Bric-A-Brac

Bric-A-Brac was the antique store run in Tackleford by Amy Beckwith-Chilton. She founded it after she realized she had divvy powers to find valuable antiques and collectibles among random junk. At that point she began some small-scale buying and selling of things from thrift stores and flea markets, and soon, with funding from Hugo Rodriguez, turned this into a full-fledged retail store, which became her full-time job. Her efforts soon attracted opposition from the ladies who ran the thrift store for the Help the Wretched charity, who saw this store as competition, as well as unwelcome gentrification. They led an enraged mob to burn down Amy's store, in the false impression that it was a brothel. Amy got the last laugh, however, as the charity later awarded her its thrift store, kicking out the ladies, which she then converted into the new location of Bric-A-Brac (across the street from the original location).

Melanie Soap was a long-time assistant at the store, and was rescued from its fire by Ryan Beckwith. However, she eventually quit to become a waitress at artisanal hamburger restaurant Bank of Burgers. Amy later hired Shauna Wickle as a part-time assistant. Amy has continued to run the store, even during her pregnancy and when coping with the new responsibilities of being a mother; she often has her baby, Walt Beckwith, in the store with her.

In an alternate timeline shown in "The Case of the Forked Road", however, Amy gave up on storekeeping early on, and the thrift-shop ladies run the store instead (continuing Amy's more upscale look instead of the old thrift-shop style, however).

Trivia

The Bric-A-Brac has been the victim of burglary and theft twice so far. The first time was during the fire that destroyed the store's first incarnation. Fellow antiques dealer Dixon Lovelace, entering the building under the pretense of saving Melanie Soap from a fiery death [1], ignored her and stole a Bunnikins Breakfast Set (tableware with bunny motif) instead [2], in order to sell it to the French president Nicholas Sarkozy.[3] The second burglary was perpetrated by Darren Wickle and his mate Romesh Sengupta. Darren hoped to make loot valuable enough to pay off at least part of his debt to the loan shark Si Dixon. Unfortunately (for him), the items stolen turned out to be just worthless "utter shite",[4] with the exception of a set of pottery found by Romesh, who proves to have "divvy" powers similar to those that Amy formerly had (but which have atrophied following her pregnancy). Shauna then gets Romesh to work on a commission basis for the store to use his powers for good instead of evil and to save the store from its difficulties following the loss of Amy's powers and the robbery.

Amy has shown a lack of prudency in failing to obtain insurance prior to either of the incidents it has suffered.

Closing

After rents skyrocketed in the neighborhood where the store was located, during a real estate boom, Amy felt she would be unable to continue the store (despite Romesh's divvy powers reinvigorating their ability to find good merchandise cheaply), and then Shauna got the idea of starting a new store to replace it, in a barn on the outskirts of town. This would become Chilton Antiquities, her new store.