World Sales, a longtime Chattanooga novelty and party supply store that just opened at 6400 E. Brainerd Road, Suite 130 in the Williamsburg Plaza. Exterior signage is to come.For 63 years, World Sales has been a go-to place for Chattanoogans in need of such gag gifts as Whoopee Cushions, Goo-Goo Eyes and rubber duckies.
The new owners of the party supply and novelty shop that got its start downtown on Main Street in 1954 held the grand opening Monday for World Sales' new location at 6400 E. Brainerd Road, Suite 130, in the Williamsburg Plaza.
Nick Watson and sister Sherrie Watson bought the business in February from Jerry Kleinstub, who took over World Sales more than 50 years ago from his father-in-law.
"It was his 80th birthday gift to himself," Nick Watson said of Kleinstub's decision to sell the business that until Monday had been on Lee Highway in the Airport Plaza.
Watson summed up World Sales' inventory thusly: "We're the place that's got everything you didn't know you needed."
Customers that buy party supplies in bulk include schools, such as the nearby Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts, organizations including the Creative Discovery Museum, and churches that put on vacation bible schools.
If you go
World Sales at 6400 E. Brainerd Road, Suite 130 in the Williamsburg Plaza will be open 10-6 weekdays and 10-2 on Saturdays. For more information, see www.facebook.com/worldsaleschattanooga or call 423-894-9111.
Walk-in customers are welcome, too.
"There's no end to what we have - or can get," Sherrie Watson said, nodding toward an "ordering station" set up near the register where customers can order what's not in the store.
The siblings say World Sales strives to keep its prices low - even below gag gift prices online.
"Even with the internet, we'll still try to save you money," she said.
A big seller, recently, has been eye-protecting eclipse glasses for $1 (or less, if ordered in bulk) available in time for the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse that will make a 70-mile swath of darkness across the United States, including between Chattanooga and Knoxville.
World Sales has sold about 1,700 pairs of the eclipse glasses, Nick Watson said.
The siblings stumbled over the opportunity to buy World Sales on an online business brokerage site.
Nick Watson will man the store, with help from Kleinstub, who works there part-time, while Sherrie Watson mainly will work remotely from North Carolina.
"We want people to come to local merchants," Nick Watson said, who'll open the store every day except Sundays, Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Contact Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6651.