Legendary Chubby & Tubby plans to close this weekend

The shelves at Chubby & Tubby were becoming barer by the minute yesterday as customers made off with marked-down fishing poles, fertilizer and flip-flops.

But even as it prepared to close its doors after 56 years in business, the famed Rainier Valley variety store was still well-stocked with humor.

"Christmas is only 334 shopping days away," an employee proclaimed over the loudspeaker, tempting customers with Christmas lights, ornaments and stockings that, at 90 percent off, could be bought for pocket change.

After six weeks of liquidation sales, Chubby & Tubby will close its two remaining stores sometime this weekend after a last-minute clearance blitz. Yesterday, the mom-and-pop chain's stores on Rainier Avenue South and Aurora Avenue North were offering 70 to 90 percent discounts on everything from shoes to snail poison as marquee signs advertised the stores' "final days."

The stores could close as early as today, depending on how fast the merchandise goes, general manager Mike DiCecco said. The chain's Renton store shut down two weeks ago.

The company, owned by relatives of the late Irv "Chubby" Frese, is still working to sell the stores, DiCecco said. Whether they will reopen, and under what format, would be up to the buyer.

"The hope is to keep it as Chubby & Tubby," DiCecco said.

The two stores' 15 or so employees are holding out hope that they will be called back, but the company is offering no guarantees.

DiCecco said profits were down in recent years, caused in part by the recent economic downturn, competition from big-box stores and the 2001 closure of the chain's White Center store, which moved to Renton.

Lines ran a dozen deep yesterday at the chain's cluttered flagship store on Rainier, which was filled with spur-of-the-moment bargain hunters as well as longtime shoppers who stopped in for a last visit.

"It's not going to seem right not having Chubby & Tubby down here," said Rainier Valley resident Wendy Fortney, who has shopped at the store for more than 30 years. "You come in and it's so friendly.

"Those other stores, you've got to walk 20 miles and wait for someone to help you. Here, you can just walk in and say, 'Where is it?' And they'll get someone to help you."

Employees kept the mood light with a makeshift Chubby & Tubby trivia contest. Fortney won a free snow shovel by correctly answering the question, "When did Chubby & Tubby first open?"

The answer: 1947, when Frese and a friend, Woody "Tubby" Auge, opened a military-surplus hut in the lot of what was then a gas station. The pals were nicknamed by Frese's wife in honor of their ample physiques.

The business grew into a three-store chain known for its quirky array of merchandise, including its legendary cut-rate Christmas trees, which sold for 97 cents in the late 1940s and last month were going for as low as $5.99.

But the bargains have never been as deep as they were yesterday. Tony So, a Renton gardener, took advantage of a morning special on 20-pound bags of flower food — buy one, get three free — and stacked his cart with 20 bags of sustenance for his azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons.

"I came by on the right day," said So, who figures the food will last him five or six years as long as it doesn't get wet.

Snow shovels went for $3 each, Converse All-Star sneakers for $12 a pair. Signs beckoned customers with 70 percent discounts on goods ranging from sandals to raccoon traps to inflatable swimming pools.

South Beacon Hill resident Dale Johanson, 63, said he couldn't believe Chubby & Tubby was on the verge of closing. Johanson has been shopping at the store for shoes, fishing supplies and other knickknacks since he worked at nearby Sicks' Seattle Stadium as a boy.

"You knew what they had — good, solid stuff," said Johanson, a pair of thigh-high waders slung over his shoulder. "Stuff for the common man."

Jake Batsell: 206-464-2718 or jbatsell@seattletimes.com.