Archie McPhee
American novelty dealer From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Archie McPhee is a Seattle-based novelty dealer owned by Mark Pahlow. Begun in the 1970s in Los Angeles as the mail-order business Accoutrements, in 1983 it opened a retail outlet dubbed "Archie McPhee" after Pahlow's wife's great-uncle.[1]
| |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Novelty dealer |
| Founded | 1983 |
Key people | Mark Pahlow, owner |
| Products | Assorted novelty items |
| Website | mcphee |
History
Mark Pahlow began selling "quirky and unusual items" in the 1970s through a mail-order business named Accoutrements that was based in Los Angeles.[1][2] The company opened their first retail outlet in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle in July 1983; the store was named Archie McPhee for Pahlow's wife's great-uncle, a jazz musician and jokester.[1][3] The company's main warehouse and offices opened in 1996 at a suburban business park in Mukilteo.[2] The Archie McPhee store relocated in 1999 to a larger storefront in the city's Ballard neighborhood.[4] The company later bought a neighboring liquor store that it converted into a home decor store named "More Archie McPhee".[1][3] In 2009, the store moved to a smaller space in Wallingford.[5]
Products
The company's line expanded from rubber chickens to glow-in-the-dark aliens, bacon-scented air freshener, and hula-girl swizzle sticks among other items. It became a popular Seattle tourist destination[6] while maintaining enough countercultural credentials that Ben & Jerry's Wavy Gravy ice cream was introduced at a party on the premises in 1993.[7]
Its kitsch appeal received further national attention from the Librarian Action Figure. In 2002, Nancy Pearl told Pahlow over dinner that librarians like herself "perform miracles every day".[8] Pearl later posed for a 13 cm hard plastic doll,[9] and librarians from all around the world registered their dismay at its "amazing push-button shushing action!"[10]
Archie McPhee has since been featured in Scientific American's "Technology and Business" review[11] and Time magazine's fifty coolest websites of 2005.[12] In 2018, Archie McPhee opened the Rubber Chicken Museum inside its Wallingford location.[13]
See also
Further reading
- Mark Pahlow with Gibson Holub and David Wahl, Who Would Buy This? The Archie McPhee Story, Seattle: The Accoutrements Publishing Co., 2008, ISBN 978-0-9786649-7-8.
References
External links
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