Wicker & More

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It's not everyday someone ventures into the patio furniture business from the nuclear power industry, but that is exactly the career path of Terri Key, co-owner, Wicker & More Home Furnishings (Shallotte, North Carolina). Key had been technician for over 20 years, traveling to the various nuclear power reactors located across the United States to work outages-an extended period of time when a plant shuts down so specialists can perform routine maintenance, replace parts or refuel the reactor.In 2009, a tenant (who ran an outdoor wicker store) located in a building on Haddock's property, went out of business due to the Great Recession which began in 2007. ""I was cleaning the building out and had a fire sale of items that were left there. At that same time, I was also getting ready to leave to work a three-month outage and I just decided I was tired of traveling and wanted to stay home,"" Key says.