We could have been seated in Aladdin's cave filled with treasured pieces with which to decorate your house. But in reality we were in a large, cavernous warehouse at Boundary Road in San Juan ram- crammed with pieces Kathleen Scott has purchased in far flung places of the world.
Hear the name of the establishment "What's Cooking" and you immediately think pots, pans and other cooking utensils. But although this is how Scott started more than 20 years ago, she was quick to reassess and readjust whenever her customers' needs changed. "I make a decision which way to go and move in that direction without further hesitation."
"When I realised that people were buying pots and pans for gifts, I changed to gifts- ice buckets, vases, anything that appealed to me that I thought would make a nice gift, I bought right here in Trinidad for about six years. I also organised a wedding gift registry. But it was mainly those going into second marriages who were coming to see because when you have everything a couple would need for a home, you give them one good item. "
When times got hard and the choice was not so good with the gifts, she decided to go into making drapes. "I would get orders, measure and have the drapes done. The customers needed someone to take over and do it for them, kitchen curtains, washing machine covers. I would go out and buy local fabric and get it made up."
Then the whole business scene changed, the ban on buying foreign currency without Central Bank approval was lifted, Scott no longer had to go to Central Bank and harass herself with money problems. Neither did she need a licence to import furniture.
"I visited my daughter in Singapore, saw beautiful Indonesian furniture, went to Indonesia to find it and since then have not turned back. It takes about three to four months from ordering in the villages and backyards until you receive it but this way you get proper prices. You could buy in Jakarta and get it right away from a showroom, but it is more costly to the customer."
Scott does not deal in computer or catalogue buying. "I have to go myself, take sweets for the children in the backyards, play with them, wearing my jeans and watchekongs, the day I have to do otherwise I will give it up. I love everything about this kind of buying, it is not work for me."
Last year Scott became seriously ill while on a buying trip and was laid up from her business for about four months. "That is when my son, and staff who all simply love what they are doing, took over, they were all so faithful. Since then my family and friends keep telling me slow down."
But not this 60 year old mother of three adult children, who has moved her business from a posh shopping centre and converted a bare warehouse into an attractive showroom. She is now in the midst of preparing for a three day exhibition "Vision of Elegance" at Stollmeyer's Castle on April 14, 15 and 16, 2000, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m, each day. And refers to it as "a magnificent reprise, the first Year 2000 showing of select furniture, statuary, fountains for gardens and indoors and many surprises to startle and excite you!"
Scott showed items selected personally by her, with the buyer in mind, such as, Spanish style lamps; Italian style fountains; mahogany and teak furniture, and marble and onyx pieces from Indonesia; Mexico's rustic rosewood furniture, clay pots and fountains, palavera (a type of ceramic), and stone handcarved fountains; bamboo, rattan and aluminium furniture from Jamaica; and beautiful rosewood brass inlaid furniture from Pakistan.
Kathleen Scott promises choices never before available as "The world comes to you with What's Cooking."