NORTHAMPTON — Acme Surplus Store, a beloved retail outlet offering everything from muffin fans to cotton swabs to tools and clothing in Northampton for more than 40 years, announced it will be closing on Jan. 7, with a clearance sale in effect until then.

The store built a large and loyal customer base, with shoppers revisiting over the span of decades. Ken Silberman-Bunn, who was shopping in the store on Wednesday, recalled a time he came to the store 20 years ago with his son, who was 14 at the time and had just taken up the hobby of learning how to juggle.

“He [my son] took three steel ball bearings and began to juggle them,” Silberman-Bunn said. “Then the guy working the counter said, if you can juggle four, I’ll give them to you for free.” His son rose to the occasion, and the guy working the counter — co-owner Mark Rosenzweig — was true to his word.

Forty-three years ago, Carolyn Webb-Rosenzweig was a graduate student at UMass Amherst studying sculpture, while her husband, Mark, worked as a grade school teacher in Springfield, Vermont. But Mark also possessed an entrepreneurial spirit, something that ran in his family.

“He had family who lived in Philadelphia, and after the war, some of them started selling surplus in these farmers markets outside the city,” Webb-Rosenzweig recalled. “And farmers would come in, including the Amish in their horse and buggy, and they would buy widgets and surplus equipment and tools.”

Seeing that the Pioneer Valley area did not have the same kind of retail outlet, the couple decided to open up their own, with the result being the Acme Surplus Store, which opened in 1980. Originally established at the Hampshire Mall in Hadley, it opened another location on the first floor of Thornes Marketplace in Northampton in 1998. After the Hampshire Mall location closed in 2002, the Thornes location became the store’s flagship.

The couple saw the store through numerous economic challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, receiving a PPP loan in order to stay afloat. But the store couldn’t survive cancer — Mark Rosenzweig died in July from glioblastoma, a type of cancerous brain tumor at 73.

“I think he fully expected and wanted to be here today,” Webb-Rosenzweig said. “He wanted to finish out this year, but he didn’t make it.”

Throughout its time, the surplus store became known for selling nearly anything and everything, with products including greeting cards, giant rock geodes and yoga mats passing in and out of its doors over its decades in operation.

“Mark loved the hunt for good stuff,” Webb-Rosenzweig said. “He went to many, many trade shows and established lots of relationships with these neat, interesting people who would sell everything.”

At trade shows, Mark became known as “The Professor” by vendors because he was always asking challenging questions or quoting something from the latest book he was excited about, his widow recalled.

With her husband’s passing, Webb-Rosenzweig decided that this year’s holiday shopping season would be the store’s last. The store’s Facebook page announced the news of its closure on Dec. 24.

“I’m aware it’s going to leave a hole in Northampton,” Webb-Rosenzweig said. “Maybe some young whippersnapper will come along and fill the void in some way.”

In honor of its 43 years of operation, the store is running a clearance sale with 43% off all items until its last day of operation. Products currently in stock include electrical tape, appliances, screwdrivers, cotton swabs and rubber ducks, with bookmarks and greeting cards being sold at a discounted price of $1 for 10.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.