Owner of beloved American Science & Surplus worries stores might have to close, asks for help

CBS News

28-05-2025

American Science & Surplus, a unique and beloved store in the Chicago area, is reaching out to the community for help and says it may have to close.
The store — which currently has locations in Uptown Park Ridge, west suburban Geneva, and Milwaukee — has been in business for nearly 90 years. It is a store so unique that owner Patrick Meyer struggles to define it.
"Very hard to do to, describe American Science & Surplus," Meyer said.
The website for the store gives it a try. It says American Science & Surplus — formerly American Science Center — was established in "about 1937" by Western Electric employee Al Luebbers.
"Al had a great interest in optics and he noticed that a company next door to the plant where he worked was throwing away reject lenses," the store's website recounts. "He asked them if he could buy the rejects and they said, 'No, But you can have them if you will haul them away.'"
Luebbers and his wife took the lenses, spruced them up, and offered them for sale on Popular Science. Orders started coming in, and this led to the founding of a business, American Lens & Photo.
After World War II, war surplus became the catalyst for the expansion of the company. Luebbers went on to open a retail store on Chicago's Northwest Side called American Science Center — which also featured educational science items.
For a holiday gift idea feature story on Dec. 4, 1978, the adventuresome Channel 2 reporter Bob Wallace paid a visit to the American Science Center, then located at 5700 N. Northwest Hwy. in the Norwood Park neighborhood. The offerings back then included a 10-foot shovel that was made to get the ashes out of old coal furnaces, a World War II bomb sight, a radiation detector of early 1950s vintage, and a manometer that stood taller than Wallace himself.
"Chances are if you're trying to put together some sort of scientific contraption, the part you need to complete your masterpiece may be lying on a shelf here," Wallace said in his 1978 story.
What became American Science & Surplus kept expanding. Al Luebbers' son Jerry, who appeared in Wallace's package, took over in the 70s and started a catalog operation called Jerryco in 1979. He opened a second location in 1981.
In 1988, Jerry Luebbers took a partner, Scott McCausland, who bought out the Luebbers family after Jerry Luebbers died that same year at the age of 46. The Geneva location opened in 1991.
Meanwhile, American Science & Surplus launched its first website in 1995. McCausland retired and sold the company to "lifelong science geek" Philip Cable, who in turn sold to employee Patrick Meyer in 2012.
The Chicago area flagship location has moved around over the years. After moving from its original Norwood Park location, American Science & Surplus was located at 5316 N. Milwaukee Ave. in the Jefferson Park neighborhood for many years — until relocating to 27 N. Northwest Hwy. in Park Ridge.
But the spirit of the stores has always remained the same — as the items at American Science & Surplus continue to inspire both serious scientific contraptions and whimsy. Back around, say, 1990, a boy who wished to procure a rubber brain and some plastic eyes to turn make into his own model of the villain Krang from "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" would only have need visited American Science & Surplus to do so.
American Science & Surplus today still carries a hodgepodge of industrial, military, and educational items — which have been used in homemade cars and telescopes, model railroads, and sculptures alike. A visit to the Park Ridge location Tuesday turned up chemistry flasks and toys under the same roof as a mule branding kit from World War II.
CBS Chicago has kept on visiting over the years too. Wallace's successors in the Channel 2 fun features department, reporter Vince Gerasole and Meteorologist Ed Curran, made several visits for our news over the years too.
Customers known as Surpies proudly even get tattooed with the store logo.
Current owner Meyer has been working for American Science & Surplus since his teenage years.
"Kind of Radio Shack meets Hope Depot meets Bed, Bath & Beyond," Meyer said in another attempt to describe the enigmatic store.
But he says the situation now is dire.
"It's not great," Meyer said. "We have to — there's a lot of different steps involved in pulling us out of this."
Rising operational costs, competition from online retail giants like Amazon, and software problems are just some of the challenges Meyer says American Science & Surplus faces.
"You come in here, you build these relationships with people," he said, "and it's very hard for me to see anything happen to it."
Meyer has launched an online fundraiser to try to save the business and his community.
"It's been 88 years, and we've built good relationships," Meyer said, "and we are hoping that they can help out."
From kids to senior citizens, the impact of the store has spanned generations.
'I always find something that looks interesting to me here," said youngster Isaac Roth.
"For me, this store has been the holy grail all these years," said Andy Anderson. "For 35 years I've been coming here."
"It makes me really sad," said Evynn Roth. "I mean, it's really a friendly place and a very unique place — and I would really miss it."
The Park Ridge American Science & Surplus location, again, is located at 27 N. Northwest Hwy. the Geneva location is on Route 38, 1/4 mile east of Kirk Road. The Milwaukee location is located at 6901 W. Oklahoma Ave. up in the 414.