A piece of South Whidbey grocery store history lives on thanks to the dogged determination of a local picker.

Two weeks ago, John Norris finally got his hands on the Ken’s Korner Red Apple sign. The store closed in June and the space is currently being renovated before opening as a Grocery Outlet.

Norris approached the demolition crew about the iconic sign. With the assistance of a cooler full of freshly cooked crab and $200, Norris sweet-talked his way into salvaging the sign, which he believed was headed for the scrap pile.

“If I hadn’t asked for it, they would have thrown it in the freaking dumpster,” he said.

Norris had to wait over a month before finally getting the call – while he was in the ferry line, of all places – to bring a trailer to Ken’s Korner. Though the sign didn’t look too big when it was hanging up on the strip mall, he was surprised to learn it was actually about 18 feet long and 7 feet tall.

He surmised that the sign dates back to the ‘80s, which is also the decade when Red Apple opened at Ken’s Korner. It’s made of large aluminum panels, and the letters contain neon tubes that were once illuminated with light from the gas. Signs aren’t made like that today, Norris noted, and LED lights are now much more commonly used in place of neon.

He may be willing to part with his treasure – but only for the right price. The Clinton-based picker has been on a tear lately, collecting other iconic signs around South Whidbey, including one for Bailey’s Corner Store.

Few people likely know that Ken’s Korner was named for Ken Polzen, who opened a grocery store of the same name in the early 1950s in the area where Naomi’s Mobil gas station is located today, across the street from the strip mall. According to an old South Whidbey Record story, the grocery store was leveled by a fire in 1969.

“The building burned clear to the ground and was still smoldering two days later with canned goods occasionally exploding from the heat,” the article stated.

Out of the ashes came a new grocery store – albeit across Langley Road. In the early 1980s, Hope’s Supermarket opened as part of the brand-new strip mall development that came to be known today as Ken’s Korner. Long before bagels, critters and a boxing gym came along, there was Hope’s Supermarket. But the grocery store was ultimately unsuccessful, closing in 1982 after less than a year in business.

In 1983, longtime businessman Kent Myers, who owned the former Casey’s where the Goose Community Grocer is located today, opened a new grocery store at Ken’s Korner. It came to be known by many names, including Myers Mark & Pak, Red Apple and IGA. Myers sold the Ken’s Korner store in 1999 to new owners, according to previous South Whidbey Record coverage, and at some point it changed back to the Red Apple name.