One key chain for sale at Six Star in north Everett reads, "It’s more than a car, it’s a shopping cart."
Hurry up if that sounds like your rig and you want to buy the key holder. Six Star, at 1001 Broadway, is going out of business.
It’s been one of my favorite stores since it opened in 1987. Why do folks buy calendars for $5 and above? Every year, I buy several of the $1.50 calendars at Six Star.
Why pay more than a dollar for a greeting card or sidewalk chalk? The inexpensive hammer drives nails as well as a steeper-priced tool. What’s not to love about pretty gift sacks for $1?
You can keep the fake flowers, tiny throw rugs and body oil, but that’s the beauty of a five-and-dime store. There is something for everyone, at the right price.
Owner Al Ashenbrenner, 53, said customers liked to shop at his store because they never knew what they would find. When he opened at Christmastime, they had three checkers working long lines of shoppers.
"You couldn’t get down the aisles," Ashenbrenner said. "Remember that, Ruby?"
He spoke to store manager Ruby Perin, 85, who used to work at Woolworth’s at Aurora Village with Ashenbrenner when he managed that store.
Small world. Woolworth’s at Aurora Village was the five-and-dime of my childhood. I lived a mile south, and we spent many an afternoon walking to the soda fountain for a grilled cheese sandwich and Coke or to shop for a $2 blouse.
When Ashenbrenner opened Six Star stores in Lynnwood, Snohomish and Everett with an aim to sell all products at less than $6, there weren’t everything-is-a-buck stores every half-mile or so on main drags.
So many things have changed in the business world, he said, including higher minimum wages, rents going up and Labor and Industries insurance climbing.
The owner said he couldn’t afford to keep the store open.
Through the years at the strip mall, the grocery store closed, the Best store closed, Shari’s Restaurant closed, Wal-Mart in Marysville took away business, new Walgreens and Bartell Drugs in Everett skimmed some business, and dollar stores with big pockets popped up everywhere with high-volume sales enabling them to buy cheap goods from overseas.
Ashenbrenner bought his products from the United States, often surplus or closeouts he found at shows in Chicago and Las Vegas. One-dollar chains with 5,000 stores around the country can afford to import a cargo container of hair clips, he said. On average, Ashenbrenner pays 67 cents each for his low-end items. Rent and salaries are paid with the other 33 cents, leaving little or no profit, he said.
He is part owner of a few dollar stores, so will keep his hand in the business. Perin is probably retiring, she said. A half-dozen employees will be out of work. His other two stores already are closed, and this one may stay open through January.
The day I visited, several boxes of Big Mouth Billy Bass were on cluttered shelves above his office desk. Billy gave way to Travis the Singing Trout this season. Perin said the store took advantage of many hot trends through the years, such as troll dolls and flashing fake teeth.
Ashenbrenner does take goods home. His wife has a sunflower theme at their house, and many of the bright-yellow flower doodads come from Six Star.
Timothy Lewis, 48, who lives in Everett, will miss those goodies.
"I’ve been shopping here since it opened," Lewis said. "I buy junk. I like trinkets and stuff."
A man after my own heart. As we chatted, he grabbed a chunk of bamboo and adjusted Christmas wrap he placed on the counter.
Sue Pierce of Lake Stevens, 36, who works in Everett, only made one purchase. She priced a document frame at Rite-Aid a few doors down and paid half the price at Six Star.
My big find of the day was only 24 cents. The straw broke in a water glass I keep on my desk from the M&M store in Las Vegas. I didn’t want to part with the souvenir glass, but it really needed a new straw.
Near the salt-and-pepper shakers, I found the right-sized straw with a nifty snap top. Exactly what I needed. I didn’t need wind chimes, writing tablets, hair extensions, light bulbs, Santa statues, vases, Pez dispensers, candles, spices, balloons, flags, flashing pens, baby bibs, Halloween masks, napkins or cat toys.
There was one key chain that caught my eye: "I’d rather be at the mall."
Not me.
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com
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