Saturday, November 6, 2010

After 64 years, Yankee Trader Closes


Yankee Trader closes

Novelty shop had been Downtown fixture for decades

Friday, November 5, 2010 11:47 AM

The Columbus Dispatch

Novelty and costume shop Yankee Trader has sold its last whoopee cushion.

A posting on the Downtown store's website today read "Store Closed," and calls to the shop went unanswered.

The store, at 463 N. High St., across from the Greater Columbus Convention Center, has been a landmark at that address for 44 years and was on Front Street for 20 years before that.

In August, store co-owner Lynette Howard told The Dispatch, "We might move. We don't know yet." Howard and her sister Debby Williams inherited the store 10 years ago from their late mother, Edith Holler.

Williams said in August that the sisters hoped to sell the 55,000-square-foot building and move to a smaller place with better parking.

When the property was first listed in 2008, broker CB Richard Ellis thought the prime real estate would be ideal for a "boutique" hotel.

But no one was interested, and the listing has expired since then.

"With the economy being as bad as it is, we're just not sure what we're going to do, " Howard said at the time.

A sign on the Yankee Trader store tells customers it has closed.
Eric Albrecht | Dispatch
A sign on the Yankee Trader store tells customers it has closed.
The Yankee Trader novelty and costume store has been a landmark on N. High Street for 44 years.


The Yankee Trader novelty and costume store has been a landmark on N. High Street for 44 years.

tferan@dispatch.com

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