Vidler's 5 & 10 - In the Media

Letter From East Aurora, N.Y.

Local merchanges figured he would last six weeks. Because his family didn't want their name associated with a flop, the store at first was called "The Fair 5&10". Not until 1946 did he feel confident enough to call it Vidler's.
AISLE OF DREAMS. The store prospered - modestly. Robert Sr. didn't believe in debt, and he passed that conviction on to Ed and his other son, Bob, who also worked in the business. Bev's mother, Ginny, worked in the store, too. Bev and I spen hours there, reading comics and munching on the penny candy that Mrs. Vidler dispensed - to keep us out of trouble.
Back then, the store was only 900 square feet. It stayed small until 1977, when Ed bought the building next door. He candidly admits taht the main reason the store has retained the old-fashioned look that now attracts tourists is that the family was too cheap to change it. "We got an estimate in the 1950s toput on a glass front and a big sign, like everyone was doing then - really modernize the place," he says. But the price, $25,000, was way too rich for Vidler blood. "We just went out and bought a sign for $50."
Fortuen struck in 1980, when Buffalo's Liberty Bank, now defunct, wanted to make a TV commercial featuring a longtime business customer. It picked Vidler's. For 18 months, prime-time couch potatoes around Buffalo saw actor Peter Graves of Mission: Impossible fame amble through Vidler's in a 60-second spot extolling the bank's old-fashioned style. "Holy smoke, it was like a whole new world," says Ed. "We had an explosion of people." Even now, people come in and say they remember the store from the commercial.
Vidler's went on to make its own TV spots, feature Ed and Bob - who came back tot he store in 1987 and retired

PENNY CANDY, CALICO,
AND A NEW MARKETING BOSS

Life has not been kind to small-town America. Main streets everywhere, it seens, have died, as old-fashioned shops offering personal service have been put out of business by discount emporiums that have the low prices combined with variety and convenience that folks demand these days.
That's not so true in East Aurora, N.Y., a village of 6,600 people about 20 miles southeast of Buffalo. On Main Street in this bucolic town, just down from the feed store and across from the Art Deco movie theater, is Vidler's 5&10, selling everything from pins to pots to penny candy, just as it has for 63 years. The family-run store, with its original brass cash registers, wood foors, had-lettered signs, and a scale that gives your weight and fortune for a penny, seems almost frozen in time.
ARTSY-CRAFTSY. Growing up in East Aurora,visits to Vidler's where a treat for me. There was always a welcoming Vidler behind the counter then - and there still is today. The third-generation Vidler at the register is Beverly, my childhood friend and the daughter of second-generation proprietor Edward. Until three years ago, it looked as if Vidler's might not pass on to a third generation. Bev's brother, Donald, left for college and never came back. Today, he's a New York-based marketing manager for the Tencel Div. of Courtaulds Fibers, Inc. Bev

stepped out from behind the counter at 13 and didn't think she would ever return to work at the store - ior East Aurora. After high school, she earned a business degree at Northeastern Univeristy and went into marketing at a software company near Boston.
But Bev proved you can go home again. Three years ago, at 37, she'd had enough of the corporate grind. She wanted to run her own show, and Vidler's was her best shot. Still, it took soul-searching. "e;Let's face it, small-town life is not exactly exciting,"e; she says.
Established in 1818, East Aurora, now best-known as corporate home of Fisher-Price and Moog Inc., gained some renown at the trun of the century as a center of the Arts & Crafts movement. Elbert Hubbard, philosopher and author, based his Roycroft Press here. The Roycroft buildings still draw tourists.
Robert S. Vidler Sr., a Wyoming native, came to East Aurora, his bride's home town, in 1930. He soon noticed that people were driving all the way to Buffalo every time they needed a spool of thread. So, even as the Depression was taking hold, he decided to open a store.

BUSINESS WEEK/NOVEMBER 8,1993

Letter From East Aurora, N.Y.
		Local merchanges figured he would last six weeks. Because his family didn't want their name associated with a flop, the store at first was called "The Fair 5&10". Not until 1946 did he feel confident enough to call it Vidler's. AISLE OF DREAMS. The store prospered - modestly. Robert Sr. didn't believe in debt, and he passed that conviction on to Ed and his other son, Bob, who also worked in the business. Bev's mother, Ginny, worked in the store, too. Bev and I spen hours there, reading comics and munching on the penny candy that Mrs. Vidler dispensed - to keep us out of trouble. Back then, the store was only 900 square feet. It stayed small until 1977, when Ed bought the building next door. He candidly admits taht the main reason the store has retained the old-fashioned look that now attracts tourists is that the family was too cheap to change it. "We got an estimate in the 1950s toput on a glass front and a big sign, like everyone was doing then - really modernize the place," he says. But the price, $25,000, was way too rich for Vidler blood. "We just went out and bought a sign for $50." Fortuen struck in 1980, when Buffalo's Liberty Bank, now defunct, wanted to make a TV commercial featuring a longtime business customer. It picked Vidler's. For 18 months, prime-time couch potatoes around Buffalo saw actor Peter Graves of Mission: Impossible fame amble through Vidler's in a 60-second spot extolling the bank's old-fashioned style. "Holy smoke, it was like a whole new world," says Ed. "We had an explosion of people." Even now, people come in and say they remember the store from the commercial. Vidler's went on to make its own TV spots, feature Ed and Bob - who came back tot he store in 1987 and retired
PENNY CANDY, CALICO, AND A NEW MARKETING BOSS
Life has not been kind to small-town America. Main streets everywhere, it seens, have died, as old-fashioned shops offering personal service have been put out of business by discount emporiums that have the low prices combined with variety and convenience that folks demand these days. That's not so true in East Aurora, N.Y., a village of 6,600 people about 20 miles southeast of Buffalo. On Main Street in this bucolic town, just down from the feed store and across from the Art Deco movie theater, is Vidler's 5&10, selling everything from pins to pots to penny candy, just as it has for 63 years. The family-run store, with its original brass cash registers, wood foors, had-lettered signs, and a scale that gives your weight and fortune for a penny, seems almost frozen in time. ARTSY-CRAFTSY. Growing up in East Aurora,visits to Vidler's where a treat for me. There was always a welcoming Vidler behind the counter then - and there still is today. The third-generation Vidler at the register is Beverly, my childhood friend and the daughter of second-generation proprietor Edward. Until three years ago, it looked as if Vidler's might not pass on to a third generation. Bev's brother, Donald, left for college and never came back. Today, he's a New York-based marketing manager for the Tencel Div. of Courtaulds Fibers, Inc. Bev	stepped out from behind the counter at 13 and didn't think she would ever return to work at the store - ior East Aurora. After high school, she earned a business degree at Northeastern Univeristy and went into marketing at a software company near Boston. But Bev proved you can go home again. Three years ago, at 37, she'd had enough of the corporate grind. She wanted to run her own show, and Vidler's was her best shot. Still, it took soul-searching. "e;Let's face it, small-town life is not exactly exciting,"e; she says. Established in 1818, East Aurora, now best-known as corporate home of Fisher-Price and Moog Inc., gained some renown at the trun of the century as a center of the Arts & Crafts movement. Elbert Hubbard, philosopher and author, based his Roycroft Press here. The Roycroft buildings still draw tourists. Robert S. Vidler Sr., a Wyoming native, came to East Aurora, his bride's home town, in 1930. He soon noticed that people were driving all the way to Buffalo every time they needed a spool of thread. So, even as the Depression was taking hold, he decided to open a store.