A new shipment has just arrived at Replacements Ltd. On the warehouse floor, employees perch at rows and rows of work stations, carefully examining dishes, silverware, glassware and knickknacks, scrutinizing each piece for scratches, chips or other defects. Once they pass inspection, each plate, glass and fork finds its place in Replacements’ inventory, stored in dozens of rows of floor-to-ceiling shelves that stretch across the 500,000-square-foot warehouse.
For collectors, interior designers or those simply trying to find a substitute for that broken piece of grandma’s china, Replacements Ltd. is the mothership. The McLeansville, N.C.-based company stocks more than 470,000 patterns of china, glassware and silverware, ranging from simple everyday Mikasa plates to priceless antique Baccarat crystal goblets.
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“Our core customer tends to be a collector,” said Linh Calhoun, chief marketing officer of Replacements Ltd. “They have multiple patterns, and it’s probably a combination of the casual along with more specialized designs. On any given day we can sell anything from a $30 replacement item to a $10,000 tea set.”
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Replacements’ vast inventory can be attributed to its founder, Bob Page, who once worked as an auditor for the state of North Carolina. He founded Replacements in 1981 after his hobby of scouring antique shops, flea markets and thrift stores for tableware and crystal grew into more than just a personal passion.
“As people would find out what he was doing, they would ask him to be on the lookout for their particular pattern,” said Keith Winkler, marketing and media relations manager at Replacements. “He was continuing to build this hobby and thought, ‘I think I’ve got a business.’”
In that first year, Replacements logged more than $150,000 in sales. Four years later, after Page digitized his inventory and customer records, the company netted around $4 million in sales. Last year, Replacements brought in around $90 million in revenue.
While Page still stays on the road most of the year in search of new inventory, Replacements also has established a wide network of around 450 suppliers that send in much of the inventory inspected and catalogued on the warehouse floor. The company also buys from individuals to a lesser extent.
Calhoun estimates that around 85 to 90 percent of current sales come in via Replacements’ website, which offers a visual search tool that allows customers to upload a photo of an item and identify it in Replacements’ inventory. Customers also can put in requests for items not in the inventory should they become available.
But while most of Replacements’ 500,000 active customers shop its website, many make the pilgrimage to its North Carolina headquarters, where they can shop the showroom and tour the warehouse.
“We recently had a client fly in on her private jet with two friends to celebrate her birthday,” Winkler said. “She wanted to come to the mecca of all things tableware — she was so thrilled to come here, to see her pattern, buy some pieces and do the tour. If you have an appreciation for the history of the pieces, this is the place you come to.”
Visitors who appreciate history particularly enjoy Replacements’ on-site museum of rare and antique items. The museum’s ornate wood-and-glass cases — many of which date to the 19th century — contain everything from centuries-old silverware to midcentury Lenox plate displays used by salesmen to demonstrate the glazing process. Examples of Royal Copenhagen’s 200-year-old Flora Danica pattern and 19th-century French Sèvres porcelain plates sit adjacent to shoes with Wedgwood Jasperware heels. Art Deco Cambridge Glass nude stemware stands gracefully across from iridescent carnival glass and candy-colored Depression glassware.
“We find it important to preserve a lot of the traditional pieces from the last century or so,” Winkler said.
Replacements recently expanded to include estate jewelry, boasting an on-site watch shop and an ever-changing inventory fueled by Page’s constant estate and antique shopping.
“The jewelry is really focused on pieces that each have a big story of their own,” Winkler said. “And looking at our customer base, the majority of our customers are female, so we thought it would be something of interest — it could complement what we offer in the tableware.”
Replacements also performs hundreds of repairs each year, most of which are done by their on-site silversmiths. The team handles everything from polishing and re-plating silver to more complicated repairs.
“We received a tea set that was damaged seemingly beyond repair in a hurricane,” Winkler said. “Pieces of the set actually ended up on the beach. They sent them to us, and we were able to salvage them. It was so meaningful to the family to put it back together — most of the projects our silversmiths do are because of sentimental reasons.”
In the 40-plus years since it was founded, Replacements has far exceeded the meaning of its name. But that spirit of helping collectors complete a set or allowing a daughter to find the missing piece of her mother’s wedding china still inspires Page and his team in everything they do.
“It’s still true to the core of who we are — we’re still driven by Bob’s love for finding those pieces and helping others add to their collections,” Winkler said. “Our focus is really completing those stories. And as we think about the role these pieces play in the home families and friends, we continue to look for those opportunities to provide that for our customers.