Past and Present Mercantile makes western expansion

By Matthew N. Wells • October 10, 2024 5:05 pm
Matthew N. Wells / The Daily World LeRoy Sisk, owner of Past and Present Mercantile, stands in front of The Painted Pelican booth that sits inside his business. The Painted Pelican, owned and operated by Cindi Molchan, comes from Grayland. One of the elements Sisk likes is how unique each vendor is. “As you start looking at each booth, you’ll see everyone has a neat way of selling stuff,” Sisk said.
Matthew N. Wells / The Daily World LeRoy Sisk, owner of Past and Present Mercantile, stands in front of The Painted Pelican booth that sits inside his business. The Painted Pelican, owned and operated by Cindi Molchan, comes from Grayland. One of the elements Sisk likes is how unique each vendor is. “As you start looking at each booth, you’ll see everyone has a neat way of selling stuff,” Sisk said.

Past and Present Mercantile has expanded into the space to its west that used to hold Waugh’s Men’s and Women’s Apparel in downtown Aberdeen.

Jenn Descoteaux, who works at Past and Present Mercantile, marveled at how the companies expansive space at the former Waugh’s looks now.

“Wait until you see it, because it’s absolutely gorgeous in there,” Descoteaux said.

With the shiny floors that sparkle, the comfortable spacing between the 14 vendors inside and the eclectic yet organized look of it, it’s clear she wasn’t overselling the interior look to the new space. The expansion to Past and Present Mercantile opened Sept. 1.

The expansion seems to suit LeRoy Sisk and his team of workers and vendors just fine. Sisk owns both sides of the business and he’s happy to have more room. More room means more vendors. Now, he hosts 38 vendors in total. The new space is referred to as Past and Present West.

Tina Peterson, who sells for the new Past and Present Mercantile — 110 E. Heron St., — spoke about the expansion. It took a lot of work to get the store up to snuff after the space suffered flood damage back in May. The store site joins the original Past and Present Mercantile — 114 E. Heron St.

“We took over this building the first of August, it took us about a month to get it all set up to get it ready to go,” Peterson said. “What we had to do is we had to do a lot of cleaning, did a lot of sweeping. I steam-cleaned all the carpets. We rented the steam-cleaner to re-steam them because my steam cleaner wouldn’t clean them completely. And then we got vendors in here, each vendor set up their own booth, and then we were up on the first of September. It took about a month to clean it, there was a lot of cleaning to do.”

Peterson said the cleaning for them wasn’t “as bad” because ServiceMaster had already come and dried out the space. But there was a lot of work to make it all happen.

“It did get wet in here,” Peterson said. “The roof filled like a big bathtub. It was all enclosed. It got a big caulking tube in the drainpipe. When they pulled the caulking tube out, all the water had to come down here to release itself so the whole back room was full of water. And then there was a lot of moisture in here so we basically had to air it out. ServiceMaster came out here and sucked all the water out and put fans on it to dry it. That’s why it took a month to get it cleaned out.”

The fortunate thing is once that work was all done, the store was ready to go.

“It’s wonderful to see an expansion instead of another building closing,” Peterson said.

Vendor’s comments

Past and Present West has a wide variety of vendors, including Curtis Thorfinson, owner of The Tangerine Tree.

Thorfinson is quite knowledgeable about music. Thorfinson sells a wide range of music-related items, including vinyl records, band T-shirts, posters, and various in sundry musical items.

Thorfinson spoke about about the new place since moving in from his old spot at the original Past and Present.

“I think a lot of my customers are excited about seeing the new space,” Thorfinson said. “I think it’s got to be at least 25% bigger, so some pieces that I didn’t have in my old shop you can now find here. And also I can carry more product.”

Thorfinson, a Sub Pop Records dealer, said he sells a lot of Sub Pop-related stuff.

“I sell a lot of these too,” Thorfinson said as he showed off some limited edition punk rock shirts, made by Bifocal Media. “These are pretty popular, so I bring those in too.”

He also hosts album release parties. Most recently he hosted one for the artist Jelly Roll.

As far as the process of moving in, Thorfinson said it was a lot of work but he wasn’t alone.

“I found that I had a lot of friends help, which I wasn’t planning for that to happen,” Thorfinson said. “I kind of put my work outfit on, got ready, and then all of a sudden people were showing up to help. That was a huge blessing. These (vinyl record racks) don’t get lighter over time.”

Thorfinson said what he’s finding is he has a lot more records that he’s going to bring in but he doesn’t have a lot of room so he’s trying to think of new ways to do that.

“I have a lot of 45s, and a lot of other stuff too,” Thorfinson said. “But I adore the ability to put my posters up finally. That’s been fun. They’ve been with me for so long.”

Thorfinson said the vendors and the store staff work as a team and that’s one thing he likes about selling at Past and Present West.

“They feel kind of like an extended family, I really would say that,” Thorfinson said. It’s a good group of people.”

Owner’s comments

Sisk is happy to have the team of vendors he’s got.

“I think my vendors are extra special,” said Sisk, who bought the original Past and Present Mercantile in September 2023.

Sisk had been a vendor at Past and Present in 2015. He started managing it after another manager got sick. He then jumped at the opportunity to buy the former Waugh’s space once it came available. Kathy Kalkwarf still owns the building. Sisk explained the process of buying the business space from Kalkwarf.

“I asked her what she was going to do, she said ‘well, put up a rent sign and for sale sign on it.’ I said ‘why don’t you sell it to me? I’ve got vendors on a list who want to come in all the time.’”

Sisk said he had several vendors who moved to the west site and then several vendors who chose to take an additional spot, so they have a space in each. He’s attracted new vendors as well.

“I wanted this (space) to look a little bit different from that one, which it does,” Sisk said. “The vendors were really good about coming in and making it look a little bit different.”

Sisk said the expanded space is a little bit more narrow than the original space, so he has less room and that means fewer vendors. But it works.

Sisk talked about how Ray Ericks, who owned Waugh’s for at least 35 years, has a booth inside the expanded space.

“He talked to the owner of the building and she said ‘why don’t you go down there, take a look?’” Sisk said. “He had a fire at his house and had some stuff he wanted to get rid of (and) downsized. He called, asked if I had a spot and I did have a couple spots left. … He has some really nice stuff. We’ve sold a few pieces.”

Sisk said Cindi Molchan, owner of The Painted Pelican that used to run out of Grayland, has a booth. Molchan sells various items that include some of those famous vintage Coca-Cola polar bears. Donna Williams right now is selling Halloween merchandise that includes a couple big, vintage pumpkins. Sue Larson has a booth near the front of the store. And that’s not a complete list.

Sisk said Brooke Heikkila, the owner of Junk Queens Tackle Box in Westport, has a spot next door. OddDuck Books in Elma also has a booth in the new store.

“I like to mention them, those guys that have other places,” Sisk said. “And there are a lot of other vendors with some real nice stuff. They’ve done a real good job. I attribute the success of the other store in the last year, (it’s done) enough for me to decide to open another one with the vendors that we have because they do good. They come in and work their (booths).”

Sisk said the vendors who come in on a regular basis sell more. But, even for vendors who aren’t there all the time, the booths are all numbered and tagged and the vendors price their own items, so the merchandise can still be sold.

“I have somebody on the register here and at next door,” Sisk said “We’re open seven days a week. It’s been that way, I’d like to keep it that way but I’m thinking maybe this winter I might have to cut down maybe when it gets dark. The winter hours might change a little.”

The operating hours for both shops are 11 a.m. through 5:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday. On Sunday, they’re open from noon to 5 p.m.

Contact Reporter Matthew N. Wells at matthew.wells@thedailyworld.com.

Curtis Thorfinson, owner of The Tangerine Tree, stands in between his vinyl record racks that stand near the back of Past and Present West — 110 E. Heron St. Thorfinson moved his shop one door west from Past and Present Mercantile. Thorfinson said the vendors and the store staff work as a team and it’s something he likes about operating out of the shop. “They feel kind of like an extended family, I really would say that,” Thorfinson said. It’s a good group of people.”

Curtis Thorfinson, owner of The Tangerine Tree, stands in between his vinyl record racks that stand near the back of Past and Present West — 110 E. Heron St. Thorfinson moved his shop one door west from Past and Present Mercantile. Thorfinson said the vendors and the store staff work as a team and it’s something he likes about operating out of the shop. “They feel kind of like an extended family, I really would say that,” Thorfinson said. It’s a good group of people.”

Matthew N. Wells / The Daily World Donna Williams’ booth at Past and Present West — the western expansion of Past and Present Mercantile — features vintage Halloween decorations, which is just in time for the October holiday.

Matthew N. Wells / The Daily World Donna Williams’ booth at Past and Present West — the western expansion of Past and Present Mercantile — features vintage Halloween decorations, which is just in time for the October holiday.