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Husband and wife Barbara and Jack Mannix had the distinction Wednesday at 9 a.m. sharp of being first through the doors of the long-awaited Dollar Tree store at the Shops of Marco.

Five minutes earlier, Jack Mannix said he and his wife would be looking at decidedly different items.

“I’ll be at the hardware,” he said, “looking for things like paintbrushes and things to use around the house for small projects. Then you can just throw them away.”

Barbara Mannix said she’d be zoning in on the kitchenware section, looking for something like bottle brushes, which she said would work just fine for a dollar until they’d worn down.

She said she’d been anticipating the arrival of the new store since the demise of the Dollar Discount store, a family business that closed down in 2005. It occupied the same space at the center.

“It’s very pleasant just wandering through these stores and picking up items you don’t really remember until the last minute that you need them,” she said.

Diana Peck and her mom Helen Proimos were also among the handful of early birds who also caught the store’s opening.

They were pleased with their initial purchase of small decorative pumpkins to be used for Halloween, and later browsed the Christmas section for tree ornaments.

Cashier Juanita Mere rang up the first purchase. It was for two bottles of liquid soap that naturally rang in at $2.12 (tax included, of course).

Anna Gionet has free time in the mornings because at night she helps her husband run a restaurant in Naples.

She walked the aisles of the store seeing what was on offer, occasionally stopping to show something to her toddler son, Nicholas.

“We’re just checking out what’s in here,” Gionet said. “We’d seen it being filled, so we just wanted to see what it is.”

Dollar Tree, according to company information, is an American chain of retail stores headquartered in Chesapeake, Va.

It competes in the dollar store and low-end retail markets with the national chains Family Dollar, Big Lots and Dollar General, together with regional chains such as 99 Cents Only Stores, Fred’s and many independent dollar stores nationwide.

As of Feb. 3, Dollar Tree operated 3,219 stores in the 48 contiguous states.

The company’s history dates back to 1953 when founder K.R. Perry opened a Ben Franklin store.

Along with some partners, he later turned the store into K&K 5&10, a five and dime.

In 1986, the company opened its first Dollar Tree store in Dalton, Ga., and since then consistently acquired other chains. Its stores operate under the names of Dollar Tree, Deal$, Dollar Bills and Dollar Express.