Customers shop at Marden’s in Scarborough. Generations of Mainers said they have furnished their homes and outfitted their families with products sold by the surplus and salvage chain since it opened its first shop in Fairfield in 1964. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Justin Towle just might be Marden’s No. 1 fan.

He caught the bug shopping with his mom at the surplus and salvage store in Presque Isle, where he grew up. Now, he’s an almost weekly patron of the Brewer location, near his home in Kenduskeag.

The 32-year-old software sales executive has a dedicated email folder to keep track of Marden’s new inventory announcements. He also has a network of friends who text each other if they spot other great deals.

Justin Towle stands by his backyard garden in Kenduskeag, where he installed wire fencing purchased at a bargain price at Marden’s Surplus & Salvage last spring. He’s also wearing a shirt, vest, gloves and corduroy pants that he bought at the Maine chain’s Brewer store. Photo by Maci Towle

He and his wife, Maci, a Marden’s convert, regularly find fabulous bargains on clothes, shoes, home goods, fishing gear, garden tools, landscaping supplies – the list goes on. Last spring they got a 100-foot roll of wire fencing for $40 to keep critters out of their vegetable garden. He figures they saved at least $70.

“I love Marden’s,” Towle said unabashedly in a phone interview. “I love the adventure of it. It’s the thrill of the chase. Sometimes you don’t find anything and that’s OK. But it’s the best place to find things you didn’t know you needed.”

Sixty years after the first Marden’s Surplus & Salvage opened in Fairfield, we asked readers to tell us about their best finds and worst regrets as customers of the now 13-store chain — and they delivered.

Several generations of Mainers have plied the cramped aisles and scuffed shelves to stock their pantries, furnish their homes and businesses, and outfit their families for celebrations, sporting events, outdoor adventures and every first day of school since 1964.

“I started a business with one simple philosophy: buy great stuff and sell it cheap,” founder Mickey Marden quipped in a quote on the family-owned company’s website. He died in 2002 at age 76.

The most devoted and successful customers have developed warrior-like shopping strategies reflecting the company’s regret-filled jingle, “I should have bought it when I saw it at Marden’s.”

Jennifer Richard looks through clothing at Marden’s in Scarborough. Richard lives near Manchester, New Hampshire, but said she drives up to go to Marden’s every few months. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

But veteran shoppers like Towle say it’s critical to modulate the urge to buy things you don’t need and likely won’t use — a habit that can erase any significant savings over time.

“The most important skill within the boundaries of our state’s most sacred chain is having the wherewithal to walk out empty-handed if nothing speaks to you,” he said.

LONG-LASTING SATISFACTION

Many customers said they still enjoy Marden’s purchases from decades ago. Some recalled the exact year they bought them and the prices they paid.

Marden’s in Scarborough. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

In 1999, Joan Belsky Barkin bought chic Dolce & Gabbana slacks at the Brewer Marden’s that she still wears. Willy Ritch paid $125 for an original 4-by-5-foot impressionistic landscape painting that still hangs in his Portland home.

Jenn Buckingham was elated to wear this 90210-style dress to her junior prom at Skowhegan Area High School in 1993. She paid $40 for it at the Waterville Marden’s. Photo courtesy of Jenn Buckingham 

Jenn Buckingham bought a dress for her junior prom at Skowhegan Area High School in 1993 at the Waterville Marden’s.

Made of blue satin, sequins and lace, with a bow spanning the off-the-shoulder neckline, the dress made her feel like a character on her favorite TV show at the time. And it only cost $40.

“It was straight of out of ‘90210’ and exactly what Brenda and Kelly were wearing, but I did not pay the price they would have paid,” said Buckingham, 48, a mental health clinician who lives in West Bath with her husband and son.

“My parents decked out the whole house from Marden’s, which I didn’t appreciate then, but I do now,” she said. “My mom still goes every week just to see what they have. I bought my son’s crib there.”

Jenny Yasi and her husband, Albert Presgraves, raised two children on Peaks Island in a house she likes to say the former Portland Marden’s built. Typical purchases included mattresses, flooring, sunglasses, clothing and shoes. She fondly remembers a pair of blaze orange platform sandals.

She especially appreciated the chain’s annual stock of winter coats.

“All the years my kids were growing up, I could always depend on Marden’s to have great quality winter coats and snowsuits for the kids for very, very reasonable prices,” said Yasi, 65.

Jenny Yasi and Albert Presgraves at their home in Freeport. Yasi said she has been going to Marden’s for decades. “We always say this is the house that Marden’s built,” she said with a smile. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Now, Yasi and Presgraves live in Freeport but still shop regularly at the Scarborough Marden’s, where they bought vinyl flooring for her home business as a certified professional dog trainer and furnishings for their Airbnb suite.

And school supplies that she previously bought for her kids she now purchases for asylum seekers in her community.

The chain attracts bargain hunters from all economic backgrounds. Some have incorporated shopping at multiple Marden’s into their social lives.

Jennifer and Rob Libby, of Windham, sometimes visit a few Marden’s in one day. She’s treasurer of a global tech communications company and he’s a building contractor. One recent birthday trip took them to the Marden’s in Madawaska, at the top of Aroostook County.

“It’s kind of our thing,” said Libby, 39. “Some days we’ll just take off and hit a few Marden’s to see what we’ll find. I know it sounds ridiculous, but it’s fun.”

Libby admits she can afford to pay more, but she enjoys the thrill of finding a good bargain.

“I like to say I have Pottery Barn taste on a Goodwill budget,” she said. “Most of the stuff in my house, if you flip it over, you’ll find a little orange sticker from Marden’s.”

One of her latest scores is a 6-foot diameter artificial evergreen wreath that adorns their barn. She got it for $30. They retail for $100 and up.

A dog named Winky steps outside of the enclosed porch at Jenny Yasi’s home in Freeport. Yasi trains dogs, including Winky, and the enclosed porch where the dogs stay has a floor Yasi bought at Marden’s. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Libby was a kid when she started shopping at Marden’s with her mom, Robyn Donovan, 61, of Portland, a dental assistant who now visits the Scarborough store weekly. Often they plan to meet there. Sometimes they bump into each other unexpectedly.

Recently they both got $400 designer dresses that they wore to a family wedding.

“I paid $15 for mine,” Donovan said. “It was gorgeous. They leave the original tags on so you can see how much you saved.”

OASIS IN A DESERT

In truth, not every Mainer loves or even shops at Marden’s. The chain lost its shine for some who weren’t fans of former Gov. Paul LePage, a controversial political figure who was general manager of the chain from 1996 until he took office in 2011.

Some who responded to the Press Herald’s request for Marden’s memories questioned the quality of merchandise and noted a lack of real deals lately.

Ham Marden, company president and CEO, said quality and price remain priorities for the chain, which includes stores in Houlton, Lincoln, Calais, Ellsworth, Lewiston, Gray, Biddeford and Sanford.

Robyn Donovan, of Portland, said she has been coming to Marden’s for as long as she can remember. She said she often comes with her daughter and always checks Marden’s before buying something somewhere else. “You never know what you’re gonna find,” she said. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

The company sources its items from factory and store closeouts, surplus and discounted product lines, and trailers full of goods salvaged from insured business losses.

But Marden admits that it’s harder to offer great buys these days, in part because modern construction codes have reduced insurance losses caused by fire, floods and other disasters. Still, he said his buyers strive to find deals and act quickly to bring desirable merchandise to Maine.

Marden’s recently scored two trailers full of designer ski jackets from a closeout in California that sold quickly, he said, and seven trailers of laboratory cabinets salvaged from a fire in Massachusetts.

“Some people in Maine are going to have the classiest garages in the country,” said Marden, son of the founder. “We try to offer very affordable prices on decent quality items. The people who keep getting the terrific deals are often looking for them.”

People wait in line to pay at Marden’s in Scarborough. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

And many Marden’s customers said they’re still finding great deals, including Liz Snowdon, who paid 88 cents for a 100-count box of utility knife blades that originally cost $30. “I’m still working through them,” she said.

Other readers’ favorite finds included ski boots, golf clubs, a children’s bouncy house, an $800 Tumi suitcase for $75, an inflatable hot tub, a 5-gallon bucket of nutritional yeast for $5, Dansko clogs and a Crate & Barrel leather headboard.

Shane Bell, of Gorham, got a PlayStation 5 at the Scarborough Marden’s for just $369 in 2021, when they were extremely hard to find and selling online for as much as $800, he said.

“I was out holiday shopping. I went in for something else and I was shocked to see them just sitting there,” Bell said. “I got one of the last ones and they sold out before I left the store.”

Joe Allen shops at Marden’s with his sister Jennifer Richard. Richard said she grew up going to the Marden’s in Sanford where her great-uncle worked. Brianna Soukup/Portland Press Herald

Peter Coleman got a great deal on a computer graphics processing unit at the Scarborough Marden’s in 2022, when they were out of stock nationwide. He paid a “nicely discounted” $475 for a unit that usually sold for $619 and scalpers were selling for $700-$800, he said.

“They had tons of them, like an oasis in the desert,” Coleman said in an email. “You have to check out Marden’s with regularity and expect to find nothing. Eventually, karma will be in your favor and you’ll strike gold.”

And just a few weeks ago, LeRay Pepper-Poore, of Cape Elizabeth, got two pairs of Soludos leather sneakers for $20 each. When she got home, she checked online and learned they sell for $139.

“I love to check out the shoe department,” she said. “Usually I procrastinate before a purchase. This time I was thrilled that I bought them when I saw them!”