EVERETT — Gary Bumstead was one of many customers hunting for deals Friday in the aisles of Jerry’s Surplus, a fixture in north Everett for decades.
The store is holding its closing sale, marking the end of a store that dates back more than 60 years.
Bumstead, who’s into his retirement years, learned the news as he was driving by the store on Broadway and saw the closing signs.
“I was born and raised in Everett and this store was a mainstay for me,” he said. “I hate to see them leave. I really do.”
The support from loyal customers made the decision to close “bittersweet,” said owner Diane Sigel. Her family, based in the Tacoma area, long operated Jerry’s and similar stores in Tacoma and Mount Vernon. Late last year, the Tacoma store closed. Now it’s time to close the Everett and Mount Vernon stores as well, Sigel said.
Fabian Lomas, general manager at Jerry’s Surplus, said the sale will continue until virtually everything has been sold. At that time, the store’s 15 employees will have to find new jobs.
With a wide array of fishing, hunting and camping gear, the store dates back so long that few can remember exactly when it started.
Gerald Brand, the store’s namesake, along with other family members, is credited with launching the store sometime in the early to mid-1940s. Lomas’ store shirt claims it got started in 1946, but he admits that was a guess made with the help of the T-shirt printer.
What is known is that there were two stores, one on Broadway and one on Hewitt, by the 1950s. Then, in the mid-1960s, Sigel’s parents bought the business. Brand died in 1969.
In his office, Fabian shows the store’s newspaper ads from the 1940s and ’50s promoting items such as stocking caps for 79 cents and rifles for under $15.
Sigel said her family’s stores were doing fine, but she wants to turn her attention more fully to nonprofit work and volunteering. She said when she spread word to see if there might be any potential buyers for the business, interest was scant.
“We’re in a situation where we’re too big to be little and too little to be big,” she said.
John Martinis Jr., owner of John’s Sporting Goods just a couple blocks north on Broadway, remembers being in Jerry’s Surplus as a boy in the early 1950s. While his family business carries similar merchandise, the two have coexisted well, Martinis said.
“I’m sad to see them go. They’re all my buddies, and our stores sent a lot of business to each other,” he said.
Lomas said that during his 21 years working at Jerry’s Surplus, he’s seen several generations of customers.
“Grandfathers bring their grandkids in, and then the kids come in all grown up,” he said.
Amid a rush of afternoon customers sorting through sale times, Geoff Aldcroft chatted with the store’s employees and looked at the fishing gear. He heard about the closure a week ago.
Aldcroft said he continued to shop at Jerry’s Surplus in the age of big-box sporting goods stores for one simple reason.
“It’s got everything you need,” he said.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
Jerry’s Surplus
Location: 2031 Broadway, Everett
Hours: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends
Phone: 425-252-1176
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