Page 5 - FINAL EARLY SPRING 2019 SWHS Newsletter

Langley Mercantile n those days a grocery store smelled those who wished it sliced.
After his store burned in 1911, Ed Ilike a grocery store. That is, after it had Butter was a pro blem. We took it in
Howard moved his business, post of- been aired out in the morning by opening trade from our customers – some very
fice and living quarters into the Olym- the front and back doors. good and some that had to be thrown out.
pic Club across First Street. Early in the morning it smelled some-
He renamed the business the “Langley what of an oiled sweep ing compound Flour was mostly sold by the 49 pound
Mercantile and General Merchandise” which we used to lay the dust. But af- sack or by the barrel which was four
and hired son-in-law, Walter (below left), ter the sweeping and airing it smelled sacks. Potatoes were sold by the sack,
and Walter’s brother, William, (Bob) not unpleasantly of dried prunes, sharp and sugar by the 100 pound sack in can-
ning time.
Hunziker to run it. cheese, pickles in a barrel, brown sugar,
They sold a variety of dry goods, local and coffee beans which we kept in bins (Snohomish) Indians camped in the
produce, and merchandise (see excerpt at behind the counter. harbor near Langley Dock several times
right). They went out of business in part each year. They came in spring to gather
White sugar was also kept in a bin, and
because of extending too much credit, so were lots of other things such as navy cockles and smoke them over open fires
but began another short-lived store for beans and rice. We had canned fruits and on strings. In the fall they came to gather
two years across the street a few years vegetables. huckleberries and to hunt deer.
later in the Yeoman Building. We had a number of Indian customers
Crackers came in a barrel. We were the who came from Tulalip by canoe. The
first ones to ship in bread from Seat tle women would bring baskets and sox
and would get a couple of boxes of bread (sic) to trade for goods at our store. The
a week, altogether about 100 loaves. women knit the sox from handwoven
Customers never waited on them- wool; they were highly prized by loggers.
selves as of now. We carried one kind We gave them 50¢ in trade for them –
of cheese, Tillamook, which came in a and sold them for 75¢.
large round wheel. When it first arrived – From the memoirs of Walter Hunziker,
it would be mild, but after two or three Sr. who ran a grocery store in the
weeks it would be quite sharp. Olympic Club building (now the Dog
Bacon was sold in slabs or half slabs. House).
We had a cutter that was run by hand for

Before it became the Dog House
Tavern in 1937, this building
housed the Langley Mercantile
and General Merchandise store
for a couple of years followed
by Howard’s Confectionary and
several other enterprises.

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