Five & Dime

Anyone who grew up before the 1960s remembers 5 & 10s, with their wonderful clutter of goods and toys affordable even to a kid with a dime. And because most dime stores were relatively small—at least by today’s shopping standards—they were often full of recognizable and friendly faces.

The last F. W. Woolworth closed in 1997, but at least one dime store—Vidler’s 5 & 10 in East Aurora, N.Y.—isn’t just holding on, it’s thriving. That’s largely due to Ed and Bob Vidler, who run the store the old-fashioned way, with friendly, face-to-face service, the way their father did when he opened it in 1930.

“We can order something on the spot,” Ed says. “If somebody comes in and says they need a special tablecloth for a wedding, we try to get it. That’s something national chains can’t do. They can’t give that personal service.”

Paying attention to customers’ needs helped the Vidlers survive the opening of a shopping mall near East Aurora (pop. 6,673) in the 1960s—that and learning how to tighten their belts when other stores on Main Street were closing. Bob and Ed take special ordering seriously, and customer-request sheets are next to every cash register. Their staff is another factor in their success—they hire people who like people. Typically, employees give advice on sewing projects or how to use the hand-held kitchen gadgets the store sells.

“We don’t carry electric toasters or blenders,” Ed says. “Everybody’s got that. We sell strawberry hullers, cherry pitters, and pickle pickers. People look at it and laugh but half the time they buy it.”

Another part of their success is keeping products current. “You have to keep the atmosphere of the old store,” Ed says, “but you have to keep your merchandise current.” Vidler’s offers the look and feel of an old five & dime but stocks the latest in crafts. And they still carry items that sell for 5 or 10 cents and even less. At Vidler’s, you can buy one safety pin—cost, 3 cents. They carry penny candy, and a dime still buys a bag of popcorn or a ride on Sandy the mechanical horse, a fixture at Vidler’s.

“We’ve had some good stories out of Sandy,” Ed says. “About 20 years ago, the horse broke down. It’s hard to get parts for those things, so Sandy was out of action for a while before we got her fixed. In the meantime, we got this sad letter from a little girl named Brianna. She wrote, ‘What’s happened to Sandy? I love that horse and I’d like to ride Sandy again.’ When it was fixed, I took the letter to the local paper and had an article put in that said, ‘Brianna, Sandy’s fixed. You can ride her again for a dime.’ Local people got a kick out of it. The girl moved away years ago, but this past spring I got an announcement of her graduation from a college down in Virginia. She still was in touch.”

The Vidlers run 10-second commercials on nearby Buffalo, N.Y., television stations. The ads feature Bob and Ed, both in their 70s. In one, Bob faces the camera with Ed in the background on the roof of the store—as Bob says, “a Vidler on the roof.” Bob ends another with, “come to Vidler’s where you’ll find 78,243 items, including me and Ed.” Still another shows Ed sweeping the sidewalk, while Bob says, “Our father said if we gave folks what they want, we’d really clean up.” Corny, but the ads attract shoppers.

The Vidler brothers are hometown fixtures in other ways as well. They help celebrate Millard Fillmore’s birthday on Jan. 7 because the 13th president lived in town and had a law office in the basement of what’s now Vidler’s. On July 4, they sponsor the kids’ part of the local parade, K-POW (for Kiddies Parade on Wheels), and on the last Saturday before Christmas, the street in front of the store is closed off and some 2,000 people gather to sing carols and enjoy hot chocolate, doughnuts, and candy canes.

And the store their father founded will continue into a third generation—daughter Barbara and a nephew, Cliff, who have worked there for years, are ready to keep going when Bob and Ed retire.

“They’ve been a major part of our community,” says Christine Peters, deputy mayor of East Aurora. “They’ve been a successful business but also a real attraction as it relates to tourism.”

Think about it—an old-fashioned dime store has become a tourist attraction.

Ben Fanton writes from his home in Wellsville, N.Y.

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