David Kaufman proudly says he’s never been to Walmart, and while he’s incredibly gifted in furniture restoration, he won’t restore IKEA furniture. To him, it’s just “disposable stuff that will fill the landfill up quicker.” David started Junktiques in 1983. “I thought it’d be interesting,” he says. “Travel! See the world! Spend money!” And he did just that.
After the store opened, David and his wife Marie would travel to Manitoba and Saskatchewan to buy up antiques and bring them home in large shipping containers. Junktiques became so successful that he opened a warehouse, and Western Canada couldn’t keep the store supplied with enough product. So David started travelling to Eastern Europe, and his “see the world” dream became a reality. He visited Hungary, Russia, Latvia, Holland, Romania and more. In 2009 the warehouse closed and the trips stopped, bringing the focus back to their original Inglewood store.
