Editor edit_ndl@bellsouth.net

Shoplifting and other types of theft force businesses to raise prices, we all realize.

The effects are going much further in Auburn, and the entire city's economy will suffer as a result.

Ruth Shifflett plans to close Fountain Place Antiques on Auburn's Main Street in October. She says thefts are the biggest reason why.

Shifflett is the manager and only worker at the consignment store. She rents the building from a Franklin businessman and then charges vendors a monthly booth rental fee plus a percentage of their sales proceeds.

Thefts have become more and more of a problem. So many items were being taken out a side door that Shifflett had to keep it locked during business hours. Price tags have been switched from less expensive items. Shifflett has taken "cold checks" on big items. A man took $400 from Shifflett's purse while the woman he was with had taken her to the back of the store with a question. One man removed the screws from a display case and took several old coins.

"I've rarely had that much money in my purse," she says of the pocketbook heist. "And I've encouraged vendors to write descriptions of an item on the price tags so I'll know if they've been switched. Many of them don't do it, however. I took an $800 check from one man. He had it in his account when I accepted the check. Then he withdrew the money from the account before it could be processed. Apparently he did that in several states."

Thefts have caused her to produce just enough consignment revenue to pay the rent without making a profit, she says. "The only money I've made lately," she says, "has come from the sale of my own antiques."

So she's giving up the consignment business and will sell her antiques at a booth in someone else's location. She and the 50-plus vendors who have booths at Fountain Place Antiques are having to search for available space to show their merchandise, unless someone else takes over the business.

Chances are very few of them will find other space in Auburn to sell their wares. Red Barn Antiques on the west end of Main Street also deals in consignments, but the owners, Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Mallory, have few, if any, spaces available.

"This is not good for Auburn business. We need as many businesses open here as possible to bring customers to town," says Dick Cox, long-time proprietor of Cox's Variety Store, one of the few independently owned successors of the old "10-store" left in Western Kentucky.

Cox's is one of a small number of retail businesses open in Auburn, especially on Saturdays, and the big four- Fountain Place Antiques, the Auburn Antique Mall, Cox's Variety Store, and Red Barn Antiques- have relied on each other to attract customers and let them know who else is open.

"Wayne Dinsmore took it as hard anyone when I told him I was planning to go out of business," Shifflett says. "He told me that he would repair my roof himself if that would help keep the store open. I told him that wasn't the problem."

Dinsmore and his wife Nancy operate the Lion and the Lamb, which is also called the Auburn Antique Mall.

Fountain Place Antiques is located in what is known by most long-time Auburn residents as the "old Howlett Chevrolet" building. It was built as a car showroom by the late Gaston Coke and was also part of the McGregor dealership before the late Bill Howlett bought it.

The building is owned by Franklin's Lemuel Johnson, who owns the Adairville BP among his business enterprises. Johnson added a fountain and an upstairs in the main showroom after purchasing the building.

"I think it would make a really nice restaurant or tea room that could be used for a lot of purposes if it doesn't continue as an antique shop," Shifflett says.

Johnson agrees and said he would prefer to sell the building rather than find another renter. He has not yet listed it for sale, however, because he doesn't want to hasten Shifflett's departure. "She has been mighty good," he said. "She has kept the place neat, and I hope she finds a good place for her own antiques to sell."

Ruth Shifflett has dealt with the public, especialy the people of Auburn, for about four decades. She worked at Auburn Banking Company for about 20 years before serving as Auburn's city clerk for 13 years. She has operated the antique shop for almost six years, taking it over after the Mallorys moved their antique consignment business from there to the Red Barn.

"I'll find something else to do. I'm not ready to stay home and do nothing," Ruth Shifflett says.