It’s the end of an era. I’m trying to cope, but it’s hard to say goodbye. Or good-bye to good buys.
When a friend announced to me two weeks ago that Dirt Cheap was closing, I felt vital organs shutting down. She couldn’t be right! But the sign out front confirmed it: Store Closing.
Then friends starting texting me that same day: “Have you heard that Dirt Cheap is closing?” “What are you going to do?” “How are you coping?”
At church that night, women who knew my attachment to the store came up to ask me what I was going to do. I think they wanted to suggest grief counseling but thought it might be too late.
One friend even sent me a screen shot on our group text of the news article officially announcing the closing of all 68 Dirt Cheap stores. She suggested to the other three friends on the text that they all needed to get together and “do something” for me in my time of need. I think they were expecting me to be suicidal at the loss of my favorite store.
My first thought after receiving the text was more grief— Do you mean there were 68 stores out there all that time and I’ve only shopped in about 15 of them? Life is so unfair!
Dirt Cheap’s parent store actually began life in Magee. When we came here in 1979 it was on Main Avenue and everybody called it “the fire sale store.” I bought fabric there several times that I had to take home and wash to remove the smoke smell. The Hudson family started the store. Then they moved down on Hwy. 49 south and opened Hudson’s, where I also became a customer, buying clothes at a discount from places like Walmart, HSN and QVC.
Next they started a spin-off chain, calling it Dirt Cheap. I became a customer early. Something about the word “cheap” appeals to me.
Then began a long history of plowing through piles and racks of merchandise, looking for $3 shirts and $4 pants to put together $7 outfits. I found expensive pants and tops for $4 and $5 that sell for $148 in department stores. I bought wonderful Ralph Lauren sheet sets for $20.
Inflation raised the prices, but I could still dress myself dirt cheaply in a whole outfit for $15 and be quite happy with my choices.
Shopping at Dirt Cheap improved my overall shopping skills. I learned to dig and seek. Since you seldom find an outfit all put together for you there, I honed my imagination by thinking how I could use that weirdly patterned but ridiculously cheap top with something I already had at home— if I could find a $2 belt to pull the whole thing together. I branched out to try styles I hadn’t worn before, if they were cheap enough.
In addition to saving me money, my trips to Dirt Cheap also enhanced my social life. I could usually find a friend there to compare bargains with and check on their families. I met new people when they would ask me if I thought some garment was worth its $3 price. “Honey, if you can wear it once, it’s worth $3,” I would advise.
Being a Dirt Cheap shopper also enhanced my creativity. Each time I bought another pair of $4 black pants to add to my wardrobe because I couldn’t pass up the price, I had to create a reason that would convince my husband that every woman needed 20 pairs of black pants. Or 21.
I found bargains tucked everywhere! I bought a skirt there one year but found nothing to go with it. A year later, I was back pushing my cart down an aisle when I bumped over something in the floor. Grumbling, I kicked it out of the way, wondering why people don’t pick things up. Then I realized—it was the matching top to my skirt! I took it home, washed the buggy tire print out of it, and happily wore it with its matching skirt!
I found a shower curtain for $1 that I used to upholster an ottoman. I bought a $5 bedspread and cut it up to make a throw and two pillow shams for a bedroom.
About two years ago I heard that a Canadian company had bought Dirt Cheap. Then I noticed signs advertising “luxury department store” goods with high prices and just a percentage taken off — like 30 percent on a $100 dollar jacket. That’s not what this store is about, I thought. In the first place, I’m an Olympic level shopper. I knew I could get that jacket at its original store for 50 percent off or more. Dirt Cheap fans are looking for BIG discounts.
Then Covid came along and changed America’s buying habits—dressing rooms were locked, the employees didn’t show up for work to run the cash registers, people started buying more online. I think when Target, where much of DC’s merchandise came from, picked a different chain of stores to sell their surplus to, it sounded the death knell for my favorite discount store.
I’ll get over it. They won’t close immediately. I’ll just keep wearing the hundreds of $3 clothes I’ve already bought there. Life goes on. Maybe.
—R.I.P., Dirt Cheap—
