By AMY MEYER
Staff Intern
A poor economy and a difficult location are both contributing to the closure of Cabin Fever and the Pottery Shed Sept. 30.
Leslie Johnston opened Cabin Fever and the Pottery Shed at the end of June 2008. She had been working at Spokane Stainless Products, but they laid her off.
“I just thought that Cheney doesn't really have any antique shops or they only had a part-time thrift store,” Johnston said. “They don't have it here. I don't know why they don't have it here, but they should have it here. So I'm going to bring it here.”
She wanted to open a soup and sandwich shop alongside the antiques, but the cost of a commercial kitchen was too steep.
“The pottery part was an afterthought — my daughter and I used to do this — and we really like it, and I noticed there wasn't a lot of family-type things to do here.”
Johnston says that the first year and a half was pretty good. “It just seems like the economy—people are being more cautious with their money. Maybe because they don't know what's going to happen. I think at first they thought it was going to be a short-term thing, but now it's gone on for years and who knows when it's going to end.”
“I probably have more people who come in per day than I did when it was the good times.” Johnston said. “But there are a lot more people just looking, searching for that one thing that's worth giving up their money for.”
Johnston said that the antiques's side of the business does better in the summer while the pottery side does better in the winter and that mid-October to mid-December is the busiest on the pottery side.
“Either people are making presents or making pottery for Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas decorations,” she said.
Linda Kiser sells her wares in Johnston's store on consignment. “She's a really nice lady and she runs a really good business. I don't know what much more she could do to try to cut corners.”
Johnston said that she's tried advertising in several places. “There's so many people here in Cheney that still don't even know I'm here because they never come to this end of town. There's not a lot down here.”
But Johnston herself creates a draw to the south end of First Street in September with the Hippie Chicks Art and Craft Festival.
“I love that one,” Kiser said. “That is so much fun. She has music. She has a lot of different booths. You name it, they're here.”
Consignment, flea markets and crafts shows are another service that Johnston has provided to the Cheney community.
“I hate to see her go. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself,” Kiser said. “I doubt I'm going to find any place to put my stuff, knowing that they're going to take care of it and get me what they can out of it.”
Jerry Lauman makes potting shelves and flower arrangements in things like antique bikes and wagons and sold them and other things in the shop ever since Johnson opened. She takes advantage of the flea market weekends that purposely coincide with Cheney Rodeo weekend, setting up booths in Johnston's lot every time.
“For me it's a hobby. I just enjoy making these things and selling them,” Lauman said. “It's just something to keep me out of jail.”
She thinks the flea markets are important to the economy of Cheney because, “it brings people into town and down on the main drag.”
Johnston says that the highlight of having a business in Cheney is meeting everyone that has come into the store. On the rare, difficult days when something doesn't turn out in the kiln, Johnston's patrons are very understanding about it.
To support the shop and contribute to her household Johnston works full time at the casino. She's a retail supervisor, working four 10-hour shifts per week.
“I really like the new job. I like, of course, working with the public and working with people in the department. The only thing I don't like are the hours. But maybe it'll be a little different when I can sleep later.”
Johnston's work at the casino brings her back to home near Fish Lake from Airway Heights at 3:30 in the morning. She wakes by 9 a.m. to work at Cabin Fever and the Pottery Shed. In total, she puts in 75 to 80 hours a week.
Johnston is considering continuing through the Internet with a pottery business that would cater parties. She described it as a business where she would bring the pottery and paint to the patron's home. When the crafters were done painting, she would take the pieces home and fire them and return them to the original site when they were ready.
“If next summer I knew it was going to be totally different, I'd go on for another year at 75 hours a week, but I just don't see it,” Johnston said. “You can't pressure people to spend money if they don't have it.”
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