Here we go.

My love affair with Marden's has undergone several phases. As a kid in the '80s, it was the place I never wanted to be seen with my parents but secretly loved because I could find cool stuff there and actually convince my parents to let me get it. By the time I hit high school, I became resolved that all my friends shopped there anyway, so I might as well suck it up and admit I loved it. (This admission was aided by my brother's employee discount during his high school-long tenure in the Marden's hardware department. It didn't hurt that the discount encouraged my folks to spring for an ever-so-slightly scratched hot tub.) I furnished my UMaine dorm room with a cheap futon from Marden's and bought my first set of real, non-plastic dishes for my first real, post-college apartment. Today, it's a combination of campy fun and necessity--seriously, who could turn down a pair of shoes for $4? Not this lady.

Marden's, for those uninitiated non-Mainers, is a large warehouse of surplus and salvage items at heavily discounted prices. You can buy beds, sofas, craft supplies, department store cast-offs, slightly irregular designer jeans, kitchenware, hardwood floors, closeout books, nonperishable food items, and, well...a bunch of other stuff. And, most recently, wedding gowns. Yup. If only I were getting married so I could say, "I got my wedding gown at Marden's for fifty bucks." (Don't feel too bad; I bought a strapless ball gown instead. Why? Because it was $25!)

But also, there's the fugly. Oh, the fugly. The faux-fur vests, spangled tube tops, and nicked ceramic figurines that populate Marden's sticky shelves, their orange price tags layered over with each price cut and deeper discount in a prolonged effort to UNLOAD all that crap. Sure, some people actually buy it--my dear, departed great-grandma's collection of porcelain jewelry boxes, gold-painted Virgin Mary plant pots, and oversized muumuus was unparalleled. Every Marden's trip (I average about one a week), there's something that makes me wonder aloud, who even manufactures this shit, let alone buys it? Recently, I decided to start documenting the adventure. Hope you join me!

Sarah