Star Wars Store in Aberdeen

[moyer777]

So in my hometown is a guy that has a Star Wars Store.  Our local paper did an article on him.  Check it out.

http://www.thedailyworld.com/articles/2008/03/01/profile/01profile.txt



He's the 'force' at the Star Wars shop

By Leif Nesheim - Daily World Writer

Saturday, February 23, 2008 8:22 PM PST



DAILY WORLD / KATHY QUIGG Standing next to a promotional replica of Watto, the junk dealer, Don Sucher, owner of Sucher and Sons Star Wars store in Aberdeen, says he has a particular fondness for this character. 
A long time ago, in a theater not so far away, Don Sucher saw the movie that changed his life: Star Wars.

"That opening scene was just too much," Sucher said, the enthusiasm evident in his voice and expression. "It blew me away it was so far ahead (with the) special effects but I thought 'Gee I'm too old to have any fun.'"

Sucher was 34 when George Lucas' masterpiece debuted in 1977. At the time, he worked at Goldberg Furniture, a few doors down from the theater. The store set up Star Wars-themed displays to attract the movie audience while they waited in line, Sucher said. Though the movie was hugely popular with people of all ages, Sucher said he felt he was too old for the myriad toys, play sets and other collectibles that sprung from the Star Wars universe.

"I was an old man when Star Wars first came out," Sucher said, chuckling.

Today, Sucher surrounds himself with thousands of Star Wars toys and collectibles every day at his Aberdeen Shop: Sucher & Sons Star Wars Store. The business started as a summer venture with his two sons a decade ago and grew every year. His sons have grown and largely gone on to other things, but Sucher stays where he's happiest: Surrounded by Star Wars paraphernalia day in and day out. His store is open noon to 5 p.m. every day.

"This is fun, I can come down and play for five hours a day," Sucher said with a laugh. "I'll be 65 and I haven't grown up. I get that ribbing all the time but it's a business and it is sort of my retirement."

From Vietnam to Aberdeen

Sucher was born in Rigby, Idaho, near Montana. He served in the U.S. Army in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive of 1968, achieving the rank of sergeant. In 1975, Sucher moved to Aberdeen and started working in the furniture business at Goldberg Furniture. He started his second family between "Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Return of the Jedi" (1983).


Sucher family photo Actress Carrie Fisher, who portrayed Princess Leia in the Star Wars movies, autographs Don Sucher's arm. She signed just below Sucher's tattoo of the actress as Princess Leia. 
When his boys — Koby, then 11, and Nick, then 7 — were old enough, they got the Star Wars bug, just like their father.

"With no help from me," Sucher said. "They got into it on their own."

Sucher and his sons collected toys voraciously and before long, they had too many for the house.

In the summer of 1997, when the boys were 8 and 12, they said "Gee dad, it'd be neat to open a store in the summer to give us something to do," Sucher said.

They opened the first shop on Heron Street, in a building next to the furniture store where he worked.

The trio had amassed a large collection of Star Wars goods by combing through yard sales and antique stores. Eventually people knew they were looking for items and started calling if they found something related to Star Wars.

"They talked me into keeping it open after school and on weekends," Sucher said. "It just took on a life of its own and we just never got around to closing ... and it just slowly got bigger and bigger."

The boys ran the store faithfully for five or six years, before they headed off to other careers. Koby works as a tile-setter in Tacoma and Nick works at Safeway in Aberdeen. They still check in with dad every week and give their advice on store business, Sucher said.

"That was a lot of fun," Sucher said. "It was supposed to be just a summer project but they really took to it."

The boys enjoyed meeting people from out of town, out of state and even out of the country and developed a knowledge of Star Wars that surpassed that of their father's.

"It was something that all of us could do as a family. That's kind of what Star Wars was to us," Sucher said. "It's the cement that held us all together and it's something that we'll never forget."

Customers come from afar

The location on West Heron Street was a lucky coincidence. The traffic of summer tourism had thousands of cars going by daily. The store quickly built up a following.

It didn't hurt that Lucas was in the midst of re-releasing his original movies at the time, building up a whole new generation of fans and catching an earlier generation rapidly coming into disposable income.

"Because it wasn't my full-time business, I was able to just let it grow and play with it," Sucher said. "I have a lot of nice customers in Aberdeen but not enough to keep something like this going."

After a couple years, the shop lost its lease and Sucher quickly relocated the business to the family home in Central Park — where it stayed for three years before he moved to its current location at 413 E. Wishkah St., Aberdeen, five years ago. At the time, Sucher worked next door at Selmer's Home Furnishings and shared the space with the store, which used the building for storage. In 2005, Selmer's burned down and a year later built a nw store at the same location, leaving Sucher with twice as much space for the Star Wars store. He soon filled it.

"It's amazing how many tourists from all over the world stop in here"

For example, on the day of the December windstorm, people from Spain stopped in the store. Like many first-time visitors — about 90 percent of the shop's customers are first-timers — they are surprised by what they find, Sucher said.

"They're not expecting a Star Wars store totally anywhere ... and then when they see it in Aberdeen they're shocked. They drive around the block to see if they really were hallucinating," Sucher said. Then, when they come in, they're further surprised by the sheer volume of items.

Sucher estimated that there's probably about 70,000 different Star Wars-related collectibles; his store contains a little less than 10 percent of that spanning the decades from the earliest toys to today's merchandising.

"It gives people a great second reason to come to Aberdeen," he said.

Personal touch

A collage of fan photographs — kids and their collections and costumed Star Wars aficionados alike — adorns a display at the store: The "Wall of Fame." It's Sucher's way of making his customers part of the store.

That personal touch is an important part of the business for Sucher and is part of the reason why he's never branched the business online via eBay or other Internet auction sites.

"I'm too old for that," Sucher said. "It's way too much of a job. I like the one-on-one contact."

Though there's thousands of Star Wars items available online, nothing beats browsing through the actual toys. Since storefront rent in Aberdeen is so cheap, the overhead cost of the business isn't as much as it would be in a mall or another city, Sucher said.

Princess Leia coup

Sucher and his sons have met most of the actors in the films. The only ones they haven't yet met are Harrison Ford (Han Solo) and Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker).

Shortly after opening the store, Sucher and his sons met most of the actors who performed behind masks: Kenny Baker (R2 D2), Anthony Daniels (C3PO), Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and others. They stayed at the same hotel as the actors and met them again at breakfast. The contrast between the heights of Mayhew (almost 7-foot, 2 inches) and Baker (3-foot 8) was particularly memorable, Sucher said.

However, he counts as his biggest coup a meeting last May with Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) at the Star Wars 30th anniversary celebration in Los Angeles.

Ten years ago, Sucher got a tattoo of Princess Leia ("in the slave outfit, of course"). At the celebration, Sucher waited in line for three hours to meet the actress who portrayed his favorite character. He talked her into signing his arm just below the tattoo.

"It was a great thing, She autographed my arm, let me take a picture of her doing it, then she showed me her tattoo ... it wasn't of me unfortunately," Sucher said before laughing.

He had the signature tattooed onto his arm later that day.

Not the droids you're looking for

Inside the store, myriad Star Wars items fill shelves and tables and even hang from the ceiling. Televisions play Star Wars movies and related television shows all day. A voice-activated R2 D2 robot squawks in the background. The store has an order to its jumbled chaos. Action figures are grouped together, as are ships, Legos, and other types of collectibles.

"We rotate things constantly with new displays to feature new items or as old displays sell," Sucher said.

He used to hang onto his favorite toys but now has no qualms about selling any items. He knows he'll come across one again or find something better.

Most popular are the action figures. Blasters, light sabers and ships tie for second in popularity.

Sometimes, even the most unusual items eventually sell. Sucher had 1982 Star Wars shampoo bottles (with the original shampoo still in it) at the shop for eight years before a group from London bought the whole shampoo collection.

Though Sucher occasionally heads out when he hears of a Star Wars collection up for auction, most items come from people clearing out attics: Moms selling kids collections or young adults selling their toys to pay for college or buy a car.

Sometimes, people bring in things from other science fiction sources. Sucher has a Star Trek room hidden in the back of the shop. These aren't the toys he's looking for. But he often still takes them.

"I've got a lot of Star Trek stuff by accident. People think it's Star Wars and bring it in," Sucher said.

There's also some other toys, such as X-men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, collected by his sons before they got into Star Wars for sale in the back.

The back wall of Sucher's shop is filled with record albums and 45s. One wall is covered with LP albums from all the concerts Sucher has seen: Led Zepplin, Aerosmith, Pink Floyd, Eddie Money and more. He's got a small area set aside for Elvis collectibles.

"I had a bare wall, so I hung it up," he explains, shrugging his shoulders and chuckling. His first 45, of more than 1,000, was by Jerry Lee Lewis in 1954. Like the others, it's hanging alphabetized on the wall.

Sucher likes rock music. Because many of his out-of-town customers ask about Aberdeen's famous son, musician Kurt Cobain of the grunge band Nirvana, Sucher has a small display pointing out information about him.

"People kept coming in here wanting to know," Sucher said. "And hey, it's Aberdeen's claim to fame, what can I say?"

In addition to newspaper clippings, photos of houses where Cobain lived and the bridge he memorialized in a song, Sucher has Nirvana key chains and action figures, CDs and other memorabilia.

The 'Force' of Star Wars

For the first 34 years of Sucher's life, Star Wars wasn't there; it didn't exist yet.

But that opening scene with John Williams' soaring musical score made such a lasting impression, that his life was altered inexorably.

"I guess its just time to relive the fantasy," Sucher said. "It's an escape. It's a nice escape, a fun escape."

The re-release of the originals and the second trilogy created new legions of Star Wars fans. The youngest fans, just 2-3 years old, are just mesmerized by the movies and the corresponding toys. They don't discriminate between the vintage toys or the newer ones, he said.

For him though, the first is best.

"I'm an old dyed-in-the-wool Star Wars fan so nothing will ever surpass movie number one," he said.

Sucher likes to make sure there's something for his customers of all ages.

"We're kind of a take-it-out-and-play-with-it store," he said, noting that there's many affordable action figures for a couple dollars that kids are free to play with.

He always enjoys when adults enter the store and regress to their childhood memories of toys they used to play with.

"They walk in the door and say 'oh my gosh I had that,'" Sucher said. They get an enraptured look on their faces and wander around for hours.

With the youngest generations getting hooked, and likely to follow the collecting footsteps of the generations before them, Sucher is convinced Star Wars is here to stay.

"It looks like it will do nothing but just be here forever," he said.

Leif Nesheim, a Daily World writer, can be reached at 532-4000, ext. 111, or by e-mail: lnesheim@thedailyworld.com

[Jen]

That's Awesome! Thanks for posting Rick. :)

[jedijeff]

Thanks for sharing the stroy, sounds like there would be a lot in Interesting finds in that store

[moyer777]

Thanks for sharing the stroy, sounds like there would be a lot in Interesting finds in that store

I actually thought of you when the article came out.  I think someday when we meet up, we need to go to that store together.  We have the science fiction museum to attend as well.  :)

[Geekyfanboy]

Great stuff Rick.. can't wait to visit.

[Meds]

Great post Rick, what a great sounding store.

[Geekyfanboy]

So when we visited Rick in Aberdeen he took us to the Star Wars store.. I posted some pixs to my facebook page.. check out the link.. and you don't need to be a member of facebook to see the pixs.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=449369&id=707225374&l=9fe37d81e6

[Bromptonboy]

Cool place!