by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Ahmad Boucherih

Age: 35

Occupation: Proprietor of Brocante Baleze

Bio: This perky Longueuil resident owned a small furniture and decorative item store in his native Algeria before arriving in Canada as a refugee back in 1996. Finding employment here in the always lucrative and spiritually rewarding field of house painting, by 1999 Ahmad had finally scraped up enough money ("No bank would give me a loan") to open up Brocante Baleze, a way cool antique/used furniture/art store at 2116 Bleury, just north of Ontario. Claiming that "this is a very difficult business to make money in," one in which a person "needs to be courageous," Ahmad regularly torments his loyal customers by threatening to give up the furniture restoration biz permanently and start selling vegetables out of his store instead, something he has yet to do but which forever remains a possibility. He is nevertheless as passionate as one could ever hope to be about his work, and drives a sporty 1987 GMC Ventura cargo van.

Is he one of those dealers who is forever advertising in the classifieds just waiting for some vulnerable recent widow or elderly person to call up so he can come over, root through all of their family treasures, and ultimately offer them only a small fraction of what their stuff is actually worth? No. Most of Ahmad's inventory comes from auctions.

If Brocante Baleze were located on "ritzy" Notre Dame, does he think he could ask and probably get something like $1,000 for the same dresser he currently sells for $250? "Oh, I would never do anything like that. I only need to make a small profit. But sometimes I go down there and see something that I'm selling for $500 going for twice that amount, so I suppose I probably could. But what really makes me happy is when I can find nice pieces at a good price and be able to sell them to my customers for not that much money."

A rough approximation of how many people want to haggle with him over price: "Everybody! Well, no, okay, almost everybody."

Does that get on his nerves after a while? Not especially.

Best part of the gig: Dealing with customers and "the pride" that comes with restoring a piece of furniture to something he feels is "very nice".

Worst: Having to earn enough money to pay the rent on his store every month.

Where he hangs out: Nowhere. "I never go out. I work seven days a week and then I go home."

Childhood ambition: To make furniture.

Current ambition: To make enough money to buy the equipment he needs to start producing his furniture designs.

Literary preferences: The Koran, Journal de Montréal

Is he now or has he ever been a member of Al Qaeda? Apparently not.

A recent film he dug: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

Musical preferences: Chopin, Khaled

Television preferences: Discovery channel, LCN, RDI, TV5.

Words of wisdom: "You always have to be nice to people. If you're not nice, then you're not a Muslim."

Comments? dimwit@openface.ca