Sarah Pruys
Walking into The Olde & Resold Shoppe as a child, my sister and I kept out hands close to our sides as we navigated the narrow paths lined with antiques—our mother’s reminder not to touch anything fresh in our minds.
Now, the once crowded store is lined with empty shelves and wide walkways as it’s closing this Saturday (June 1), although I still set my camera bag on the ground for fear of knocking the remaining items over when wandering around.
Wes Dirk, who opened the shop with his wife, Theresa, in November, 1996, sat down in their small office to discuss their time running the business.
The shop was started because “we loved collecting and we got to the point where we needed somewhere to get rid of the stuff we had collected,” he began.
With the idea of opening an antique store in mind, the couple began collecting things specifically to sell.
“We would pick things up as we went,” Dirk explained, adding they quite enjoyed flea markets housing more than 80 vendors down in the U.S.
“We had a lot of fun collecting,” he added. “Wherever we went, that’s what we loved to do.
“If we went on holidays, that was our holiday.”
Dirk said they started collecting to have a shop about two years before they found a location.
In the end, they choose the end of Scott Street close to the Rainy River because “it was good for tourists.”
“A lot of people remember it as the Northside Trading [grocery store],” said Dirk, although the location also was an apartment and a restaurant in the past.
But now, like its predecessors, it’s finally time to close the doors.
“Oh, we liked it,” Dirk said of running the shop. “I was working full-time, and as soon as it opened, my wife quit her job and it gave her something to do.
“But now that I’m retired, we just don’t want to be here anymore,” he remarked.
“We’ve got projects around home, visiting the kids, and fishing.”
And business just isn’t what it used to be.
“It’s slowed down a lot with the tourism,” Dirk admitted.
“The big thing for us was that I used to sell Cuban cigars,” he noted. “I had a great big humidor and at this time, I would have it full and I’d order several times.
“The fishermen could pull up with their boats real easy, and I had a tripod sign outside that you could see for two blocks advertising,” he recalled.
“They would come in and not only buy that [but] buy something for their wives, or their wives would come in.
“But then that tobacco law came in and you couldn’t advertise tobacco products anymore, so I had to take my sign down,” Dirk said.
“That changed the traffic a lot.
“And tourism slowed in general,” he added. “I can notice here there isn’t near the boats going by as there was 10 years ago.”
So with “75% Off” and “No Taxes” signs standing outside the store, the Dirks are hoping to empty the store of its collectibles, glassware, statues, and other antiques over its final few days.
“Whatever’s left over, we’ll do yard [sales] and donating,” Dirk noted.
And while their days running the business may be over, the couple will go back to their original hobby of collecting things for themselves.
“My wife’s got her glassware, it’s real rare stuff,” Dirk said. “I collect Civil War stuff.
“We love doing it.”
