Marmora business turns 100; sells, repairs sewing machines, vacuum cleaners
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
MARMORA – The COVID-19 pandemic was very bad for a lot of businesses, but not for Dollard-Baker Sew & Vac in Marmora.
That gives the local business something else to celebrate.
Today – July 21 – marks the centennial of the business which has had its ups and downs over the past 100 years, according to owner John Dollard. While most of 2020 and the early part of 2021 were a downer for so many businesses across the country, the pandemic gave Dollard-Baker a shot in the arm that didn’t involve a vaccine.
The business sells and repairs sewing and embroidery machines and high-end vacuum cleaners. With the majority of the population stuck at home during the pandemic and unable to go out, many local residents hauled out their old sewing machines, bringing them to Dollard-Baker to get them in working order. The business, which has miles of fabric, thread and other sewing supplies, also was ground zero for elastic, that coveted ingredient for homemade face masks.
“We’re one of the few sewing machine stores in south Jersey,” Dollard said. “The other businesses have closed up.” There had been stores in Cape May Court House, Villas, Absecon and Hammoton, but they’re all gone.
“We’ve weathered it through,” he said. That put Dollard-Baker in the right position to serve customers when the pandemic hit.
“When people went into isolation, they started making masks,” he said. “People couldn’t get the elastic. We had foresight to order it. At first we ordered 5,000 yards. They said we were crazy. We sold out 5,000 yards of elastic in 23 hours. They were lined up. This was at the “beginning of the pandemic,” he said.
“Then we got another 5,000 yards and another 5,000 yards and then it started to fade out, but the machines, they kept coming. People were bringing sewing machines in that they were pulling out of the closets that had been frozen up. I like to use comparison: did you watch the ‘Wizard of Oz’ and see the Tin Man. Look what happened to him. He needed a little oil.”
The rush was on to start repairing the machines.
“We had one day that 18 sewing machines came in. They were lined up. Carlos and Tom were on the bench working back there. Tom pretty much does the vacuum cleaners and Carlos does the sewing machines. I also have my newest employee, Jocelyn, who is 17 years old and smart as a whip. She can repair anything.”
Being able to repair machines kept Dollard-Baker busy, as did having the needed stock for making masks – plus the other supplies as people geared up their at-home hobbies in place of all the other things they couldn’t do.
Dollard gives a tour of the store, which is packed in the back room with broken vacuums and sewing machines near the benches where his three workers fix them and also has shelves full of repaired vacuums and sewing machines waiting for their owners to retrieve them.
To go with the sewing supplies and quilting supplies – and the big machines used to finish customers quilts – Dollard-Baker, at 232 South Shore Road, also is packed with sewing and embroidery machines that range from hundreds to thousands of dollars. His most expensive machine lists for $20,000 that he said he sells for $13,900, and he points to other machines that cost $4,000 or $7,000.
The machines are computerized, with display screens for input that show different type styles and offer prompts to tell the user when to change the color of thread. Pointing to one of his big machines, he smiles. “This one is on steroids.”
He sells “only the best,” he said. “I’ve sold junk in my days. There was a period of time when Singers were the greatest and a period of time when the quality just went down.” He said some national retailers that sell sewing machines don’t even take them out of the box and end up having a lot of returns.
“Me, I’ll sit with the customer, sew with them. Make sure they understand it. My return rate is next to nothing,” Dollar said. “It’s better quality stuff. If someone walks in with a machine and say it’s not working right, I know it’s something they did wrong. And I’m right all the time. Just about. Every now and then something happens,” he concedes.
100 years in business
Dollard-Baker Sew & Vac began in Atlantic City in 1921 and Dollard started there in 1970 right out of military service. “Dad and my grandfather took the first 50 (years) and I took the second 50,” he said. “The business had a lot of ups and downs, mostly downs. Since the pandemic, we’re thriving.”
His father was born on July 21, 1910 and died on July 21, 1975. When his father died, Dollard was 25 years old and had been with the business for five years.
“I thought, do I keep it, do I go out and earn a living. Actually I tried to make it with just the business, running it on Atlantic Avenue in Atlantic City and it was tough. I couldn’t stock this kind of stuff over there. It was a repair shop,” he said. “In 1980 I got a job as a cop in Atlantic City and I continued to run the business. I was moonlighting. I would take my cop car and check on things at the store during the day. Got through a career of that. The cop’s salary was enough to help the business survive.”
“We’re doing well now, but there were times if I didn’t have a pension to live on – a lot of times you don’t make money. … Right now we’re doing well.”
He said the name Dollard “is synonymous with sewing machines.” On the store’s website (dbsewvac.com) there is an array of photos of Dollard’s father and grandfather, including ones showing the early business, complete with Model T cars outside the store and treadle sewing machines. That was an up time for the business as well. “They were so busy that they had a fleet of vehicles in the early 1920s to deliver those,” he said. “That was state-of-the-art equipment. You could make your own clothes without sewing by hand.”
His daughter, Christina Dollard, who is 30, works with him. He also has three granddaughters who would be the next generation, if they’ve have the interest.
“They actually came in here and worked a little bit. They’re in school. I’m not going to drag them in here. If something happens, it happens,” he said.
The repair game
Dollard’s nephew, Tom Kane, repairs the vacuum cleaners and Carlos Pacheco “is the key to repairs” for the sewing machines. “Without Carlos you couldn’t keep this place going,” he said.
Carlos, a native of Chile, went to school for industrial mechanics and worked on industrial sewing machines before moving to the U.S. in 1992. Since then he has been working off and on at Dollard-Baker.
“He came into the store with an interpreter,” Dollard said. “He didn’t speak any English. The interpreter said, ‘This is Carlos. He can fix sewing machines.’ And I said, ‘Yeah, right.’ I had an industrial machine sitting on the bench and I said, ‘Show me.’ And he got it. That was over in Atlantic City.” The business moved to Marmora in 2002.
“I always want to come over here to USA and came over and I stayed,” Carlos said. “I got married, I had a son. I’m happy. That is important.”
Jocelyn Geese, the youngest employee, likes working on the oldest sewing machines. She started doing repairs about nine months ago. She just graduated from Buena Regional High School in June.
She originally came to the store to buy an old sewing machine. She liked to fix her own.
“I used to come in here a lot and he used to offer me a job,” she said. ”One day I just came in and said, ‘So when do I start?’ I’m really into the older sewing machines so I get to work on all the ones that come in here. I also learn about the newer ones and the vacuums. It’s pretty nice,” she said.
Dollard, whose sense of humor is ever present, likes to joke with his employees and his customers, including the ones who come in to have their machines repaired.
“My latest line is you can save yourself some gas money by taking home a new machine. You don’t have to come back to get your old one,” he said, smiling.
Problem solvers of another type
In addition to sales and service, Dollard-Baker also offers a range of sewing-related classes.
Merry May has been at the business for about 12 years. Her official title is “sewing educator,” but the sign she sometimes hangs around her neck reads, “John is not my husband.”
She started wearing it regularly during the pandemic when COVID started and a lot of new customers were coming into the store and assumed she was married to Dollard. When they said, “I was talking to your husband,” she would respond, “You weren’t talking to my husband.”
She and Dollard love to banter back and forth. “We pick on each other and have a good time,” May smiled.
The teaches classes and teaches customers how to use the machines.
“I solve problems for people, figure out stuff, talk them off the ledge,” she laughs. “It’s all part of the game. You never what’s going to come in the door.”
She enjoys teaching; Dollard said she has a following. More and more she likes educating children. “That was never on my radar, officially,” she said. “Now that we’re into it I do enjoy it because they kids are here because they want to be here. They’re not being forced. It’s not a requirement in school. They are pretty entertaining. They tell us little secrets we’re probably not supposed to know, give us words of wisdom. It’s fun. I think I enjoy that the most.”
She also teaches older children who work on their own projects under her coaching.
“I really enjoy that because there is a wide variety of troubleshooting things to do with them. They’re a lot of fun too.”
May said she likes the variety of working at Dollard-Baker.
“I never know when Laurie is going to pop in,” she says, looking at a customer. “Or what mess I’m bringing her to fix,” the customer responds.
“I tell people not to come in after 4 p.m. to ask questions because my brain is picked clean by then,” May said.
The customer, Laurie Beers of Cape May, said she comes “the whole way up here” because of the people at the store and she atmosphere and education.
“You always feel like you’re at home. You feel like you’ve known them forever. They’re very personable people and the amount of knowledge Merry has is phenomenal, along with Heidi (Cullen). You feel welcome here. Even though you don’t know a lot, you don’t feel intimidated to come in and learn. That’s huge for me,” Beers said.
Cullen, of Ocean City, who was finishing a child’s quilt for a customer when Beers was there, likes to see when quilts come together. She puts them on one of the big machines that finish them.
“The customer gets to pick the pattern and the color of the thread they want. The computer basically prints it out. There’s a lot of finagling and fitting we have to stay on top of, even though the machine is quilting out the design,” Cullen said. “The setup takes quite a while, then you’re resetting it. This one should be done within an hour or two.
“I love when the right color thread and the right design just helps pull the whole quilt together,” she said. She has been at Dollard-Baker for a little over two years.
Vacuums, too
On the other side of the store are the high-end vacuums Dollard sells, with names including Miele, Sebo and Riccar.
Every nook and cranny of the store is packed, if not with sewing supplies, then with vacuums and all the filters and supplies needed to support them. (Come into the store and he’ll give one heck of a demonstration of the power of the different vacuums he has in stock.)
Even with all the business, Dollard keeps his store open only four days a week, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Customers, he said, are wiling to work around his hours because of what his business offers in terms of machines and repairs. He comes in the other days of the week to “catch up.”
“I enjoy helping people. When I go to sleep at night, I say to myself as I put my head on my pillow, ‘What did I accomplish today?’ And I always feel good about myself. Mostly. It comes from helping people,” he said. “At this stage of your life, I’m 71, it’s feeding it forward. I enjoy especially showing someone who doesn’t know anything and teaching them because you’re passing it on.”
Anniversary specials
From July 27-31, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Dollard-Baker Sew & Vac is celebrating the anniversary with specials at 232 S. Shore Road in Marmora. There will be daily specials including 20 parent off one sewing machine and one vacuum cleaner (models will vary each day), a free gift to the first 25 people each day who mention that offer, and $5 make-it, take-it classes 2 to 3 p.m. Tuesday to Friday July 27-30 including Tuesday, Machine embroidered key chain wristlet; Wednesday, pop-up threat catcher bin; Thursday, Selvage scissor pouch; and Friday, mini trash bag for a car. (Participants must reserve a spot and prepay). Contact Dollard-Baker at (609) 390-0343 or ad DBSewVac@gmail.com.
