Running Rabbit Antiques celebrates store expansion

Luckily for antiques lovers in Higginsville, Sandy Wescott has always dreamed big.

Now, the store she opened on the town’s main drag 16 years ago is growing to accommodate those dreams. Running Rabbit Antiques has expanded, buying up the building next door and opening a general store and hardware store, along with a 1920s gas station. All of that is in addition, of course, to the wall-to-wall antiques, primitives, collectibles, and advertisement signs that greet you when you walk into the front door of the original building. Wescott’s son Dale and his wife Christa now run the store, having retired from their jobs to dedicate themselves to its management full-time. All told, the expansion, from conception to opening, has taken about a year and a half.

“I grew up with my family collecting antiques. We’ve been accumulating for a long time,” Dale says. “We’ve got some good dealers, we love general store stuff, and now we have one of the better ad sign displays outdoors now. We have some really good dealers over here. We have a bit of something for everyone.”

Dale adds, “My mom always dreamed of expanding next door. Four years ago, my wife and I took over the store, and her dream became our dream.”

Dale says that Christa is general manager of the store and also manages its marketing and social media, while Dale prefers to go on the hunt for and buy those special items that find their way onto the store’s shelves – and, hopefully, customers’ shopping baskets.
When the couple began plans for the expansion, Dale drew up concepts for the use of the next-door building.

“Once we were handed the building next door, we worked 12 hours each day for a month,” Dale explains. “We had a few people helping because we had days of building walls and painting. The days started to blend together. A lot of dealers worked really hard to get their part set up. Everyone has been working hard.”

At the conclusion of that long month, however, Dale and Christa were jubilant when they laid their eyes on the finished space.
“It came out just like I envisioned,” Dale says.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony officially welcomed the new Running Rabbit Antiques and General Store to town, and the expanded space’s first day of operation was March 22. Customers’ feedback on the expansion has been overwhelmingly positive, Dale notes.

“We had close to 200 people here for the ribbon cutting. When they come inside, people for a year and a half have been looking to the right, looking for the opening,” Dale recalls. “I’ve heard the word ‘awesome’ a lot.”