Tuesday, Jul. 08, 2008

Octopus' Garden: Lack of common sense pays off for Sako

The Beatles' Yellow Submarine plays softly from the store's speakers and patchouli wafts in the air while shoppers young and old wander inside Octopus' Garden.

It's scary to think this could have been just another store meant for green thumbs in Richland.

What began as a small house plant store evolved into one of Tri-Cities' most interesting gift shops. Incomparable to other stores, the Garden has intrigued customers for more than 32 years.

Chinese paper lanterns hang from the ceiling above the Far Side rack of cards. Those who come here find a taste of cultures, experiencing something similar to a yard sale environment, except that the stuff is way cooler.

Gus Sako opened the store in 1976 at the Uptown Shopping Center. He shows no sign of moving anytime soon.

"Have you seen what we sell in the store?" asks Sako. "It would be hell to move all that stuff."

Among his spectacular treasures are car fresheners labeled "Bitch," Buddhist statues, incense, adult-themed birthday cards, super hero tin lunch boxes, Simpson dolls, Hello Kitty toys, calendars, over-the-hill gag gifts, T-shirts, Monty Python memorabilia, Jesus Christ bobblehead dolls, clocks, cigarette cases, glass animal figurines, wrapping paper and that's just the beginning.

Sako admits his original idea was to sell house plants because there were no other stores like it at the time. Plants still decorate the front area of the store, but in the past 15 years Sako's sense of humor and love for interesting trinkets and toys has come to dominate the rest of the store.

The store name originates from the Beatles album Abbey Road when Sako saw the title of one song -- Octopus's Garden -- and felt it just made sense: A garden with plants.

"The plants are now a nostalgia thing; there's no money in it," Sako said with chuckle. "If we had any business sense at all, those wouldn't be there. Fortunately, business sense isn't a real factor here."

He opened Octopus' Garden when he was 18. He looks back upon what he describes as the advantage of ignorance: Where you don't know what you're up against and don't know what you can stand to lose.

Though his business model did not spawn mass chains around the world, his store survived while Sako endured "many peanut butter sandwiches."

Nevertheless, a store was born and has become the little Curiosity Shop of Tri-Cities. Regulars know the cashiers by name, and not because they wear name tags. The environment is incredibly mellow and by the time a customer takes their first step inside Octopus' Garden, they feel as if they've stepped inside Maurice Sendak's book Where the Wild Things Are.

Manager Kaitlin Vasquez describes the store as "chaos" ... and she likes it that way.

"There's always something new," she said. "I'm entertained every day; I'm never bored and that's what keeps me here. We get to ask, 'What do we want to change today (in the store)?' "

Sako laughs when he hears this.

"That works -- 'barely controlled chaos,' " he said. "Seems fairly accurate, don't you think? Chaotic-like. There's a sense of order that is subtle and remains hidden to everyone."

Vasquez said employees get a lot of freedom as far as the store's layout. "We could change anything, and Gus would come in and just smile," Vasquez said. "I can only remember one time when he told us to change things back, but that's because the aisles were too small."

Former employee Meaghan Lawler agrees that every employee has the same responsibilities and they all contribute to what the store orders and sells. She hypothesizes that people compare it to Hot Topic and Spencer's -- not based on inventory, but because they are considered offbeat shops.

"The rest of the store is always rotating, and I'm not sure if it's because Gus forgets to order more," Lawler jokes. "It's probably the most random store ever. We stock whatever makes people smile. It's really that simple. There's no pattern to what we buy."

Sako agrees they don't plan out what they'll sell next; it just strikes them like a meteor that happens to hit someone walking along.

And that is exactly what attracts people from all over. Janet Tinker, a great-grandmother from Milton-Freewater, Ore., first walked in to the Octopus' Garden when she underwent surgery on her left hand.

"My daughter brought me here and got me a little sumo-wrestler squeeze toy to strengthen my hand, and my other kids thought it was so neat that they all wanted one," she said. "That's why I came here today and I brought a friend along. This is the first time I've been in any place like this."

Another reason for the Garden's popularity is the staff's sense of humor and approachability.

"We don't know when to quit," Sako said. "Any reasonable person would have quit several times. We have no common sense."

Lawler is still fond of the plants, but she is glad Sako chooses to fill his store with other items.

"I love the plants and all of our international stuff," she said. "Most of the stuff is from India, and I like how he supports smaller companies."

Sako believes that a little shop can add a great deal to any place. "If you haven't noticed, we don't really go out and look for things anymore, so we're always surprised when we come across something new," he said.

A hot item the Garden carries is inexpensive body jewelry.

"Everybody loves it, and it's the most popular thing at the moment," Vasquez said. "Other stores will sell them for $15, and we sell ours for $3.50."

But it's not just the jewelry that keeps people coming.

"We have the most tolerant and literate customers in the world," Sako said. "We know they're tolerant because they continue to shop here, and we're just in a very literate area. These are obviously people who think for themselves or form their own opinions."

Sako is amazed at how Octopus' Garden maintains its loyal fan base that extends beyond the Tri-Cities, and he wonders why they keep coming back to his store.

"Thank god they're all bored," he laughs. "It must be for the staff. I think (the staff) all drink before they come in -- heavily. It could be prescription medications. They are the best fun to be around. You wake up wanting to go there everyday."

The store's transformation from house plants to a bizzare, indescribable item shop, is similar to a caterpillar morphing into a butterfly ... or an awkward teenage boy becoming an equally awkward grown-up man. Sako sees it as more radical than evolution.

"It's really simple; we're near Hanford and there's this whole mutation going on; that should explain everything," he said.

If the store were ever to close, Sako jokes that he sees himself dominating global politics.

"I firmly believe if you go into the future and pick up a history book, there will be a little blurb about the 2004 presidential elections that will read: 'What the hell were they thinking?' " Sako said.

Don't be mistaken. Sako describes himself as neither liberal or conservative. Just a man with an open mind.

"I escaped briefly from Tri-Cities to go to the University of Washington," Sako said. "I'm a big old college dropout, so don't do this kids -- stay in school.

"We're not unique," he added. "There's a thousand stores just like this on this street."

It's obvious that Sako needs to get out more.

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