Friday, December 11, 2015
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THE GAZETTE, EMPORIA, KANSAS
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WIZARDS
MADNESS
From PAGE 1
From PAGE 1
The music portion of her
business flourished with
cassette tapes and then CDs
— until music was available
on the Internet.
“The music business
at that time, because they
couldn’t steal it or anything
off the Internet, you had
to go buy it (in store),” she
said. “That’s what’s causing
the downfall of literally everything. I never understood
how so many people I knew,
they got on the Internet in
the last 10 years and then it
was alright for them to steal
stuff and give it to their kids.”
The dawn of the Internet
forced Werts to cut back on
her music.
“(Customers) would
come in and I would say ‘you
gotta be able to order three
or four,’” she said. “We had
to have at least 20 to 25 CDs
in a delivery because freight
was outrageous and albums
are expensive. Music’s expensive. Otherwise, you’re going
to lose all this profit on it.”
Werts said she also used
to sell tickets to Sandstone
Amphitheater in Kansas
City, which is now called
Cricket Wireless Amphitheater. That, too, stopped when
Internet sales took over.
“The Internet changed
the industry,” she said.
As the music dwindled,
she expanded into body jewelry and began selling disc
golf products. She was the
first store to sell disc golf
products in town, she said,
and once had an entire wall
of disc golf products.
“The disc golf guys would
come in for the tournaments,” she said.
She also sold T-shirts,
body jewelry, posters —
which eventually evolved
into tapestries, incense and
burners.
“My sisters and I go out for
dinner first and then shop
for several hours. We find
great deals on local items
and get most of our Christmas shopping done. We always end up finding a few
items for ourselves as well.”
There were seven retailers that took part in the winter event for the first time:
French Lily, Sole Mates,
M&M Military Surplus,
Time Travelers Clock Re-
BRANDY NANCE/GAZETTE
Wizards store owner Susan Werts looks through some
merchandise Wednesday. The store, located at 1508
W. Sixth Ave., has been open since the early 1980s and
will close permanently once merchandise is liquidated
beginning next week.
While conducting an interview with The Gazette,
Werts had an unexpected
customer. Krystal Sweat,
stopped into the store, not
aware of their closure, driving from Council Grove.
While the store wasn’t officially open on Wednesday,
Werts took the time to help
Sweat.
“I drove down here just to
go to Wizards,” Sweat said,
adding that the quality of the
merchandise kept her coming back for the past several
years.
In April, Werts closed her
doors.
“It was not making
enough money,” she said.
“There just wasn’t enough
people coming in. If you’re
only making $95 a day, go
home now.”
Werts said it’s the customers she’ll miss the most. She
started out with college and
high school kids coming in
and they came back, bringing
their kids and grandkids —
she served three generations.
“The grandparents would
come in here with their
list and get mad because
they had to wait in line (for
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CDs),” she said. “Because
they couldn’t get it anywhere
else.”
The building has sold, so
Werts decided it was time to
liquidate the merchandise.
The store will be open from
11 a.m. to 6 p.m. starting
Monday and will be open
through Friday as long as
merchandise is still available.
She may consider being open
into the next week as well.
“If they keep coming in,
I’ll still be open,” she said.
All sales next week will be
cash only. Body jewelry will
be half off and several other
items are for sale as well, including CDs, candles, clothing, incense, window decals,
vinyl, boxed sets, posters and
many other items.
COUNTY
From PAGE 1
“This has been kind of
an exciting and enlightening experience for me,
you know, we’ve been
working on this for three
to four years of meetings
of ‘how can we help you?’
... I would say selfishly, attending these meetings
to help the university and
create a bigger population
in Lyon County through
the scholarship program
is a great thing, both from
the economic scale plus
the university is going to
be stronger, which is also
good for the community.
But selfishly, as a commissioner, I look to have a
higher educated workforce.
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pair, Rhinestones and Rust,
Wooden Arrow Boutique
and Twin Rivers Winery
and Gourmet Shoppe. The
National Teachers Hall of
Fame and Cradle to