Family-owned Johnson County appliance store is closing after 62 years: ‘It’s hard’
An appliance business with a decades-long legacy in Olathe is closing for good soon.
Stewart Appliance, open since 1961, is shuttering once it sells its last item.
Owner Dennis Wiggin, 69, is looking to retire, hping to spend more time with his grandchildren in Topeka and Cleveland. He’ll be at the 405 N. Ridgeview Road store tidying up for the next few weeks.
“It echoes in here quite a bit,” Wiggin said. “It’s hard to close what you’ve been looking at for 40 years.”
Wiggin’s father-in-law, Donald Stewart, bought the appliance business from someone else in 1961 and renamed it for himself. Stewart Appliance first operated on Santa Fe Street, but it later moved to South Kansas Avenue.
Stewart offered appliances from top brands like KitchenAid and Amana.
“When I was a child, I remember going in there with my dad looking for parts,” Wiggin said.
Wiggin took over after Stewart died around 1984.
He and Stewart’s wife built the Ridgeview Road location in 1986 and moved the business over there.
Some of Wiggin’s most challenging days in the business were post-COVID, he said. Finding help has proven especially difficult.
“I don’t know where all the people went,” he said. “It used to be everybody wanted jobs.”
In the past month, however, his liquidation sale has been successful. He’s been able to sell everything, save one pesky stainless steel refrigerator.
If anyone’s interested in being Wiggin’s last customer, call him about his $800 refrigerator at 913- 764-1380.