Palms Trading Company: ABQ's Best Kept Secret Family Business Weathering The Recession

Aug. 2, 2009 - PRLog -- Palms Trading Company is more than just one of the largest wholesale and retail purveyors of American Indian arts and crafts. It’s a thriving family owned business that has become a destination for the best in American Indian art, even in tough economic times.

   “Who knew that when the Del Frate brothers went into business together selling frosty mugs of beer in the 1930s, that today people from around the world would visit our store,” says Guy Berger, president of Palms Trading Company. Palms Trading Company employs 14 people, six of whom are members of the extended family, and has not laid anyone off in the economic downturn.

Berger purchased Palms Trading Company from his uncle in 1988. The great-grandson of a New Mexico pioneer family who settled in the Zuni Mountains in the 1860s, Guy is an expert on Pueblo pottery and co-author of two books about Pueblo and Navajo pottery, as well as an active community volunteer. The fourth generation of family, Guy’s daughter Diana Strickland and son Peter Berger, brought Palms Trading Company into the new millennium with their technology know-how to help them reach customers around the world – a plus in today’s business environment.

Part of the company’s success is that it promotes the stories of the artists that Palms represents. The artists are prominently featured in all marketing vehicles, and Palms Trading also works closely with the Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau to provide doors prizes, information and store tours to groups choosing the city as a venue for meetings. In fact, Palms is often considered the best kept secret for quality, authentic American Indian goods, building its following from word of mouth.

In 2005, Palms Trading Company established scholarships for American Indian students from New Mexico pueblos and tribal reservations, that since their inception, have given $6,000 to deserving students to attend college. This community focus is another way Palms Trading Company makes a difference, demonstrating the bond it has forged with the artists it represents.

   For more information about Palms Trading Company or interviews, call Guy Berger at 505-247-8504.