Too often anymore, all we hear about brick 'n mortar stores is ‘prices too high’ and ‘going out of business’ and ‘lousy service’
I sold some stuff that allowed us come East to visit my son and his wife (We had to deliver it in York, anyway). While we are out here, Kim and I made a deal, if she could go to the doll shop on 30 outside Lancaster, I could go to a train store…
The folks at Nicholas Smith in Broomall, Pa. (about 10mi W. of Philly, on SR3) are VERY nice. As in somewhere between really good and downright excellent service. He spent something like 15 minutes double checking to see if something that had caught my eye online was still in stock. It wasn’t, but that was still ok, he tried, and did it with a smile. His wife? seemed to be having fun with us too, all because I said “Shhhhh!, Don’t let (Kim) know how much I spent!”… Then I had to let Kim pay because I remembered she had most of the money in her purse. Everybody had a laugh.
Their prices were comparable to most of the usual online shops. The sales tax was less than the shipping would have been for boxes that size. Be warned, they have so much stuff in stock that the aisles are pretty narrow for a lard butt like me. But more room to walk and see would have meant less stuff to look at… so I’ll take cramped - at least as long as I still fit.
We also got my nearly 3YO Grandson some wooden blocks while we were there. He thought they were great.
And even though even I admit I DID spend too much (OK, about twice what I had planned to… I got enough Piko houses to finish the village), Kim’s only complaint was it was a little too warm upstairs for her to browse very long. But maybe they made enough off us to buy a small fan…
AND I’ll make the effort to shop there again. When/if I can… I’ll bring a penlight to look in the shadows for any treasures I may have missed this trip. Some things are just worth a few small inconveniences.
