🔒Portland office supply store marks end of an era with teacher freebies

Portland’s Wigon Office Supplies was abuzz with activity on Tuesday as teachers from local schools stocked up on binders, clipboards and other supplies for their students — at no cost.

As the 94-year-old downtown institution prepares to close its doors this fall, landlord J.B. Brown & Sons decided to pay homage to its longtime tenant by hosting a two-day community event ahead of the start of the school year.

With the cost of school supplies rising — and many teachers paying for them out of their own pockets — customers turned out in full force for a host of freebies. They filled the reusable bags they brought, some grabbing cookies and other snacks after making their selections.

“I found all sorts of school supplies,” said Lily Withington, who teaches algebra at Deering High School. Her haul included a desk organizer and a giant easel with sticky note pads “to make a nice anchor chart for the classroom,” which would normally cost around $30.

“It’s expensive to supply a classroom, so every time we get these opportunities to build out our classroom with stuff we need and not break the bank is so great,” she said. She also noted that while school departments do their best to supply the essentials, their budgets are limited.

Ironically, because the store is open during school hours, she never had the chance to shop there before Tuesday.

Rebecca Cohen, who teaches algebra as well as A.P. calculus at Deering High, was stocking up on calculators, including a model listed for $17 that many of her students can’t afford.

“It’s nice that businesses like this … allow us to give kids these resources that they really need for high school and that so many of them can’t have on their own,” she said.

Cohen and Withington also stocked up on rolls of raffle tickets, which they hand out to students as positive reinforcement for answering tricky questions. Ticket holders become eligible for prizes raffled off by the teachers.

Deep roots

While Wigon Office Supply hasn't always been at the same location, it's been at 18 Free St. since the early 1970s.

Founded by Joe Wigon during the Great Depression, the business is one of Portland’s oldest continuously operating family businesses.

Joe’s daughter, Sally Wigon, took over the business in 1951. She has not had a rent increase since the 1980s and, in fact, negotiated a 50% rent reduction with landlord J.B. Brown & Sons a few years ago to make room for a yoga studio in the basement.

Now at age 106, Wigon has decided it is time to close the chapter on the business. While she no longer comes into the store and was not present on Tuesday, she released a statement saying how much she loved every year of running the business.

“If these supplies can help even one teacher get their classroom ready, that’s the best way I could ask to put them to use,” she said. She's as much of a downtown fixture as her business, and received a special birthday message in the storefront this past Feb. 14 spelling out her age from Portland's Valentine's Day bandit who covers windows with paper hearts.

Tuck O’Brien, president of J.B. Brown, said the idea for the community event was inspired in part by his wife, who chaired the Lincoln Middle School Parent Teacher Association until this year and is well aware of teachers’ supply needs.

“We only came up with the idea seven days ago, so it was super last minute,” he said.

Margaret Busby, a store employee for the past three and a half years, said the business will probably close around the end of October.

Asked what Wigon will do with any supplies still in its stock at that time, she said, "I guess we'll see, because we were certainly hoping that at a certain point, teachers would take as much as possible. We'll assess what there is."