Panic swept the rubber chicken and surplus radiation suit markets last week when it was reported that Archie McPhee would be closing its store in Seattle. This marketplace of marvels is a prime destination for those needing travel survival gear such as dashboard Tikis and commuter lane passenger mummies. The idea that it could be gone forever was like a karate kick to the heart of kitsch.
Stay calm. Archie McPhee’s is simply reopening in a new, smaller location only a couple of miles east, on the same street in Seattle that was home to its first store 25 years ago.
David Wahl, Archie McPhee’s behind-the-scenes puppet-brain-master, told us the move will happen in mid-2009, and that the new store will be half the size of the current location. He vowed that “everything that we sell now will still be there,” although less of each item will be on display. He admitted that “some things will have to go,” but he wasn’t yet sure if that would include the store’s giant devil head, or its eight-foot-tall gladiator, or Motog the talking Tiki.
David hinted that there would be a “big inventory blowout” toward the end of 2008, so interested readers may want to stop by during the holiday shopping season. “The place overwhelms the senses now, and it’s gonna be even more so next year,” David said. He christened the new store, “Archie McPhee Concentrate.”
I think they were at the old location when I visited in 1998. I’d like to say that it was Archie McPhee that kept me from getting to the troll under the bridge, but it was the Trolleyman at the Redhook Brewery, with its evil beer and smoked salmon, that distracted me from my true path.
Panic swept the rubber chicken and surplus radiation suit markets last week when it was reported that Archie McPhee would be closing its store in Seattle. This marketplace of marvels is a prime destination for those needing travel survival gear such as dashboard Tikis and commuter lane passenger mummies. The idea that it could be gone forever was like a karate kick to the heart of kitsch.
David hinted that there would be a “big inventory blowout” toward the end of 2008, so interested readers may want to stop by during the holiday shopping season. “The place overwhelms the senses now, and it’s gonna be even more so next year,” David said. He christened the new store, “Archie McPhee Concentrate.”
October 2nd, 2008 at 5:41 am
I think they were at the old location when I visited in 1998. I’d like to say that it was Archie McPhee that kept me from getting to the troll under the bridge, but it was the Trolleyman at the Redhook Brewery, with its evil beer and smoked salmon, that distracted me from my true path.
October 2nd, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I’m so glad that this place isn’t closing. It’s an American original.