By Brian Steele
“Well,” Williamson mumbles, “I don’t know.”
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Merker’s father ran a used-furniture business–also called Betty’s, after his wife–for more than 20 years, but he died in 1986. The family owned the building where he’d kept his furniture, says Merker, who used to run a hot dog stand in Portage Park. “After my dad died, I told my mother, ‘Let’s open this up.’ I just wanted to try this.”
Merker says that helping people out is part of Betty’s unofficial mission. “I try to help everyone,” she says. “If somebody comes in with something, we see what we can do.” In fact, few people who come in to sell things go away without at least some cash in their pockets.
Another nearby business owner, who didn’t want his name used, complains about all the trucks coming and going, sometimes in the early-morning hours. “I’ve seen 10 to 12 trucks parked around the shop at one time,” he says. Those trucks often end up on nearby residential streets. One home owner, who’s lived on Newport for eight years, says he can hear Merker and her crew yelling at one another and he sometimes sees trucks parked nearly bumper to bumper on his street.
“She has such an unusual assortment of things,” says Venus Cramar, who’s been browsing at Betty’s for five years. “You never know what you’re gonna find.”
