 S
The Imperial Emperor greets visitors
to the shop. Don Sucher moved the store into his home in 1998
after three years in downtown Aberdeen, and is now back downtown. Photos by Andrea Abney.
Wise in the ways of the force
Aberdeen's Don Sucher
takes 'Star Wars' love to a new level with his home-based store
By Andrea Abney
Vidette Reporter
This article first appeared in 2002
To say the Force is strong in this one would be an understatement.
To say he's addicted may be a bit more to the point.
Don Sucher runs the Sucher & Sons Star Wars Shop, just outside
of Aberdeen on Highway 12. He's had the store since 1995, moving
it from downtown Aberdeen to the first floor of his home in 1998,
while he and his family live upstairs.
"It's kind of interesting, but it works really, really good,"
he said.
The store moves beyond a retail establishment, though, and into
the realm of a museum. Sucher estimated his memorabilia collection
at about 10,000 pieces, including magazines, figurines and models.
He also said his main aim with the store is not to turn a profit,
but rather to see the reaction of his customers, who have come
from as near as Aberdeen and as far as Japan and Russia.
"The way people, when they first walk in, regress to the
age when they had all this and the smiles on their faces is my
most favorite," he said. "They can't believe all this
stuff."
In the time he's had the store, Sucher, who describes his non-Star
Wars job as an industrial salesperson for a couple of different
stores, has discovered that Star Wars fans are universal - that
is, they're all "on the same wavelength."
"The fans are the same if they're from France, Germany or
America," he said.
Sucher began his collection in 1994. He said he always loved
Star Wars, but thought he was too old to collect the toys. When
the excitement began again with the filming of "The Phantom
Menace," his sons began to like the films and they began
to collect, going off "on a tangent."
"We let the genie out of the bottle," he said. "It
took on a life of its own."
About 80 percent of Sucher's merchandise is from the first three
films. After all, his favorite film is the first, which first
came out in 1977, and he guesses he's seen part or all of the
film about 1,000 times. The rest comes from The Phantom Menace,
which, after seeing 30 times during a six-month stretch, he calls
"pretty good."
"We would go to antique places and stores," he said.
"Word got out, so people called when they got something.
Now people call me from all over and want to know if I'm interested
in buying their stuff."
That publicity has led to one of Sucher's favorite stories, when
two women stopped in from Denver after they'd heard of his store.
It also led to the store being featured in the magazine Star
Wars Galaxy, in an article written by Steve Sansweet, the second
largest Star Wars collector after George Lucas and director of
fan relations for Lucasfilm, Ltd.
"It's insane," he said. "You don't think word
of it would spread like that."
The word of his store has now spread to places across the globe.
Sucher's had visitors from Finland, Sweden, Russia and, his favorite
story, a young woman from Japan. She had traveled to Aberdeen
to write her senior thesis about lead singer of the 1990s rock
band Nirvana and Aberdeen native Kurt Cobain, and was also into
the Star Wars films.
"Now she's corresponded and sent Japanese Star Wars stuff
and news," Sucher said.
Sucher attributes the widespread appeal of the films, and consequently
of his store, to simplicity.
"It's like non-violence, almost," he said. "You
know it happened, but it didn't really. It's like trying to tell
a stranger about rock and roll. It's hard to explain."
Another of his favorite stories involves birthday parties. Instead
of throwing a bash for some teenage fans, though, this was for
Boeing engineers in their late 30s. Or, there's the time he went
to a party and one man looked a little rough.
"I went after hours and said, 'I'm either going to get killed
here or they're going to buy a lot,'" he said.
They did buy a great deal, and Sucher now has the man's picture
on a door, among several other photos, standing next to a cutout
of Princess Leia.
Sucher's next move may be to move the Star Wars show from the
inside of his house to the outside.
"I'm going to paint my house to resemble the Death Star,"
he said. "You can see it a couple of miles away."
Despite the criticism and funny looks, and the occasional stranger
who drops by to sit through "The Return of the Jedi,"
Sucher said the store has been worth it, and he wouldn't take
any of it back.
"I guess what I was trying to do was keep it interesting,"
he said. "Life can get pretty dull. You never know who's
going to come in next.
"I couldn't make a living at it yet, but it's a fun thing
to do every day."
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