Bargains are Marden’s business

By Harold “Ham” Marden
Marden’s President
    HOULTON — At a time when “e” malls are replacing “the” malls, when million dollar corporations merge forming billion dollar corporations and corner stores have long given way to mega-one-stop shopping centers, it is refreshing to learn that a family-owned business is still alive and thriving in Maine.
    More than 40 years ago, Mickey Marden started a business with one simple philosophy: buy great stuff and sell it cheap. That’s it. His only rule was: “Don’t buy anything you have to feed.”
    He thought of himself more as a treasure hunter than a retailer. You see, he found goods in some unlikely places and in ways regular retailers would consider unusual — bankruptcy courts, train wrecks, salvage losses, floods, earthquakes, small fires and the overflowing warehouses of the country’s finest manufacturers.
    When he started, Marden was working out of a small Fairfield auction house. People bought the goods he’d bring in. They told their friends and those friends told their friends and pretty soon he opened his first store in Waterville. Today, we sell bargains from Sanford to Presque Isle.
    We’re always expanding, but we stay focused on what got us here: bargains. We’ve got a lot of merchandise at great prices. Our intention is, item for item, that nobody will beat our price and that’s the truth.
    We also sell everything with a money-back guarantee. Some have said, “They do business the old-fashioned way.” We just call it doing business the “right way.”
    If you’re already a Marden’s shopper, we appreciate your business. And if you never shopped Marden’s, we invite you to stop in for a treasure-hunting experience.
    To the question, “What’s in store for Marden’s in the new millennium?” The family has one simple answer: more of the same. Plans are for the company to continue to grow.
    When Mickey went into this business, he had a simple philosophy: “There is a buyer for anything at the right price.” Since 1964, he seems to have found the right price. Thank you for shopping at our stores.