A new store in downtown Lawrence will offer a novel take on a very old thing — a thing that has outlived countless other devices’ fleeting lifespans.
Staplers, in one form or another, are hundreds of years old. And they’ll be a main feature of Secure Attachments, opening soon at 15 W. Ninth St. in downtown Lawrence.
Artist Randy Regier — whom Lawrencians might recall for his 2015 creation, “NuPenny’s Last Stand” — moved back to town a little more than a year ago. He is collaborating with Wonder Fair owners Paul DeGeorge and Meredith Moore on the specialized store.
NuPenny is currently on display as part of an installation elsewhere. But Regier says he told DeGeorge and Moore that if he still had the NuPenny building, he would want to fill it with “finely painted staplers, and make it this standalone — like a hotdog stand, but for stapler service and repair and refill, because it’s just so ludicrous and comical, but kind of bittersweet.
“And yet there’s a certain plausibility to it, because staplers are still relevant — we still either use them or we just won’t throw them away,” Regier says.
The concept evolved from that idea, and the store is expanding on that focus to “host the Midwest’s largest selection of staplers, clips, bands, adhesives, and folders — everything you need to Get it Together and Keep it Together,” as they put it in an Instagram post.
“We will have the greatest selection of paper clips you’ve ever seen,” DeGeorge says. “In one place, anyway.”
Secure Attachments is filling the space that has been Wonder Gallery. The Utopian Bookstore, a feature of the gallery offering a selection of art books and artists’ books, will remain — “at the back end of the space,” DeGeorge says. “Front room? All staplers, all the time.”
Regarding whether he thinks there’s enough of a market to sustain a store with such a highly specific purpose for the long term, DeGeorge is quick to admit: “I have no idea.”
But he says people respond to finding a place that is unique.
“We’ll be that — and we’ll have a great selection of lots of different paper-fastening products,” DeGeorge says.
He describes Secure Attachments as “our goofy stapler store” and “a wonderland of staplers and all manners of paper fastenings.”
The concept pokes fun at itself and its own absurdity — “We’re having a ton of fun with it. Everybody’s kind of in on it, is what it feels like,” DeGeorge says — yet it also celebrates the things that last for a while, even in an age when electronic devices become obsolete so quickly. DeGeorge says some of the staplers for sale are 80 years old and still work perfectly.
Regier’s role is taking staplers, “turning them over my hands thinking about how I would make them something that would catch my eye even more so,” he says. Some jump out more than others, with the potential to “be beautifully hybridized with a toy.”
But functionality, in this case, is as essential as form.
Thus, “All staplers are rigorously tested to provide customers with accurate staple size information for their new stapler and to ensure optimal performance for years to come,” Secure Attachments pledges. “A full condition report for your stapler is always kept on file and available on request.”
Regier says much of his work throughout his career as an artist has been loaded with critiques and deeper meanings.
“I have no regrets about that, but at this point in my life, and the time that we’re in, I’m trying to turn my skills or my finite energies into things that are less divisive, or less about ‘what’s wrong with this’ and more about ‘what can we find to celebrate together?’” he says. And he’s found it heartwarming how nondivisive staplers seem to be.
The store will celebrate its grand opening with a ribbon mending ceremony at 6 p.m. Friday, July 26.
“Our first 100 customers will receive a complimentary pocket protector with purchase,” according to an Instagram post from Secure Attachments.
The store is also offering free stapling services throughout its opening weekend — though please note, the offer applies to standard office-duty only (up to 30 pages per staple), and there is a maximum of five documents per customer.
Spoiler alert: Phase two of Secure Attachments might just include a similar selection of tape dispensers refinished by Regier, if the partners stick to their current plans. They are also planning a stapler rental program down the road, “so if you need a more obscure stapler, like a saddle stitch style or a long neck, we’ll have those available for rent,” DeGeorge says.
Following its grand opening Friday, Secure Attachments will be open from noon to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and noon to 4 p.m. Sundays. The store, 15 W. Ninth St., is just west of Ninth and Mass streets.
Keep an eye on the store’s Instagram page, @secureattachments, for updates.
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Mackenzie Clark (she/her), reporter/founder of The Lawrence Times, can be reached at mclark@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
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