Three Swallows sits in an easy-to-miss strip of shops near the Siegel Center on West Broad Street near Lombardy Street.

If you happen to catch a glimpse of the shop as you speed by, peek in the window. You'll think you're looking at a shop filled with Asian furniture that has seen better days.

But Three Swallows actually is a multination import-export enterprise that stretches from the Chinese port city of Shanghai to Broad Street.

Owned by three sisters whose middle name is Chinese for bird, Three Swallows has warehouses in Shanghai and Norfolk, where it has a second store.

The sisters employ buyers who travel through China and Tibet buying antiquities from villagers. Most of the pieces are from families who have owned them for generations. In most cases, people sell the pieces because they are renovating, said Gloria Li, the middle sister who runs the Richmond shop.

After the pieces are delivered to the Shanghai warehouse, some are shipped to Virginia. Two 40-foot containers are sent every 45 days, Li said.

Pieces that don't come to Virginia are sold to antiques dealers in Europe and Asia.

The goods come to Norfolk, where Three Swallows has a 2-acre warehouse, and are then placed in one of the stores.

Merchandise at the 7,000-square-foot Richmond store varies from large chests that are two centuries old to a modern-day wristwatch with a towering Mao Zedong pointing dramatically at the exact time. In between are Tibetan religious antiquities, hand-carved sculptures and jewelry.

Li said prices range from a few dollars to several thousand dollars.

The sisters opened the Richmond location two years ago to develop their wholesale business.

While dealers visited them in Norfolk, Li said with the Richmond store, they could reach antiques dealers in the Carolinas, Washington, and cities in the Northeast.

Shelby Dorfer, owner of S&J Boutique in Raleigh, N.C., made a trip to Three Swallows to look at clothes for several of the porcelain dolls she makes.

She bought two doll hats for $60.

Dorfer said she could not find anything remotely close to what she bought anywhere else.

The hats, Li told Dorfer, were more than 100 years old.

Dillard's still open

Despite saying in March that it would close its Chesterfield Towne Center store in May, Dillard's remains open.

Mall officials expect it to stay that way through October, when the lease expires.

Calls to Dillard's were not returned.

Velocity Micro partner

Chesterfield County-based Velocity Micro Inc. will begin selling its systems at emerging computer superstore chain Micro Center.

The company already stocks its computers at Circuit City and Best Buy stores.

Velocity Micro manufacturers high-end gaming and multimedia computers.

Columbus, Ohio-based Micro Center has 21 stores, including one in Fairfax.

New Cracker Barrel?

Cracker Barrel Old Country Store is in the final stages of negotiations to open a restaurant on Midlothian Turnpike across from Wal-Mart and Sam's Club, according to C. Lee Warfield, executive vice president of Thalhimer/Cushman & Wakefield.

Thalhimer/Cushman & Wakefield is the leasing agent.

The restaurant chain has reached an agreement with the developers of 175,000-square-foot Stonehenge Village, a commercial and office site, though several issues need to be worked out before the deal is finalized, Warfield said.

Cracker Barrel has five restaurants in the Richmond area. This will be the third in Chesterfield.

Contact Louis Llovio at (804) 649-6348 or LLLovio@timesdispatch.com.