Donalds: History and Who We Are Today

Donalds has been selling distinctive and unique gifts and collectables to the Appleton shopper since August 1954. Donald Crabb set up shop in Valley Fair, Appleton’s first mall. He sold furniture, Grandfather clocks, flatware, silverware, crystal, glassware and collectables. The furniture included sofas, chairs, dinette sets, tables, curio cabinets and wrought iron sets. In 1967 Kirk Nichols (a then young lad of 16) was hired to deliver and setup the furniture and Grandfather clocks. He also brought order to the store’s inventory and warehouse system. Don, Kirk and Donalds thrived for many years at Valley Fair. However in the late 1970’s the retail tide was changing in the Appleton area. Consumers were shopping College Avenue more and more and the store at Valley Fair less and less. Don read the hand writing on the wall and sought a location on College Avenue. He rented space at 204 E. College Avenue (an old pharmacy) and moved his store. Don and Kirk opened the doors to Donalds on the avenue on July 1, 1977. By this time the focus of the store had changed and the only furniture sold were curio cabinets. The main focus now was on Grandfather clocks, fine gifts and collectables. For several years Donalds had been working with the Fox Valley Tech Interior Design Department to have students intern for a 6 week period in the store. The program requires Interior Design students to intern with three different area businesses before graduating from the program. Enter one such student. In November of 1977, I (Sue Sturm) started my third and final internship at Donalds. My six week internship was interrupted by the Christmas break. Don, upon hearing that I was remaining in town during the break, asked me if I wanted to earn some money working at the store during the holiday break. Thus started a 27 year friendship and holiday tradition. In the 27 years that I have been the holiday help at Donalds, Don has only owed me more money than I owed him on one occasion. I joke that I get to pay for the privilege to work at Donalds. I often tease Don, saying that he continued to hire me more because I am such a good customer while I am working there, rather than because I am such a good sales person. Donalds survived a fire in 1981 that wiped out W.A Close Menswear and a flood in 1984 resulting from a bathtub over flow, in an upstairs apartment, when it was left running for two days. However time marches on and on May 16th, 2005 I received a call from Don informing me that he was retiring and going out of business. I was in the store that very afternoon and one week later Don, Kirk, my accountant and I had reached an agreement. As of July 1st, 2005 I bought the inventory and the right to continue to use the Donalds name. Kirk agreed to join me as my partner and to continue to manage Donalds. Kirk and I saw what Don had seen back in 1977. The retail tide in Appleton has shifted again. We sought a new location for the next generation of Donalds. Our search for additional space and more consumer traffic lead us to Trasino Centre. The move will allow us to expand our showroom space from 1,800 sq. ft. to 3,300 sq. ft.. Our Grand Opening is scheduled to start on Tuesday, November 1st, 2005 and run until Saturday, November 5th. Some of the lines we carry are Lladro, Harmony Kingdom, Peggy Karr, Tom Clark, Nambe’, Cybis, Andrea Sadek, Royal Copenhagen, Hummel, FireLite, Artisan House and Bovano. We sell paperweights, pewter, crystal, music boxes, chess sets, jewelry boxes, and kaleidoscopes, stain glass lamps, sun catchers, metal sculptures, and much much more.