Surplus Sid’s sports eclectic collection of items

Sid Keith, the self-proclaimed “emperor of Carrboro,” spent his Tuesday afternoon helping a woman find a gnome for her gnome collection.

Sid has been running his small business, Surplus Sid’s, for about 25 years.

Surplus Sid’s, a military surplus store in Carrboro, offers anywhere between 20 and 30 nationalities of military gear, including Israeli, German, U.S., Russian and Dutch gear.

Sid said he started going by the “emperor of Carrboro” after he wanted to start his own country, but the plan never seemed to work out.

As a UNC student, Sid helped out at another surplus shop in town called Poor Richard’s.

“Richard Levin fired and rehired me four or five times — I lost count,” Sid said. “After graduation I left to do other things.”

He opened his own shop in 1988 once Poor Richard’s went out of business. He said he didn’t want to compete with his former boss.

Sid said he is involved in the film business, supplying props to documentaries like “The Editor and the Dragon,” which was released earlier this year.

He said people from the TV series “Lizard Lick Towing” call him often when they are looking for props.

Sid said he agreed with his wife’s description of the shop — she often says there is nothing serious in the store.

“I guess that sort of describes my existence,” he said. “I don’t know that there’s anything serious about it.”

Taking old, used, abandoned or broken furniture, Sid cobbles it into something useful again.

His shop boasts a pirate ship made primarily from a broken couch.

“I get to be creative,” he said about his line of Frankenstein furniture. “My daughter gets mad when I call her the heiress to the empire.”

At the shop the motto is, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

Sid said those words came from a Duke professor who lived across the street from Albert Einstein. The professor received that advice from Einstein himself.

He said the shop does most of its business in the fall around Halloween.

Betty Keith, Sid’s mother, said her favorite holiday is also Halloween.

“I come to help out now and then,” Betty Keith said. “I have so many fond memories of this shop, too many to count.”

Gary Messenger, one of the store’s employees, said Halloween was close to his heart.

“It gives you the incredible opportunity to become something you’re not,” he said.

Messenger said he has known Sid for nearly 30 years and has been helping out at the store for a year. He enjoys setting up the displays in front of the shop and the variety of items the store offers, he said.

“If it’s not in here, it either hasn’t been made or we haven’t really made it,” Messenger said.

Messenger said Sid takes a lot of people that have been rejected by society under his wing.

“He makes them feel like people,” Messenger said.

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