Five Senses: One Worcester

Outside Look of the Top Dollar Plus

It was Tuesday afternoon at around four o’clock when my classmate Liam and I decided to embark on a journey to Worcester to find the hidden glory that rests beneath the Holy Cross campus. We both had a few destinations we could choose from, but this idea did not intrigue either of us after we started into the second largest city in New England. We were on search for places in Worcester that represented the past glory of this industrial town, but we both decided we wanted to know what Worcester looked like now.

So we took a few turns that the navigation system did not agree with and ended up on a side street close to the Hanover Theatre. Here, we encountered a store blessed with the brightest neon lights I’ve ever seen. Rectangular display windows highlighted a curious collection of items that ranged from suitcases to toilet brushes.

TOP DOLLAR PLUS read the sign above the door and here we knew we could find a true Worcester experience.

Gizmos and Items of All Different Kinds

RING-A-LING! The Door produces a patented bell sound found when opening almost any small business in the United States today. The room smacks its guest with a multi-faceted smell shifting and evolving as the customer navigates through its different sections. The price tags are all scribbled on under the item, but they all average at around what you would expect from this store. A dollar. There’s a plethora of items that looked like they could live in a garage. Wrenches, locks, screws, hammers, gloves, pliers, any sort of handyman gear that didn’t make it to Ace or Home Depot found its way here. There was travel equipment that hadn’t moved for decades and housing supplies that never lived up to their first name. Polo shirts without the logo were being sold for five dollars and pants of all different kinds stood motionless on the walls as they never quite fit the right set of legs.

Circa 1986

The walls held calculators crafted before I was born and items that just never seemed necessary but would be useful in a very specific situation. Almost every item that the late, great Billy Mays advertised from 2 to 6 AM every day found a home in this store. (Billy would roll over in his grave if he knew they were all being sold for a price much lower than $19.99 plus shipping and handling as well.) No other customers strolled in beside a father and daughter who quickly found what they were looking for, kept their heads down while paying and exited before the ring had stopped from their entrance.

After the owner had given us a few too many curious looks as to why I was taking notes on his store, Liam and I decided to return to our car and head on our way. This store was a curious collection of items and gadgets that somehow grouped together to find a common theme a lot like the city of Worcester. The common goal of this city is not well established, but all the different pieces seem to weave together like this store does and find a formula that goes through its ups and downs but keeps helping people find their way in the world.