Asked if it isn’t a little unusual for a gas station to be selling expensive toys and used vacuums, Zeke Kaji, who owns the Marathon station at the “V” where Maple and W. Stadium come together, counters: “Costco is selling gas. Is that usual?
“It’s just something I like,” he says of the display of neatly reconditioned vacuums in assorted brands in one corner of his store. A Dyson is priced at $120. “It goes for $400 or $500 new,” he says. Why does he like vacuums? “I like them because I make a little money on them,” he says patiently. “That’s what business is about.”
When it comes to the brand-new remote-controlled toys in cellophane boxes around the perimeter of his shop, his face lights up: “Hey, who doesn’t like toys?” He said he added both the vacuums and toys in the last year. He won’t say who is supplying him with the used vacuums, but wherever he got them, it’s handy to have them around, now that Dick Sampier has closed his vacuum repair shop behind Stadium Hardware.
Stadium Store, Inc. (Marathon), 2445 W. Stadium, 662-5608. Mon.-Sat. 7 a.m.-11 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m.-10 p.m.
