KINGDOM CITY, Mo. - After spending nearly 18 years in the 1950s, Ron and Judi Dunwoody have earned the right to be nostalgic.
NostalgiaVille USA's owners have operated the roadside memorabilia store on U.S. 54 near I-70 in Kingdom City since January 1996, helping people across the nation and even the world get back in touch with an era of poodle skirts, soda jerks and jukeboxes belting rock 'n' roll.
But after all that time, the Dunwoodys have decided it is time to close up shop and focus on their increasingly popular - and easier to manage - online store.
"We're at retirement age," Ron Dunwoody said. "The business has been very good to us and we've been well-received in the community. The economy has been a struggle with anyone who deals with items that are not required, but as much as the store has gone down, the Web has taken off."
Dunwoody said the store will continue to sell off its in-store inventory at 20 percent off until they close by Christmas. From then on, the business will exist only on the Web at nostalgicstuffusa.com.
Dunwoody said they would focus on clothing and party supplies on the website, which proved more popular online than the assorted memorabilia sold in store.
"We've had a site for 15 years, and you would assume the same stuff that sells in the store sells online, but that's not the case," Dunwoody said. "We've got an order of 40 jackets going out to a school in Nebraska for a halftime show."