SHELDON, Iowa — Walk through the aisles in the Ben Franklin store here and you'll find many of the items you'd expect: toys, housewares, office supplies, greeting cards and assorted gifts.
You'll also find a wide selection of nostalgia.
Owner Phil Warnke says shoppers tell him his store smells like a Ben Franklin, and he laughs because he's not exactly sure what that would be.
Whatever the scent, Sheldon soon will be the only place in Iowa you'll be able to experience it. When the Ben Franklin in Eagle Grove closes in coming weeks, the store in Sheldon will be the last one in the state.
Phil and Lori Warnke stand in an aisle at the Ben Franklin store in downtown Sheldon, Iowa. Once a Ben Franklin store in Eagle Grove closes in…
As the number of Ben Franklins has dwindled, Warnke said he's been marketing happy memories to shoppers who remember a time when the general merchandise department store -- often referred to as five and dime stores because of the bargains said to be found inside -- could be found in many small to mid-size towns.
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"Most people in the Midwest grew up with a Ben Franklin in their town. It's a reminder of how things used to be," Warnke said. "You'll see their faces light up when they get out of the car because they're so excited to see one again."
The Ben Franklin name might not mean much to adults in their 20s or 30s unless they grew up near one of the stores, but older generations of shoppers drive to Sheldon from cities such as Omaha and Sioux Falls with the hope of finding a good buy, something Warnke said is hard to do at the big box stores.
"They go to the big chains and they know what they're going to get. They can find surprises here," Warnke said.
Phil and Lori Warnke stand in front of their Ben Franklin store in downtown Sheldon, Iowa. Phil Warnke estimates there once were about 100 Ben…
Warnke estimates there were about 100 Ben Franklins in Iowa (and about 2,500 nationwide) during the retail chain's heydays in the 1970s and '80s. The chain, which began as Butler Brothers wholesale suppliers in the 1880s before changing its name to Ben Franklin in the 1920s, went bankrupt in the 1990s.
Some stores closed. Other owners, who now were independent, renamed their stores.
That wasn't going to work for Warnke, a former manager at JC Penney stores in Sioux City, Ames and West Des Moines, who bought the Sheldon store with his wife, Lori, in October 1991. The Sheldon store started out as a Butler more than 100 years ago and has been downtown at 912 Third Ave. since the 1970s. The Warnkes knew that no matter what the sign out front said, local shoppers would still call it Ben Franklin.
"It was a fixture in the community," Warnke said.
Megan McCabe, a Sheldon Middle School teacher and her daughter Eloise Trejo, 10, shop at the Ben Franklin store in Sheldon, Iowa, for fabric t…
Growing up nearby in Sanborn, Warnke bought school supplies here when he was a kid, so he understands the attachment many of his customers have to the store. The Ben Franklin name offers familiarity. It's why Warnke believes he sees so many shoppers pull off Iowa Highway 60 while on their way to and from vacations at Lake Okoboji. For them, it might be something they've done for years, if not in Sheldon, in another town where Ben Franklin was a business district staple.
"Even though people have the internet and the Targets, the Wal-marts and the chains, they still come in here," Warnke said.
It's been that way at all the remaining Ben Franklins, he said. The owners of the last four that closed in Iowa all were in their 70s. Business was still good, but as the owners approached retirement, they couldn't find buyers who would keep the store going. It leads to the question of how long it might be before Ben Franklin no longer exists in Iowa.
"We'd like to run this store for several more years," Warnke said. "It's an extension of us. Our customers become part of our family. A lot of them were Ben Franklin customers years before we bought it."
Lori Hoffman, an eight-year employee at the Ben Franklin store in downtown Sheldon, Iowa, stocks Matchbox toys on a shelf at the store. Once t…
And with each closing Ben Franklin, Warnke gains more customers. As the remaining stores have closed, the Sheldon store gets publicity for being among the last of its kind. It doesn't take long for shoppers who frequented a recently closed Ben Franklin to find their way to Sheldon. After the store in Winterset closed in December, Warnke said, carloads of shoppers came to Sheldon.
"It's more nostalgic," he said. "It does draw people in that normally wouldn't come."
One of the Warnkes' friends once likened the remaining Ben Franklins to museums.
One does get a sense of retail history here. An intimacy fills the store's narrow aisles, and you have equal chances of running into a great buy or a longtime friend when you push your shopping cart into the next aisle.
It smells like a great recipe for business success.
Phil and Lori Warnke acknowledge a customer at their Ben Franklin store in downtown Sheldon, Iowa. The two, from Sanborn and Hospers, respecti…
The Ben Franklin store at 912 Third Ave. in downtown Sheldon, Iowa, soon will be the last Ben Franklin in Iowa. The chain has been in Sheldon …