Doug Arnold, Mitchell’s Department Store – Model Railroading – Fairfax Shopping Center – 6/3/1982

Doug Arnold, Mitchell’s Department Store – Model Railroading – Fairfax Shopping Center on the Concord Pike

DELAWARE TOUCHSTONE MITCHELL’S TO CLOSE
SUNDAY NEWS JOURNAL – AUG 10, 2008

Mitchell’s, the Fairfax family store whose name for generations of Delawareans conjures up sweet childhood memories of Halloween costumes, Christmas toys and marvelous model trains, said Tuesday it was closing its doors after 55 years. The plan now is to close the store at the end of October. The store will liquidate the inventory. The going-out-of-business sale began. “It’s a bummer. It really is a bummer,” said Joe Mitchell Jr., who co-manages Mitchell’s Trains, Toys & Hobbies in Fairfax Shopping Center on U.S. 202. “It’s a heartbreaking thing for the family to go through. But it’s a sign of the times.” Mitchell, whose grandparents, the late John “Ray” and Hannah Mitchell, opened the store in the shopping center on July 3, 1953, and were a constant presence in the shop, said sales have declined slowly for the past seven or eight years. There is no single reason for the closing, but the downturn in the economy and the difficulty in being a family-owned, independent store hasn’t helped, Mitchell said.

From Focus Delaware 6/3/1982

“Focus Delaware” aired on Rollins Cablevision & WNS-TV Channel 2 and WTGI Channel 61 from 1980 to 1987 and was hosted by Bob Weiner.

More info here: https://www.focusdelaware.com/