A mummy, one of the more unusual items for sale, Tuesday, April 3, 2018, at Chestnut Street Mercantile, 231 Chestnut Street in Lafayette. Chestnut Street Mercantile has an eclectic collection of items, from golf clubs, to furniture, to bicycles and more, all for sale. Proceeds benefit the YWCA and it's programs. (Photo: John Terhune/Journal & Courier)
LAFAYETTE – A sign over the door of the warehouse on a short stub of Chestnut Street – at one time where Minardo Bros. Fruit Wholesalers took shipments from boxcars rolling on rail lines a few feet away, and later home to Schnaible Service Supply Company – reads: “You Name It. We Got It.”
Which was pretty much the truth inside a 35,000-square-foot warehouse – with bonus footage in two balconies and a basement – Lafayette businessman Don Stein had lined with metal shelving and kept as a perpetual garage sale.
What exactly was there and where exactly it was? That was anyone’s guess at Surplus and Salvage, a place Stein converted in 2009 as a way to raise cash for the Lyn Treece Boys and Girls Club.
It was organized … to a degree.
Bangert: The formidable kindness of Don Stein
“I think Don knew where most of it was – or at least might have known,” said Connie Joy, who manages the newly renamed Chestnut Street Mercantile for the YWCA.
“That was his philosophy,” Joy said. “He took in anything and everything. And he never threw anything away. He always thought somebody would buy it. Somebody would need it.”
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