Shrewsbury Resident's Antique Shop is New Kid on Worcester Block

This weekend marks the three-month anniversary of a store that Shrewsbury resident Amy Lynn Chase never anticipated opening.

The Crompton Collective is an antique and artisan mall at 138 Green St. in Worcester.

Chase said Thursday she has been in the vintage clothing business for four years, and has two mobile clothing shops. She also has a clothing swap company.

“I went back and forth a few times about opening a store,” Chase said.

“A friend of mine owns this building, and I never thought I’d be able to afford anything like it.  He always wanted an antique store here, and I wasn’t in the mindset of an antique store. I really wanted a place for vintage clothing.

“We have antiques and vintage clothing now.”

The Crompton Collective holds an open house this Saturday and Sunday. The shop is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

“All the dealers decorated their booths for Christmas. So, there’s trees. And there’s stockings,” Chase said.

And twice the space Chase had when she opened Sept. 1. She originally rented 4,000 square feet and now rents 8,000 square feet.

“One month in, I already had a wait list of 35 people waiting to come in here and sell their antiques,” Chase said.

“So, we doubled in size in one month.”

Chase is using space in between for events and classes. That area was eyed for a coffee shop, she said.

The collective has 56 vendors, including 20 handmade ones whose “their stuff is selling really well for gifts.”

Chase juries all of the dealers in her shop.

“I’d say almost half my dealers are from Shrewsbury,” she said.

And the vintage clothing she sells comes “from the 20s up to the 80s,” Chase said.

“I always say I can never tell my customer, because every day it’s different. A lot of funky, young, hip students,” she said.

“I think my customer is somebody who wants to stand out. Usually, they come to find something that’s one of a kind that nobody else is going to be seen wearing.”

The antique business is both new, and old hat, to Chase.

“My family is full of antiquers, so it’s not a far stretch for me. It just wasn’t where my mindset was at the time,” she said.

The store’s uniqueness is part of its appeal, she suggested.

“We’re the only antique store in Worcester, I think, at this point,” Chase said.

“I think there was no place to get antiques around here, and I think there was a need.”