Rather than unpacking orders of law enforcement equipment, wartime memorabilia, guns and knives as they have been for the past 36 years, Suzanne Miller and Olivia Cason are packing up boxes of their inventory as they prepare to retire and close the shop they’ve run since 1985.
Miller and Cason started M&C Army Surplus, 626 NW 13th St. in Gainesville, after they both worked at North Florida Regional Medical Center Miller as a registered nurse, and Cason as a bookkeeper.
One Christmas, Cason invited Miller, originally from Canada, to spend the holiday with her family and the two bonded over an interest in military equipment and history. Cason’s older brother had experience running army surplus stores, while Miller recounted that her father had been a World War II prisoner of war.