This is no boutique: Michigan shop offers items for men

HOWELL, Mich. The snow blowers, golf clubs, bows and turkey fryers outside the shop say it all. This is a man's shop.

Just for Men consignment opened a year ago in Brighton Township, and business has been steadily picking up despite the poor economy. Jim Schemer and his wife, Lorin Meier-Schemer, own the shop at 8077 W. Grand River Ave., next to Meier Flowerland.

"I've got guys who buy something every three days," Schemer said.

He said power tools sell fast, but there's plenty of other items that draw customers to his shop including things he didn't think would sell. He has sold a lot of eight-track tapes to muscle car owners who don't want to change anything in their vintage cars.

The shop has furniture, DVDs, hunting equipment, beer signs, knives, pool tables, slot machines, carved wood statues and a 103-year-old bear trap. There's also model cars, trains, boats, fishing lures, tractors, rototillers, a 1950s cap gun and an original Roy Rogers yo-yo. And who could pass up an autographed NASCAR slick - which is a racecar tire, for people who aren't racing fans.

"Anything a guy wants, we've got or we'll get it for him," Schemer said. "I just try to have a variety of everything."

Although Schemer loves meeting and talking with people and playing with all the cool merchandise before it sells, he admitted he never saw himself owning a consignment shop. Schemer, a 1975 Brighton High School graduate, ran a very successful drywall contracting company, and had 30 guys working for him during Livingston County's longtime building boom. When the economy tanked, he said, business dried up; he still has two guys who work for him.

Schemer said his brother-in-law came up with the original idea, and they launched the shop together last year. However, his brother-in-law was busy with another business, and Schemer and his wife took over the shop in January.

"I'm just amazed at what sells here," he said.

He recalled someone brought in an old wooden rocking chair that was rotting. Schemer planned to throw it out, but someone bought it. Another day, a woman dropped off a crib despite Schemer telling her he didn't want it.

"This is a man's shop," he told her.

She left it anyway. Later that day, a man stopped in and bought it because his son's wife was having a baby.

"Now I don't turn anything down because I'm afraid to," he said.

While the shop might cater to men, Schemer said quite a number of women stop by and drop things off. He said they're usually looking to sell items that belonged to an ex-boyfriend or former husband. Sometimes, the items belong to a current spouse.

He laughed while recalling a woman who came in and dropped off a bunch of duck decoys belonging to her husband. She was upset because her husband hadn't cleaned out the garage, which she had been asking him to do for a while, and she decided to take matters into her own hands.

Schemer gets excited about putting out ice-fishing equipment. He also hopes to soon get hold of what every man has dreamed of owning - a rug made from the head and hide of a Bengal tiger.