Shell sales by seashore suit owner

Imperial Beach — For 25 years, Bibbey’s Seashell Shop has not only been a place where tourists can pick up a puka shell necklace or a kitschy beach scene made from assorted shells. It’s a place for serious collectors, too.

The blue-hued Bibbey’s, across from the Imperial Beach pier, is one of those old-fashioned shell stores where workers behind the counter know what they’re talking about.

“Lucky for me, I grew up around shells and we were my dad’s workers,” said Michael Bibbey, referring to his brother Marion Bibbey. “When I see a seashell, I see the scientific name.”

Bibbey and longtime employee Fidel Chavez run the shop. Marion Bibbey operates a small gift shop in another area of the store on weekends. Their parents, Loyal Joe and Elvira Bibbey, ran both a wholesale business and the store. Their father worked the wholesale side and their mother the retail side, each for more than 20 years before retiring a few years ago.

The store carries about 500 different types of shells, including a few named for Loyal Joe Bibbey, who is well-known after spending more than 40 years in the seashell business. The store and a nearby warehouse hold at least 100,000 shells, Michael Bibbey said.

Bibbey, 53, said his father got the idea to collect and sell shells after being offered big money for a couple of shells he found while stationed in Guam and later in Pensacola, Fla., with the Navy. He started selling shells as a hobby in 1957. He moved to San Diego in 1970 and opened his store in 1984 in Imperial Beach, importing shells from the Philippines.

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