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“They would come to (Sol) and they would say, ‘Well, I want to do a camp for 10 people.’ Or 50 people. And the staff had lists from doing the business. They would just put it together and the companies would come pick it up.”

Likewise, Calgary’s budding movie industry would come to Ribtor for goods. Lipkind remembers it starting in the early 1970s with the filming of the Dustin Hoffman classic Little Big Man. It never really let up after that.

“If you needed a general store, with a bunch of stuff on the shelf, a bunch of boxes of screws, nuts and bolts and nails, they would come down to us. And we would often just rent the stuff to them.”

Photo by Brodie Thomas / Postmedia

Tom Sampson, chief of Calgary Emergency Management Agency, said he turned to Ribtor when he was leading Calgary EMS in sending support to the victims of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami.

“We had the opportunity to send two big 40-foot containers to Asia,” said Sampson. “We had free shipping, we had everything lined up. And we ended up getting some money and we went into Ribtor.”

Sampson said they loaded up on items that people in an emergency situation might need — water filers, shovels — and that Lipkind was there every step of the way.

“It was a day’s entertainment to go in there,” said Sampson. “And it’s not often that you find places like that anymore. It’s a piece of history.”

Lipkind has been much more hands-off in operating Ribtor since he took over the business from his father. He mostly left it up to longtime employees Keith Ochab, now retired, and McFadden, who said he’s ready to hang up his pricing gun and move on to other challenges.

McFadden said he’ll miss busy Saturdays the most.

“The biggest thing is that parents bring their kids in, just to show them what it was like. This is what we used back then. The kids seem to like it.”

Editor’s Note — In case you were thinking of dropping by, Ribtor is closed for the holidays until Jan 2.

brthomas@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @brodie_thomas