Oh happy day! and only 35 days to go*

The Dreadful Dollar Store is open under new management, and I could not be happier!

The Dreadful Dollar Store is located in the bowels of a crumbling brick factory building that is next door to a maximum security state prison. (Do you remember the Preppy Murder guy? Robert Chambers? He used to live there. In the prison, not the dollar store.)

The entire building is sort of a one-stop-shopping/ thrift-store/ horror-show experience. First you've got that whole shadow-of-the-prison/ razor wire/ guard tower vibe in the parking lot. Then you've got the factory building itself, which looks like a monument to our lost industrial heritage. Half of the building is devoted to a conventional thrift store. The other half is occupied by a variety of curious enterprises, including a secondhand store, a shop that specializes in NASCAR memorabilia and incense, and the Dreadful Dollar Store. (The people who run the store don't call it the Dreadful Dollar Store. To them, it's just the Doller Store. That's how it's spelled on the hand-lettered sign.)

It's difficult to describe the business model for the dollar store, but I think it mostly consists of this: The various merchants in the building come across a box full of junk, say to themselves, "Huh. Wonder if anybody'd spend a buck on this?" and throw it in the room. Voila! Dollar Store! A really dreadful one!

The DDS opened last summer, and I knew it was too good to last. Every once in a while, I would stumble across a really wonderful piece of fabric, or a box of apron patterns, or a little bunch of pink forget-me-nots, and I would think, boy, I love this place. But then the woman who was managing it stopped putting out new junk. She cut back on her hours. Then she just didn't show up at all. It was sad. I missed it all - those occasional finds, the employee who wore pajamas to work, the staff fights over cigarette money.

A few weeks ago, it reopened! But nothing had changed. The same merchandise was there, just mustier from its weeks of inattention in a damp, unheated basement. The sadness came washing back.

But Wednesday I went again, and there was new junk! I found a tablecloth embroidered with cross-stitch roses in near-perfect condition, a little Santa with glittery boots and chenille fur, and fun little cardboard stockings that people were supposed to fill with dimes:

 

Where else can you have that kind of fun for $3?

*only 35 days until the start of the yard-sale season ... and just a couple of days until I pick the winners in the fabulous apron giveaway!

Comments

[Pasha Grant]

What fabulous stuff! My favorite dollar store just went out of business....alas!

[Julie Fredericksen]

Ooh, the whole place and experience sounds just dreadful. At least our state penitentiary is outside of Bismarck. Our dollar stores are way better than that, but the carpets are always so filthy.

Our thrift shops are actually pretty nice, comparatively speaking. When the best one opened (Seeds of Hope for abused women), the others cleaned up their acts. SOF is my and my sister's fave.

[tammyCA]

Oh my goodness, you had me laughing about your "dreadful dollar store" :D You are brave...but, look at the great stuff you got!

[Donna]

beautiful! I wish I had a dreadful dollar store!

[Sarah]

I love the idea of a vintage dollar store.

[Kathi D]

Gosh, that sounds like

a

fun

store?

Yeeks!

[Shannon J]

Oh man! I wish we had one of these stores! Never do I find that great kind of stuff! ;)
Love your sharing!!!!

[Lea of Farmhouse Blessings]

Smile :)

[Patti]

I bought one of those dime holders too this April at an auction.I paid a dollar for mine by giving it to the highest bidder who had bought the lot of them.
Osagebluffquilter