For decades, American Science & Surplus has served as a hub for DIY projects, science lovers and stargazers. The stores, which have locations in Milwaukee and Illinois, nearly closed this year.
The previous owner, Pat Meyer, started a GoFundMe in May, raising almost $200,000 to keep stores open. But when efforts failed to reduce inventory and relocate its warehouse, Meyer stepped down as owner.
He said the stores would either close or be taken over by employees. That’s how former store manager Kim Stenglein took over the Milwaukee location. Stenglein tells WUWM’s Eddie Morales about how a challenging economy is shaping the store’s inventory and future.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Eddie Morales: What changes have you seen over the years not just with the customer base, but also with the economy?
Kim Stenglein: This is a perfect example, something that's coming up a lot this year is we are currently not selling telescopes. We've been pretty much the only place in town the whole time I've worked here that did. You could go in and buy telescopes year-round, but they are no longer a profitable venue for us.
When I started here 22 years ago, that first Christmas I worked here, we had our annual telescope and microscope sale. That first year, I got here in the morning before open, and we had a line of 15-20 people outside waiting to come in and buy their telescopes and microscopes. Now if we sell — even the week before Christmas — if we sell three to five telescopes, that's what we're down to now.
So, just a shift in how people are purchasing, I think. We all know the story. We all know what happened — Amazon came around and brick-and-mortars have been struggling and we have to curtail what we are selling and opt to not sell certain lines as well, just because they're not as profitable.
So when did you realize that you wanted to step in as the new owner and how did that transition come together?
It was honestly something that wasn't even on my radar. The thought of the store going out of business was sad to me, but I knew what the future was about to be, and accepted it, and was ready to move on to something else. Then the owner came to me after about two months with the GoFundMe going on and asked if I would be interested in purchasing the store.
In all honesty, my answer was "no" right off the bat because it's a huge undertaking and it was really scary. But as we saw that the end was in sight, there was no coming back for the main company, American Science & Surplus. My mind changed. I didn't want the store to close. It was not really about me staying here so much as me wanting the store to stay open.
What has the customer feedback been like since then? I mean, you've talked about some people just not even knowing if the store is open or not.
We have had a decline in foot traffic and people just think that the whole company closed. That is a lot of the feedback we get. I would say three to five customers a day come in and say to a staff member, "Oh, we're so glad you're still here, we heard you closed." That is kind of what we're combating right now.
So as people are finding their way back to us, they have been very appreciative. I have multiple customers a day coming up just to say "thank you" for keeping the store open. For the most part, everybody in the store has been wonderfully supportive and positive.
When it comes to the challenges of the current state of the economy, is there anything that impacts the store specifically? Things like tariffs, is that something that is affecting the store at all?
Well, you mentioned tariffs. Having just started doing the purchasing for the store myself, the last two months have been very eye-opening for me. When I purchase things and I enter them into the system, I can see what we paid for them six months ago. I can see what we paid for them two years ago. Many of our vendors have increased the cost on products minimum 10% and some of them up to 20%.
So a pretty significant increase in the cost of goods from this time last year to now. Obviously that means we have to raise our prices while not trying to raise them too much that we're pricing people out of being able to afford them. It's something that I have been focusing on a lot myself. So I'm looking at choosing items with a good value that are still a good quality item.
