American Salvage Opens for Business
The Wells County Chamber of Commerce staff, Ambassadors, and friends welcomed the Bermudez family with a Ribbon Cutting to officially open their new business, American Salvage Co. located at 117 West Market Street in Bluffton.
Angel and Pam Bermudez and their son Adrian and his wife Brooke bought the building in 2018 with a vision of opening a storefront. Adrian has had a successful online business selling the products and explained that four years ago is when the thought of having a store front would be beneficial. “Many people were asking if they could see an item in person and that is when I really started to have a vision. We worked really hard to make this dream a reality.”
Angel greeted everyone and thanked people for attending and said “we have a great team with the four of us and our dream became a reality today. We appreciate everyone being with us for the grand opening and hope you find things in here that are different and can bring a smile to your face; maybe even create a memory for you.”
Angel commented that from a young age he would go with this mother and buy items at garage sales and take them home to fix them up or buy bicycles and repair them for sale. “My son, Adrian took notice and started to get into the hobby and interest of looking for items and doing the same.”
“When I was going into college, I had more interest in the history of the items we found; however, by the time I was leaving college I really started to get more serious about growing this business,” explained Adrian. After college, Adrian became a Bluffton Police Officer and the business really continued to expand so he decided to leave the police department.
The renovations to the building took one year while working full-time in the business buying products, researching the history of the items, marketing the product and selling. The family has worked hard renovating the building such as exposing the bricks on the wall, painting the ceiling, painting the outside front, installing new lighting, installing a wood backdrop in the back, adding barn siding to the walls, installing old windows on the side wall, laying new flooring in the front window area, removal of 4-5 layers from the floor (including glue and tile) to exposing a beautiful wooden floor underneath.
“This is not your common antique shop that you will find in every town. It is different as you won’t find the typical dishes or glassware, but classic, vintage, unique items that have been salvaged,” said Adrian.
Brooke said Adrian has a great eye in the items he finds and what you view online is what you will see at American Salvage. “Our goal moving forward is to keep expanding to the upstairs someday. We want people to like American Salvage, just as much as we do, in what we are selling and find that enjoyment firsthand.”
Pictured in the photo cutting the ribbon is Pam, Angel, Adrian, and Brooke Bermudez with Mayor Ted Ellis holding the ribbon for the celebration.
