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Places like this have always been big in rural areas. I'm from Maine, and there's two local chain stores, Reny's and Marden's that have been around for a long
by megaman22 9y ago
Places like this have always been big in rural areas. I'm from Maine, and there's two local chain stores, Reny's and Marden's that have been around for a long time, and have always been stocked with weird brands, consignment stuff, closeout items, and such, and the whole appeal is that it's cheap(er) stuff than you'd usually find, and you never quite know what you might find in stock.
Plus, incredibly terrible local TV commercials
Renys
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMNCjsz9ob8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMNCjsz9ob8
Marden's
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ_iM2jrLGU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ_iM2jrLGU
- KGIII 9y agoShh! They don't need to know about Reny's. They're finally gone until skiing starts up, except for a few hunters. There's a Dollar General in Farmington and they always have cars in the parking lot. I've never been in there but they appear busy. There's another one over in the mall thing, across from Burger King. Also, Big Al's. I've been in there. They have the strangest of stuff, almost. Marden's is a bit stranger.
- megaman22 9y agoHaha, I never imagined I'd find somebody on HN that knew where Farmington was, except as the last vestiges of civilization before they hit Sugarloaf... Also home to the cheapest, and best movie theater I've ever been to. Still has $4 matinees, the last time I was up to visit my folks.
- KGIII 9y agoI know the owner of the theater. I'm up past Rangeley, in unincorporated township territory. You're the only other Mainer I've seen on HN and I'm 'from away.' Yes, I live here by choice. I retired here. I don't want to derail the thread or meander off topic.if you want, uninvolved@outlook.com will get seen and replied to.
- afarrell 9y ago> only other mainer I only lived there when I was a kid (extended family lives there too), so I don't know if I can call myself a Mainer.
- KGIII 9y agoMaine has a serious brain drain issue, though I suppose we've begun to digress too far for HN standards. dang is gonna come yell at me.
- bradleyankrom 9y agoformerly of Lisbon Falls (for HS ~15-20 years ago)!
- KGIII 9y agoI f*cking love Moxie. Nobody but you will understand the significance of that comment, unless they Google.
- smaili 9y ago$4 showings? That's unbelievable.
- KGIII 9y agoNarrow Gauge, in Farmington, Maine. You can also buy tickets in bulk for $4.00 and they include soda and popcorn. It's over behind the bar, near the health food store.
- fallingfrog 9y agoThere's one in milbridge that has 3$ movies, and before each show an old man comes up and loads a reel into a player piano, and then you listen to some ragtime tune before the movie starts. No joke! It's famous.
- secstate 9y agoGood old Farmington, but I'm actually in the midcoast, which is a world apart from central and northern Maine.
- KGIII 9y agoI just noticed your comment. It is amazing how different the regions of Maine are. I'm in NW Maine, which isn't like it is up in the county, nor the mid coast, down east, southern, central, or even western. I'm more Jackman and less Bethel, but the village is more Bethel and less Jackman. It used to be a bit more Bethel, but the ski slope needed money to replace the lifts and they are now shut down. So, just in this one State, it is a lot of variation.
- rconti 9y agoI can't parse this: "They're finally gone until skiing starts up, except for a few hunters." I gather it has something to do with number of customers but I'm not sure how it benefits someone that a store gets FEWER shoppers.
- KGIII 9y agoOh, it doesn't benefit the stores. It removes them from our roads and stores for a short while. During tourist season, we get up to 10x the population which is not something it's really designed for. It's pretty good money for the locals, they are well adapted to the breaks. The foliage peepers, with tour buses and whatever, have finally gone home. Almost without fail I get a whole bus driving up my driveway because their GPS insists it is a road. I don't mind, actually. Our local sport is making fun of tourists. We all go down to the boat landing on Memorial Day. You can watch them wreck $80,000 worth of boat, trailer, and truck. We don't get much amusement, otherwise. If tourism stopped, the town would be dead. They milk them for all they are worth. Locals just go to Farmington where things are often about half the price. So, no... It doesn't help the stors but it gets used to give a quick break and prepare for the winter rush. There are still tourists, but not as many. It's a tourist area, pretty much exclusively, all year long. Skiing, hunting, hiking, climbing, fishing, boating, swimming, camping, etc...
- rconti 9y agoOh, I see, "they" was just about tourists in general, not specific to shoppers at that store. As a west coaster visiting New England for the first time this past summer, it really stuck me how serious the crush of tourists must be for places like small town Maine (made it as far up the coast as Acadia NP). The overwhelming number of shops, of american flags, of lobster rolls, of store advertising Yeti coolers for sale.. it was just 10x what we see in small towns in the west. No matter where you go, of course, tourist town folk make fun of tourists but I think the crush must be much worse up your way, where small town life here, even for those of us who live in heavily populated areas, isn't quite as novel. It makes sense, though, given the massive population of the east coast. I remember once being angry about how everything is always advertised eastern-time-centric, and pulled up a map to try to make the argument that not THAT many people live in the Eastern time zone, but then realized it's almost 50% of the entire country... http://kurtostergaard.com/us-population-by-time-zone/ http://kurtostergaard.com/us-population-by-time-zone/
- kerash 9y agoi want to be hucker doller genral
- mottomotto 9y agoGrocery Outlet is a grocery store variant that is in the SF Bay Area. It is one of the stores I miss after relocating away.
- rconti 9y agoThere are also dollar generals in the area -- maybe not in the bay area proper, but in the same kinds of areas I see Grocery Outlet -- Eg, central valley and foothills of the Sierra.
- yellowapple 9y agoNot just the Bay Area; they're all over the West Coast + Nevada and Idaho (and also in Pennsylvania for some reason).
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoMardens is awesome. It's like a cross between Ocean State Job lot and a government surplus auction with some furniture and home goods thrown in. I love when they have hardware by the pound. Last time I was there they had copper fittings at ~double scrap price. They also had nuts and bolts that looked like they were on the container that got dropped in the harbor but still well worth the price.
- secstate 9y agoNot that it's Maine specific, but Ocean State Job Lot is a weird f-ing place, too. I actually love it, and was in there the other day opining to my wife that were the zombie apocalypse to go down, OSJL would be a solid place to hole up, if you could get some barricades in front of the big sliding glass doors. I just bought some shampoo there for dirt cheap and when I got home realized all the copy on the bottle was in Czech ;)
- elgenie 9y agoWow, the Maine accent in that Marden's commercial is thick enough to spread on a slice of bread.
- ransom1538 9y agoIf Steven Spielberg had to make a cheesy commercial with an unlimited budget -- he couldn't come close to making such a master piece. Renys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMNCjsz9ob8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMNCjsz9ob8
- fallingfrog 9y agoShoulda bought it when I saw it at mardens!
- fallingfrog 9y agoGood to see we have some mainers on HN! I'm from Ellsworth, now living in Portland. My family's been in the state for several generations, I'm descended from backwoods poachers and liquor runners, so I get to say I'm not from away..