The Red Vest

I first posted this entry last year, but I decided to repost it for this year. Happy Holidays!

For as long back as I can remember, each Christmas Eve my father would go to work wearing a fuzzy red vest.

At first, when I was young, I would see him head off to work wearing the vest. When I was older, and working at Mitchell's, I'd see him arrive at work wearing with the same vest. It was a tradition of his. It's certainly not a particularly spectacular vest, but it was something I looked forward to. One of those signs that Christmas really had arrived.

I called him today to ask him about that vest. He told me that he and his brother (my uncle Jack) both got the vests the same year - about 45 years ago - from a sales rep that they bought Christmas stockings from. The vest is made of the same material that the traditional red Christmas stockings are made out of. He remembers the company's name as 'Renock Corp.' They loved their sales rep, and bought lots and lots of stockings and ornaments from them. Sadly, Jack's vest wore out quickly. My father's suffered a tear one year, to be repaired by an employee. If you shopped on Christmas Eve at Mitchell's anytime over the past 45 years, you probably saw my dad sporting his vest.

UPDATE - My brother Tom found the picture at the top of the page. It was one that my sister Kris had e-mailed him years ago. The pic shows not only my dad sporting his vest, but my brother Tom and me also wearing red vests. I think my mom made those, as I remembered them after I saw the pic. Yes, that's me in the back, next to my dad and Kris. My other sister, Wendy and Tom are in the front.

The pic at the bottom is the vest vintage 2008.

Blast from the past!

One of the nice things about the first couple months of our store is the people who walk in and reminisce about Mitchell's. It's kinda bittersweet, as we're very happy to have opened our own store, but we - like most of our customers - miss Mitchell's very much. 

On Saturday, a former Mitchell's customer named Morris Freschman stopped in. Morris had with him a toy he had purchased at Mitchell's back in 1963. It was in wonderful condition, still in it's original box. It was a 'Child Guidance Musical Railroad' toy - a battery-powered toy train that ran on its own track. The track had 'ties' that were made of little metal pieces - the kind you see in a xylophone. Each piece was color coded with a musical note. When you arranged the 'ties' on the track, they would play a song when the train ran over the 'ties.' There was an instructional booklet that showed the different ways of arranging the track to play different songs. It actually looked pretty neat! I wonder when they stopped making it...

We took a picture of Morris with the toy for the blog. Thanks for bringing it in, Morris!

The Red Vest

For as long back as I can remember, each Christmas Eve my father would go to work wearing a fuzzy red vest. 

At first, when I was young, I would see him head off to work wearing the vest. When I was older, and working at Mitchell's, I'd see him arrive at work wearing with the same vest. It was a tradition of his. It's certainly not a particularly spectacular vest, but it was something I looked forward to. One of those signs that Christmas really had arrived. 

I called him today to ask him about that vest. He told me that he and his brother (my uncle Jack) both got the vests the same year - about 45 years ago - from a sales rep that they bought Christmas stockings from. The vest is made of the same material that the traditional red Christmas stockings are made out of. He remembers the company's name as 'Renock Corp.' They loved their sales rep, and bought lots and lots of stockings and ornaments from them. Sadly, Jack's vest wore out quickly. My father's suffered a tear one year, to be repaired by an employee.  If you shopped on Christmas Eve at Mitchell's anytime over the past 45 years, you probably saw my dad sporting his vest.

UPDATE - My brother Tom found the picture at the top of the page. It was one that my sister Kris had e-mailed him years ago. The pic shows not only my dad sporting his vest, but my brother Tom and me also wearing red vests. I think my mom made those, as I remembered them after I saw the pic. Yes, that's me in the back, next to my dad and Kris. My other sister, Wendy and Tom are in the front. 

The pic at the bottom of the page is from Christmas Eve this year. Notice how the vest has 'shrunk.'

The times, they are a changin'

Well, despite all the hoopla about YoYo Joe's, I still work at my family's store, Mitchell's. And today is, more-or-less, my last day. Mitchell's was originally scheduled to close tomorrow, although I think that the owners are going to extend that a bit to allow for us to sell as much of our remaining stock as possible.
The past several weeks have been a roller coaster ride of emotions for me. I worked at Mitchell's on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I was at YoYo Joe's Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Sunday (and after the store closed on the other days). It was very hard to go from the shrinking stock at Mitchell's to the burgeoning stock at YoYo Joe's. The sad, depressing atmosphere at Mitchell's to the hopeful and exciting atmosphere at YoYo Joe's. Going from cleaning out my family's 55-year-old business to frantically trying to build up my own has been difficult on many levels. Although I'm very excited about starting my own store, deep in my heart I wish I didn't have to.

Blast from the past

A customer walked into Mitchell's the other day and told me a wonderful story from 30 some years ago that proves that good customer service is irreplaceable in retail.
She asked Bonnie, one of our salespeople if any of the Mitchell's were around, so Bonnie called me. I met the woman and she told me a story. About 30 years ago, they had just moved to the area to be closer to the duPont Hospital for Children - their daughter was restricted to her bed in a sort of body cast. Mitchell's had just opened The Fabric Den - a store that was attached to Mitchell's and sold fabric, sewing machines, patterns, etc. I vaguely remember the Fabric Den, but I clearly remember the sign. It was pretty clever. We called it the Fabric Den because it was a smaller storefront (the current home of the coffee/cupcake shop next to Happy Harry's in the Fairfax Shopping Center....mmmm....cupcakes) next to Mitchell's so it was kinda a 'den.' The sign had a lion on it, which was made up of different swatches of fabric. So, Mitchell's had a contest to name the lion on the sign. My aunt, Joan Hicks, at that time wrote for a local weekly newspaper, The Town Talk. We had hundreds of entrants into the contest and finally selected a winner. The winner chose the name Dan D. Lion. The winner won a sewing machine and was interviewed by my aunt for her column in The Town Talk. The winner, of course, was the woman's daughter. She told me that for the ten months she was constricted to bed, this was one of her highlights. She also told me that her daughter would make sure that if they needed something, they made sure that Mitchell's didn't have it before they would buy it elsewhere. She still has that sewing machine. She brings her eleven-year-old son into Mitchell's. I dug up this ad from our archives. I also found a photo of Darla with the sewing machine!

Hopefully, we can continue that kind of experience in YoYo Joe's, that's certainly our focus - to keep things local, to keep things personal, to treat people in a way that they will remember and want to come back to our store.

It's been a bad day, please no pictures...

^that's a quote from an REM song.

Anyhow, it's been an unreal day. We were on the front page of the Wilmington News Journal. I was interviewed by WILM, WDEL and WHYY Channel 12. Mobs of people have crowded into Mitchell's buying tons of stuff. It's our biggest sales day since December. Normally, I'd be ecstatic at the sales and press...but, thanks to the nature of the press, it makes for a pretty sad day. Talking to customer after customer today, it's all been memories of the store. I've gotten choked up a couple of times. I grew up here. Some of my earliest memories include running around the old store, hiding in the basement, riding the freight escalator up and down.

I worked at Mitchell's when I was 14. I used to sweep up the sales floor after school. I can't say I was particularly excited about doing it, as most of my friends did things like hang out after school, and I went to work. One day, my dad asked me to move this pile of boxes from the basement. I started doing my work, but I was getting kind of sleepy. I decided that it would be a good idea to huddle up under one of the boxes for a quick nap. As you probably figured out, this wasn't the best idea. A quick nap went a bit longer than I expected and somehow (I never figured out how) my dad discovered me sleeping under a box in the basement. Let's just say my dad was 'displeased.' He was 'displeased' enough that my cousin heard him chewing me out from the front of the store. Ha! Good times.

The day's not done yet, however. Later tonight, we have a yo-yo event at the store - yo-yoers on their way from the World Yo-Yo Contest this past weekend to the New York Open yo-yo contest this coming weekend are stopping into Mitchell's to hang out.

Mitchell's 1953-2008

After 55 years of doing business in Delaware, I am profoundly sad to announce that Mitchell’s Trains, Toys and Hobbies will be closing.

Family owned and operated during our entire 55 years in business, Mitchell’s opened in July 3 of 1953, after John and Hanna Mitchell purchased Bennet’s 5¢ and 10¢ store in the Fairfax Shopping Center. This store, wedged in front of the Fairfax Bowling Alley, was more of a lane than a store. Mitchell’s operated in this small facility for two years before moving over to the site of the existing Walgreens in the Fairfax Shopping Center for the next 42 years. In 1997, Mitchell’s moved from the South portion of the Shopping Center to the North portion, downsizing from 15,000 square feet to 6,000 square feet and concentrating on it’s strengths – trains, toys and hobbies

The current owners, John & Hannah’s children, are Joe & Jack Mitchell and their sister Joan Hicks. All three of the owners were a part of the store from it’s beginnings until the end. All of the owners of the company have decided to retire and exit the retail business completely.

The Mitchell Family is quite proud that John and Hanna Mitchell’s dream lasted fifty five years. Through the years four generations and 23 members of the Mitchell family have worked at Mitchell’s. All four of John and Hannah’s children – Jack, Joan (Hicks), Joe and Judy (Bonisawski) Mitchell worked there. Nine of John and Hannah’s grandchildren worked there as well as five of their great grandchildren.

Most of Mitchell’s employees have been a part of the store for 20 years and longer. Bonnie Kincaid’s first day was August 23, 1960 – she is finishing her 48th year of employment at Mitchell’s. Manager Doug Arnold’s first day was August 22nd, 1973. Sales clerk Alice Lewis started at Mitchell’s on August 31st, 1977.

Roger Goldyn 1943-2008

I'm sad to say that a Mitchell's icon has passed.

If you've shopped at Mitchell's anytime over the past 33 years, you've probably seen, met and talked to Roger Goldyn. Roger started work at Mitchell's in 1974 and managed our Ogletown store from 1974 until we moved it to Community Plaza. He managed the Community Plaza store the entire time it was open until we closed it in the mid-nineties. After that, Roger moved up to our Fairfax store, and he worked there until his death last week.

Personally, I first met Roger when I was eight years old - so I've known him the vast majority of my life. I worked daily with Roger over the past dozen years or so since he moved up here.

If you met Roger, you knew he had a wonderful sense of humor and loved his family. We consider Roger a part of our family and will miss him.