am I going to do?'”

Then the woman selling the Mercantile had a brainstorm.

“She called my mom and said, ‘Your daughter should buy the store,'” Desormier said. “And literally three days later, I was signing papers and was the owner of an antique store.”

The Mercantile

Desormier was slightly nervous. She’d never owned a business before and had an operating budget of exactly $1,000. She simply moved forward, trusting her intuition.

“I definitely live my life kind of like a rolling stone and wherever it’s going to direct me, I go with it,” Desormier said. “I just know, ‘Oh, it’s gonna work.’ There’s no other way.”

Ownership of Mercantile Antiques and Consignment turned out to be an “if you buy it, they will come” proposition. Between locals taking a gander at the newly-owned Mercantile at 15 E. State St. and tourists taking SR-9 through Hurricane to Zion, the cash register started to ring.

In fact, one of Desormier’s early investments in the business was the purchase of a fully functional, 300-pound brass cash register hailing from the turn of the last century.

“Everybody loves the cash register,” she said. “That’s one of the things that everybody comments on.”

There are antique items everywhere you look: Pyrex mixing bowls and whimsical figurines, typewriters and tools. There are tin boxes that once held food like Dainty brand crackers and plenty of Western wares.  Vinyl records and vintage jewelry are hands-down the biggest sellers at the Mercantile.

Desormier has an employee who organizes the merchandise in an artful manner, curating vignettes to match the stuff and the season. Currently, this includes Christmas trees, antique holiday decorations and vintage ice skates. Many people will come in, spot an object and say, “I don’t know why, but I have to have this.”

Desormier said, “I refer to that as, it’s speaking to you.”

If it’s truly love, Desormier doesn’t advise customers to go home and sleep on it, because the next time they visit the Mercantile it’s likely to be gone.

“Most antique stores tend to be what people refer to as museums. You go in there, time after time, and nothing seems to change,” Desormier said, adding that’s not her vision for her stores. “Every time you come in, it should not look the same. It’s about turnover.”

There are others who don’t hear the call.

“Some people are like, ‘I don’t want clutter, I don’t want anything.’ And, for me, when you walk into their houses it’s kind of boring or it’s cookie-cutter,” Desormier said. “I like to be stimulated by seeing stuff. And when people come in and say, “Wow, it’s a lot like to take in,’ I’m like, ‘It’s stimulating.'”

The Gypsy Emporium

Another antique shop sprang up in the same shopping center as Mercantile Gifts and Consignments called The Ugly Trailer. When that shop closed in 2014, friends and customers advised Desormier to open a store in the now-vacant space.

“I was like, ‘I don’t know if I am really capable of doing two stores,'” Desormier said. “So I kind of looked at it, and over a weekend I punched the numbers and said, well, okay.”

Desormier opened The Gypsy Emporium (25 E. State St.), which has since become the bigger money-maker of the two businesses. She loves the Mercantile but the Gypsy holds a special place in her heart because it was her brainchild. It’s not the kind of shop you want to dash into if you only have five minutes to spare, because it has an even broader selection than the Mercantile, from embroidered tea towels to Navajo blankets and from vintage license plates representing the 50 states to indie clothing that is anything but cookie-cutter.

Twelve years into the game, Desormier feels at home in town enough that she pronounces Hurricane like a local – “Herri-kin.”

“When in Rome,” she said.

She had a brief scare when COVID-19 emerged and people weren’t going out, but she weathered the storm by offering shopping by appointment. Desormier’s happy to report that 2021 has been her best year when it comes to the bottom-line. At the end of November, she enjoyed record-breaking profits on the nationwide observance of “Small Business Saturday.”

The Gypsy Emporium in particular has developed a reputation for being a wonderland for those who like to browse.  This past summer, the shop was picked to represent Utah in an MSN article listing “The Best Vintage Store in Every State.”

Best of all, Desormier is in good company. Her parents are still involved with the store, helping out every day, and she’s found community among regular customers and her hardworking employees.  Running two stores is a lot of work, but it’s a job that never becomes stale for this connoisseur of unique items.

“I still learn something every day,” she said.

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